Thread: Illegal workers labor on luxury condos (Boston)

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/local ... eid=133493


Illegal workers labor on luxury condos
By Casey Ross/ Boston Herald
Thursday, June 22, 2006

Bay State contractors are using illegal immigrants to churn out luxury housing complexes in communities across the region, paying laborers as young as 15 to work under the table in highly hazardous jobs, a Boston Herald investigation found.

Dozens of workers interviewed at construction sites from Cape Cod to the North Shore admitted they are being employed illegally by contractors who sometimes pay them $10 an hour for work that commands up to $25.

In some instances, the Herald viewed highly dangerous conditions, with laborers scaling rooftops without harnesses and standing on scaffolding consisting of single boards supported by ladders.

"Homebuilders are using these (illegal) laborers, who don't have necessary credentials, to cut costs and increase their profit margins," said John Keeley of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies. "To the extent the government has no willingness to exercise enforcement, we're going to see a lot more of this."

Visits to 11 residential construction sites across the state revealed the following:


One contractor building luxury homes across from White Cliffs Golf Course in Plymouth was employing a 15-year-old boy, according to the boy's work supervisor, Manuel, who himself admitted to being an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador. Manuel said the boy was being paid $6 an hour for 10-hour days.


At a condominium complex under construction in Marlborough, one supervisor, Eliseo, said he was funneling under-the-table payments from a subcontractor to several immigrant workers -- an arrangement prohibited by state anti-fraud laws. At the same site, a worker was observed shooting a nail gun into a board above another worker's head.


At a Bourne luxury complex called the Villages at Brookside, a work supervisor admitted to being an illegal immigrant from Brazil who obtained a federal tax ID, registered a van with the Registry of Motor Vehicles and started his own business.

The supervisor, who gave his name as Jefferson, said he is currently employing several illegal immigrants. "They're all undocumented," he said, waving his hand toward six workers framing a luxury town house.

A Herald reporter visited the sites with labor organizers with the New England Council of Carpenters, a union of 1,500 contractors whose officials charge that widespread fraud by non-union competitors is costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes and fees.

General contractors responsible for managing the work at the sites denied having any knowledge of the illegal workers, usually passing responsibility on subcontractors they hired to complete framing, roofing and other tasks.

"All our contracts with subs require that they abide by relevant state and federal laws," said Amy Willard of Fairfield Development, the general contractor at the Marlborough site. The company will investigate, she said. "I'm definitely going to pass this information on to our construction department and have them take a look at it."

An official at another contractor, Martins Construction, said she did not know about several admitted illegal immigrants hanging drywall at a condominium complex known as Pleasant Hill in Saugus. Two Brazilian workers, Vincente and Robson, said they were being paid $10 per sheet but did not even know the name of the company employing them.

Molly Martins, vice president of the company, said, "We hire a (subcontractor) who is repsonsible for hiring on the site. I will certainly investigate this, because we don't support it."

Union officials charged the contractors know full well that undocumented workers are being employed on their projects.

"Anybody who's been in business any length of time knows what's going on here," said Mark Erlich, chief of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. "There isn't a soul who doesn't know what's going on."





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bh.heraldinteractive.com: 0.030476:Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:52:02 GMT

increase their profit margins,"

that's the bottom line.

Manuel said the boy was being paid $6 an hour for 10-hour days.

This is appalling! I have said this before, but it bears repeating, just to show how outrageous it is for these builders to claim that these are jobs Americans wont do:

My was husband making 22.00 and hour, plus benefits, for a 40 hour work week (plus overtime @ time and a half) when he quit to start an auto salvage business.....in 1989! He was hired, several years earlier, @ 15.00 an hour! And yes, he was paid via a payroll check with all Federal, State, SS, ect., taxes withheld.

Had our goverment strickly adhered to the tough immigration laws they PROMISED to enforce after the 1986 amnesty, the men working at those same job sites would have been Americans...making 30.00+ an hour.

"All our contracts with subs require that they abide by relevant state and federal laws," said Amy Willard of Fairfield Development, the general contractor at the Marlborough site.

Molly Martins, vice president of the company, said, "We hire a (subcontractor) who is repsonsible for hiring on the site. I will certainly investigate this, because we don't support it."

Yeah RIGHT! The tried and true (to the feds anyway) Wal-Mart mantra.

The Boston Herald, doing the job Homeland Security/ICE wont do.