Walton Should be Ashamed

As the only organization in this community that appears to give a damn whether people who ply the carpenter trade are treated like full-fledged human beings, we've been watching the tactics of Dynamic Drywall with much interest.  Dynamic is a drywall/metal stud contractor out of Wichita which has gotten a fair amount of work in this area lately.  On work which is still underway in Johnson County Kansas, Dynamic has engaged workers through a labor broker (or "coyote") who actually pays the workers, after taking its cut, and not only provides no benefits but doesn't even pay taxes (no social security, no workers' compensation, no unemployment, no state or federal taxes, no nothing!) on or for these workers.  Dynamic claims that these workers are employees of the broker and the broker claims that they are all independent contractors, and it's all a sham!

No bona fide contractor which actually follows the law can be expected to compete with entities which cheat like this.  And while greedy profiteers which exploit vulnerable workers (many of the workers on the Johnson County site are foreign nationals who have little knowledge of their "rights" and even less ability to insist upon them) these tactics are utilized to the detriment of the entire community.  Not only are responsible contractors undermined and their employees underemployed, but the public treasury is robbed and public services further exhausted.

You’d thing that responsible entities in this community would be aghast at such tactics which exploit vulnerable workers and undermine the community infrastructure.  But it doesn’t seem to bother Walton Construction Co.  Walton has hired Dynamic as its metal stud/drywall subcontractor on a major project at the University of Missouri in Columbia.  Apparently, it is one of those in our community that just doesn’t give a damn!!