What are the costs to the workers and why do they do it?

Stop Worker Abuse Now!

Brought to you by the hard working families of the Carpenters' District Council of St. Louis and Vicinity

Hit Counter

Q: What are the costs to the individual worker involved?

No Social Security Benefits	No Workers Compensation Coverage
No Health Insurance	No Overtime Pay and Low Wages
No Unemployment Insurance	No Health and Safety on the Job

"As Attorney General for the State of Nebraska, it is my duty to protect the rights of all Nebraskans, whether native or immigrant, liberal or conservative. It is the right of every worker in this state and in this country to be compensated fairly and honestly, in accordance with State and Federal law, for the work that they do."

Jon Bruning

(Attorney General, State of Nebraska, Statement on "1099 Misclassification" June 9, 2003)

Q: Why do the workers continue to work in this arrangement?

They are not given a choice

The underground economy is the rule in many parts of the construction industry. Once into the system, workers are reluctant to demand legal status because of potential tax obligations they may have developed. The emergence of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Latin America, and Canada in the area construction workforce only reinforces employers' tendencies to pay cash off the books.

Omaha World Herald

'Labor Pains'

April 29,2003

"...Other practices are equally disturbing: Workers who can't choose where to live. Workers charged double rent. Workers denied overtime pay. Workers who have "insurance" premiums deducted from their checks by a labor broker when, in fact (as in the case of Omaha's convention center-arena project), insurance is paid for by the city- sanctioned authority that's building the facility. The workers are all but powerless to protest."

The Denver Post

Labor brokers cut costs, corners
Fast-growing firms exploit immigrants to feed construction industry
February 16, 2003

"...Fernando Morales worked on the Greeley State Farm project for an Atlanta-based broker called Eagle Managed Subcontractors, or EMS. He said he worked 48-hour weeks without overtime there, and between 60 and 80 hours a week at other EMS-brokered sites nationwide."

"...Morales, who worked in Greeley last summer, said he's spent most of the past six years in hotels while working for EMS. Between January and August of last year, he worked in Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Colorado. He bought an old Buick in June and put 5,000 miles on it in two months. ...'We've come to this country to work,' he said. 'You think of your family. You don't want them to suffer. That keeps you going'."

"...Other workers said they resented not being paid as well as Americans for the same work and often being cheated by the brokers... Angel Flores, who worked for Brother's in Atlanta and Memphis before the indictment, said when he asked his supervisor for a $2- an-hour raise, it came with a condition. 'The manager said he'd do it, but he wanted me to give him a week's pay,' Flores said. His bosses 'liked money, easy money,' Flores said."

"...Jose Luis Tapia, a skilled drywaller from Mexico who works for CPI, said some CPI workers give Nobles false Social Security numbers in case INS ever checks. But he said that Nobles promised many of those same workers temporary work visas. That shows, Tapia said, that Nobles knows many of his workers are illegal. "He knows we don't have a (real) Social Security number. In truth, he knows," Tapia said. "That's why he takes advantage of us."