METRO WASHINGTON LABOR COUNCIL AFL-CIO
  • Home
  • Board & Staff
  • Who We Are
  • Calendar
  • Evening With Labor
    • Archive >
      • 2021 Evening With Labor
      • 2019 Evening With Labor
      • 2017 Evening With Labor
      • 2018 Evening With Labor
      • 2015 Evening With Labor
      • 2016 Evening With Labor
  • Stay Connected
  • Programs
    • Community Services >
      • Espanol
      • Mission
      • Donate Now
      • Programs
      • Funders
      • Archives
    • Political Action >
      • Archive
      • Mission
      • Elected Officials
      • Endorsements
      • DMV Voters Guide
      • Candidate Questionnaires: Archive 2006-2014 >
        • 2018
        • 2016
        • 2015
        • 2014
        • Other
        • 2012
        • 2010
        • 2008
        • 2007
        • 2006
    • DC unemployment appeals
  • Hiring Hall
    • ADMINISTRATIVE
    • COMMUNICATIONS
    • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
    • INTERNSHIPS
    • LEGAL
    • MISC
    • ORGANIZING
    • POLITICAL
    • RESEARCH
  • Affiliates

Fleecing America’s builders

8/25/2017

 
Picture
“You feel powerless,” said Luis Fonseca. “You see that companies are doing what they want and you can never do anything against them.” Fonseca is one of a hundred licensed workers who spent almost a year removing asbestos from the century-old headquarters of the United States General Services Administration. The workers logged nightly nine-hour shifts, spent mostly in air-tight spaces that reached 100 degrees. Some didn’t wear clothing beneath their protective Tyvek suits, hoping to stave off heat exhaustion and avoid bringing home cancer-causing asbestos fibers. They should have earned $25.47 per hour but were only paid $15.84 an hour. Fonseca and 124 other workers filed a complaint with the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division in 2011, but six years years later, the investigation remains open and the workers still haven’t gotten their back pay. "Weak oversight allows subcontractors in particular to shortchange workers on government projects with little fear of being caught or barred from future contracts," reports the Center for Public Integrity in "Fleecing America’s builders; How workers on government construction jobs are victimized by contractors that stand little chance of being caught." John Monroe, a labor compliance officer at the Foundation for Fair Contracting, said he’s never been to a site where he didn’t encounter a case of wage theft. “The penalty for robbing the bank is to give the money back,” Monroe said, “and that's just not a deterrent.”
photo: A construction worker cuts brick in Washington, D.C. Maryam Jameel/Center for Public Integrity 


Comments are closed.
    Picture

      Sign up here for the latest DC-area labor news!

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    COMMUNITY SERVICES

    EN ESPANOL

    DC UNEMPLOYMENT APPEALS

    LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

    Tweets by @DCLabor

    ​Leaders & Staff

    AFFILIATES

    Constitution

    Documents

    AFFILIATE Social Media

    HIRING HALL

    Evening with Labor

    Union City News

    UNION SHOP

    UNION PLUS

Share any story to Facebook, Twitter or via email!
Just click on the story ​and then click on the  social media icon!
COPYRIGHT METRO WASHINGTON LABOR COUNCIL AFL-CIO 2023
202-974-8150; [email protected]
  • Home
  • Board & Staff
  • Who We Are
  • Calendar
  • Evening With Labor
    • Archive >
      • 2021 Evening With Labor
      • 2019 Evening With Labor
      • 2017 Evening With Labor
      • 2018 Evening With Labor
      • 2015 Evening With Labor
      • 2016 Evening With Labor
  • Stay Connected
  • Programs
    • Community Services >
      • Espanol
      • Mission
      • Donate Now
      • Programs
      • Funders
      • Archives
    • Political Action >
      • Archive
      • Mission
      • Elected Officials
      • Endorsements
      • DMV Voters Guide
      • Candidate Questionnaires: Archive 2006-2014 >
        • 2018
        • 2016
        • 2015
        • 2014
        • Other
        • 2012
        • 2010
        • 2008
        • 2007
        • 2006
    • DC unemployment appeals
  • Hiring Hall
    • ADMINISTRATIVE
    • COMMUNICATIONS
    • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
    • INTERNSHIPS
    • LEGAL
    • MISC
    • ORGANIZING
    • POLITICAL
    • RESEARCH
  • Affiliates