Thread: GA: Cobb County Courthouse hiring illegals

Note that GA has a law against hiring illegals on public works projects. The County Commission Chairman is also running for Attorney General of GA this year.

http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story...home_news_left

Jose Alvarez may have looked like just another bricklayer, but he has been gathering evidence for Jobs for Georgians that he says substantiates the group's suspicions that illegal immigrants are working under the watch of one of the project's subcontractors.

Alvarez, who is also a business agent for the Washington, D.C.-based organization International Bricklayers, said he and another construction worker with Jobs for Georgians, Frank Lozano, began working on the site in November. Posing as bricklayers, they formed relationships with the workers and subcontractors and continued their work into January.

He was told subcontractor Zebra's policy is for workers to show up at the job site in order to obtain work. But Alvarez said he could not get "a straight answer" from Victor Candelaria, a contractor hired by Zebra to oversee workers laying the blocks at the courthouse, about how much his workers were being paid. Alvarez said Candelaria's reluctance to give him answers aroused his suspicions.

After discussions with other workers, Alvarez and Lozano learned they were being paid $10 an hour, as opposed to $18 an hour, which Alvarez said is the normal hourly rate. He said he soon found out there was a reason for the unreasonably low pay.

"I have a recorded conversation with Damian Perez, a bricklayer from Canada with legal status, who told me that he asked Victor when he was first hired whether he needed to present them with his papers, and he was told no. He said all he would need to do is go through a drug screening and the safety training set up by Turner, and that was it," Alvarez said. "So I asked him why everyone was getting paid so low, and he told me Victor would take the checks issued to him by Zebra, cash them, then pay the workers in cash. He told them they were being paid less than usual, but that it was OK because there would be no taxes taken out. I can't say I was surprised, because we knew this was going on not only with Zebra but with others, but it was good to finally get it on tape."

Well, well. The county had no idea. I guess they didn't hear the news from Jacksonville where Turner Construction did exactly the same thing, causing protests outside the construction site.

These people are despicable.

Laborers at Cobb Courthouse didn't show work permit
By Mary Lou Pickel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A boss who employed bricklayers at the new Cobb County Courthouse in Marietta did not verify that they were legally allowed to work in the United States.

That boss was removed from the job on Friday and the 10 brick masons who worked for him were let go, said Chip Kessler, president of Zebra Construction, the main masonry subcontractor on the courthouse project.

Allegations that illegal immigrants were working on the $63 million courthouse project came to light last week when a bricklayers union organizer questioned the county.

Another bricklayers representative said he talked with employees at the courthouse in November and asked if papers were needed to get a job there. The employees said no papers were needed and that they were paid in cash, said Jose Alvarez, business marketing representative of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers in Washington.

The union members notified the county on Friday of their allegations and that's when Cobb officials called Turner Construction Co., the main contractor on the courthouse job.

Turner called Suwanee-based Zebra, which then asked its masonry sub-subcontractor, Victor Candelaria, if he was checking the legal status of his workers. He was not, Kessler said.

"When we asked him, and he wasn't on that, we changed it and made sure we were in compliance," Kessler said.

State law requires contractors and subcontractors on public jobs to use a federal program called E-Verify, which runs names through a database and checks Social Security numbers and immigration information to make sure a worker is allowed to work in the United States.

On Friday, Zebra hired Stone Wall Masonry to run the bricklaying operation at the seven-story courthouse. The company uses E-Verify and checked the 17 new masons brought onto the job, Kessler said.

Candelaria, a legal worker, is still employed by Zebra in another capacity, Kessler said.

A group of skilled tradesmen told Cobb commissioners on Tuesday they were concerned because they believed that illegal immigrants were building the county's courthouse.

"This is leading to unemployment of tax-paying citizens," Ed Wigart of Powder Springs told the commission. "I know a lot of people are living day to day."

About a dozen plumbers, pipe-fitters, masons and others attended the county commission meeting, led by John Ciancia, the bricklayers union organizer who approached the county.

"People of Cobb County could be put to work," Ciancia said, referring to the courthouse project.

