Tensions rise among unpaid workers at Wal-Mart site
by Melissa Sánchez

POSTED ON Tuesday, May 05, 2009 AT 11:04PM
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ANDY SAWYER
Manuel Espinoza Garcia is one of about two dozen workers at the new Wal Mart at 64th and Nob Hill in Yakima that have not been paid for three weeks of their work. Espinoza was also evicted from the apartment where he had been living because the company didn't pay the rent. "I need to leave tonight," Espinoza said. "I don't have money. I don't have anything." Tuesday, May 5, 2009.


YAKIMA, Wash. — The construction site for Yakima's second Wal-Mart is embroiled in a labor dispute involving about two dozen workers who say they're owed three weeks of back pay.

And the conflict is further complicated by the question of workers' legal status. The subcontractor acknowledges he's late in paying his employees, but says he will only pay workers who are here legally.

Yakima police got involved Tuesday after two workers and a young boy showed up at the con-struction site at Nob Hill Boulevard and 64th Avenue. Several officers responded after they received a call about someone with a gun.

"We just came to get the money we were owed," said Manuel Garcia Espinoza, 25, who was not arrested. "They told us to leave or else they'd call immigration on us."

Police arrested a worker on a stolen weapons charge outside his Chevy pickup and took him to the station.

The pay dispute involves 20 to 30 people -- about two-thirds of them Latinos -- who have been working for Standard Structures, an Arkansas-based masonry contractor, laying the foundation for Wal-Mart's superstore since February. Workers said they've been paid $10 to $25 an hour and were receiving checks through FedEx every two weeks.

But on Friday, they didn't get paid.

Garcia acknowledged that he and some other workers are in the U.S. illegally but said they should get paid for the work they completed.

The subcontractor said that's not possible. In a telephone interview Tuesday, he said Standard Structures was recently notified that the Social Security numbers submitted by some of the workers were not legitimate.

"Here's the deal. Those guys knew before they started work that they needed to have legitimate work authorization," said Mead Crowell of Standard Structures.

"Those guys did get paid some, but whenever we finally got notice by E-Verify that they weren't legal, we asked them, you know, prove it, dispute it, whatever. We can't legally pay these guys unless they are legally authorized to work."

E-Verify is a federal system employers used to verify the Social Security numbers of new hires.

Crowell said he did not know the men were here illegally when he hired them about two months ago. He said he intends to pay the rest of his workers soon.

Site superintendent Jack Huff estimated that the workers are due a total of $25,000 for three weeks of pay. Huff said he doesn't know why the subcontractor was late in paying his employees.

"We've been paying Standard Structures all along. They just neglected to pay the people they have been doing the work," Huff said.

He said all the workers at the site have submitted proper I-9 forms to Wal-Mart. "Every one of those guys passed," said Huff, who has hired about a dozen of the masonry workers to finish the job.

Messages to an after-hours media hotline for the retailer were not returned Tuesday evening.

All the workers were housed in six Glenmoor Green apartment units in Yakima, said apartment manager Jan Hutchinson.

She said their rent has been paid by the subcontractor as part of the workers' compensation.

But she, too, is now waiting to be paid for the rent in May.

"They haven't paid us either," Hutchinson said.

About a dozen workers believed to be here illegally had already packed their belongings and left by about 3 p.m., after the complex manager told them their May rent hadn't been paid.

Garcia, who lived with seven people in a three-bedroom apartment, said his companions probably left in fear of getting deported.

Having moved here from Utah, he has no family here, no money and nowhere to go.




* Melissa Sánchez can be reached msanchez@yakimaherald.com.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/stories/200 ... 09-workers