BEWARE JAYHAWKERS INVADE COLUMBIA!

Construction work on the new University of Missouri Southwest Campus Housing is, of course, being financed with your tax dollars and/or tuition payments.  You expect public officials responsible for such construction to spend your money wisely, in ways which inure to the interests of the students and taxpayers who foot the bill.  But there is a shameful story which follows Dynamic Drywall, the subcontractor chosen by Walton Construction Co. to install the metal studs and drywall on this project.

 Dynamic is a contractor out of Kansas which we have been following with interest.  On work in its home state, Dynamic has utilized large numbers of vulnerable foreign workers and has employed a practice of paying workers indirectly through a middle-man (a labor broker or “coyote”) who rakes off a portion of their pay, but pays no taxes and provides no benefits for these workers.  Not only does this scheme make it virtually impossible for bona fide contractors to compete, it deprives the community out of revenue much needed to maintain public services.  Among the ironies inherent in this scheme is that when such workers get sick or get hurt on the job, having no insurance or workers’ compensation, health-care may be obtainable only at the expense of the local community, i.e. the very public institutions which are being starved.

 To be sure, exploitation of workers by greedy profiteers is nothing new, but is it asking too much for the University and its general contractor, Walton Construction Co., to have some familiarity with the business practices of the subcontractors which they engage so as not to allow the likes of Dynamic Drywall to fatten itself further as the public trough in Missouri? 

THE FAMILIES OF THE

CARPENTERS’ DISTRICT COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY & VICINITY

(Who live, pay taxes, and try to make a living here)

DON’T THINK SO!!!!

 If you feel the same, call Rory O’Connor at Walton Construction toll free at (877)753-2121, and tell him to consider our community and these workers instead of how fat he can make his wallet!