Local 100 helps fight wage theft in Washington, DC

Washington, DC, Attorney General Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against five companies in late June, alleging that they engaged in a “widespread misclassification scheme that deprived hundreds of District construction workers the wages and benefits they were entitled to under DC law.”

The companies — Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, W.G./Welch Mechanical Contractors, LLC and three labor brokers (Mechanical Plumbing Crew Co., Ramirez Plumbing Inc. and GINCO HVAC, LLC) — are accused of denying workers the proper minimum wage, overtime and paid sick leave they deserve.

A Washington Post article on the lawsuit reported that SMART Local 100 organizers and members played a role in helping workers fight for their rights.

“The construction industry is loaded with nonunion contractors who hire subcontractors called labor brokers to act as intermediaries between the workers and the construction companies,” said Chuck Sewell, marketing director for Local 100, in a press release from the DC Office of the Attorney General. “This leads to a diffusion of responsibility, where neither the broker nor the construction company takes full responsibility for the workers’ conditions, rights and welfare.”

Bad-faith, nonunion contractors and labor brokers often misclassify workers to avoid paying taxes, work compensation and other requirements, Sewell added, noting that labor brokers “often put their workers on projects without sufficient training, risking their safety and resulting in poor quality workmanship.”

At a mixed-use development in DC known as City Ridge, sheet metal worker Edwin Mayorga and approximately 370 of his fellow workers said that they weren’t paid in full.

“We worked 12 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and on Saturday we worked 10 hours, Sunday, 10 hours, practically,” he said in Spanish [to the Post], through an interpreter. “We weren’t resting.”

Local 100 Organizer Rolando Montoya connected with workers at the City Ridge jobsite after hearing complaints that they weren’t getting paid, helping them access resources to fight for the compensation they were owed.

“Our contractors that are being responsible, paying for training, paying good wages, benefits — when they bid on these projects, they can’t compete,” Montoya said in the Post article. “It’s affecting union workers, because it’s less work.”

Fighting wage theft and uncovering low-road contractors isn’t just the right thing to do for exploited workers and high-road contractors; it illuminates the difference provided by union representation, helping SMART locals recruit more workers. One example: the sheet metal worker from the City Ridge project, Edwin Mayorga, who has since joined Local 100.

“It’s a huge difference,” he told the Washington Post, “mainly because one is not fighting to get paid.”