Michael Moten, an unemployed bricklayer from Austell, said he tried to get a job working on Cobb's courthouse in November but was given different names of people to talk to. Finally he talked with the sub-subcontractor, who told him that he would not get a job. "He only hires people he knows," Moten said.

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/laborers-a ... 95364.html

(from the site of The Dustin Inman Society, Marietta, GA
http://thedustininmansociety.org/blog/?p=2989 )

ILLEGALS, ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS, and ILLEGAL UNIONS should all receive HEAVY Fines and Felony Jail Time if they conspire to have ILLEGALS take the jobs of United States Citizens.

The Mafia always covered their trail with fake enterprises. All of the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS realize that many "subcontractors" are organized exclusively to hire ILLEGALS while they persist in seeking out these “subcontractorsâ€

Time for the citizens to file a lawsuit (just like the illegals do)... once the contractors see they'll have to pay out and lose money on lawsuits, guess maybe then they'll learn their lesson!!!!

Please call and complain directly to Zebra Construction, Inc.:

Contact Us

Address
3620 Swiftwater Park Drive, Suwanee, GA, 30024
(67 482-4990

Directions
From Atlanta:I-85 North towards Greenville, SC
Exit 108 - Sugarloaf Parkway - West
Take Sugarloaf west for 3 miles to US Hwy 23 (GA Hwy 13)
Take a right on Buford Highway (23) heading north
Cross over Suwanee Creek and enter Suwanee city limits
Turn Right onto Swiftwater Park Drive.
Zebra Construction Company, Inc. is located on the Right (3620)
*Click Here For A Map


Information
For further information regarding Zebra Construction Company, Inc., or to receive a quote, please contact
Brian E. Greene, Vice President - Preconstruction
678.482.4990
bgreene@zebrabuild.com

Zebra Construction, Inc.:

Mission Statement

To simply do what is right;
At a profit if we can,
At a loss if we must;
But to always do what is right.

http://zebrabuild.com/cms/Mission+Statement/13.html

Candelaria, a legal worker, is still employed by Zebra in another capacity, Kessler said.

Translation: Candelaria has been moved to another site so he can continue to save us $

Thanks for the link to Zebra, I'm emailing them now.

Illegal Immigrants Help Build Cobb Co. Courthouse
Sub-Contractor Did Not Check Status

POSTED: 6:15 pm EST February 10, 2010
UPDATED: 6:59 pm EST February 10, 2010

MARIETTA, Ga -- According to a lawyer for Zebra Construction Company Inc., the primary sub-contractor for masonry on the Cobb County Superior Courthouse, at least ten workers they subbed out as bricklayers were not documented.

The $63 million project was funded with taxpayer money. Allegations about illegal immigrants working as bricklayers first arose after a watchdog group called jobs for Georgians alerted County officials to the problem.

“Those employees working on the site will be checked and that extends all the way to the sub contractors I am afraid in a situation like this it has just got so far down the line somebody slipped up and fortunately we were able to put a stop to it,â€

"Zebra released this statement:

"We are extremely disappointed to find out that a contractor with whom we were doing business with was not following the appropriate employee verification practices. Upon learning of the violation of our contract requirement that sub-contractors use E-Verify to verify their employees in compliance with the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act of 2006, Zebra Construction immediately took action and terminated our business relationship with the contracting company. Zebra Construction's policy has been and continues to be that all sub-contractors verify all employees as required by federal and state immigration legal requirements. Since July 2008, Zebra Construction has used the federal E-Verify system to verify 100% of its employees and has required all sub-contractors to use E-Verify to verify their workers as required by Georgia law. We remain committed to ensuring that all of our strategic partners are in full compliance with the applicable laws of the State of Georgia and federal government so that we can continue to provide the much needed work to eligible members of our community," Victor Cerda, a lawyer for Zebra Construction said. "

I REPEAT, [b]"The Mafia always covered their trail with fake enterprises. All of the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS realize that many "subcontractors" are organized exclusively to hire ILLEGALS while they persist in seeking out these “subcontractorsâ€

Added to the Homepage with an amended title:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4916--0-0.html