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Suffolk contractors back Levy’s bill

BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer

August 21, 2006

Roofing contractor Mike Dragone emigrated from Uruguay in 1968 at age 9, and ever since, he said, he's played by the rules of his adopted homeland: He became a naturalized citizen, union leader and business owner.

Now, Dragone's frustration at losing contracts to non-union rivals who break the law by using undocumented workers for government projects has led him to endorse Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigration bill. It would require county contractors to verify every year that their employees are legally entitled to work in the United States.

"We are tired of companies coming in from out of town, taking municipal jobs and taking all of those profits, all of our tax dollars, and going across the river," said Dragone, president of American Roof Diagnostics & Services in Bay Shore.

Dragone and another unionized roofer, who requested anonymity, complained about a New Jersey company that they said has successfully low-balled bids for roofs at public schools on the East End. "If we are doing municipal work," said Dragone, 47, of Dix Hills, "everything should be on the up and up." The New Jersey company could not be reached for comment.

Executives at a half-dozen construction companies, both union and non-union, described a changing environment for government work, in which pricing pressures coupled with illegality have forced some contractors to abandon Nassau and Suffolk for New York City. There, they said, it is more hospitable for unionized companies because of stricter enforcement of laws that require "prevailing" wages for certain occupations.

Levy said complaints from some unions and companies led him to introduce his bill earlier this month; a public hearing before the Suffolk legislature is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in Hauppauge.

Levy's measure would provide an avenue for the county Labor Department and the county attorney to enforce a 20-year-old federal law that requires worker verification. Levy would punish a contractor who files a false affidavit with fines up to $2,000 or 6 months in jail and, after the third offense, they would be barred from future Suffolk jobs.

Levy's bill affects 6,000 of the county's 10,000 contracts and extends beyond builders to include charities, towns, social service agencies and other entities that do work for Suffolk. Still, the debate has focused primarily on building projects, from roads and renovations to new construction.

Levy's measure appears to have the support of 14 of the 18 county legislators. At two legislative meetings in the past two weeks, immigrant advocates, ministers and unions representing low-wage workers have criticized the bill, saying it would spark racial discrimination. Leaders of unions that represent construction workers, however, have argued that their jobs and wages are being undermined by the undocumented.

"We are losing a lot of work to illegal immigrants and illegal contractors that don't do the right thing," said Perry Barbaro, president of Advanced Construction Enterprises Inc. in Ronkonkoma, which employs about 40 people doing demolition and cleanup work.

Pressed for evidence of undocumented workers helping to undercut his company, Barbaro acknowledged it was difficult to know who was here illegally. But without the undocumented being willing to accept low wages, he said, how else could rivals submit bids that are much lower than those of unionized Advanced Construction, which pays prevailing wages and benefits.

Barbaro supports Levy's bill but said the penalties must be even tougher.

Tom Martin, of Metropolitan Construction Systems in Holbrook, said he appreciates Levy's initiative but fears it may be misplaced. "They should enforce what they already have: the prevailing rate and certified payroll," which verifies that those wages were paid to workers, he said.

"They are a small part of the problem," Martin added, referring to undocumented workers. "The bigger part of the problem, the reason I can't win a public job, is nobody wants to enforce the law." His company uses union workers.

The federal and state Labor Departments are responsible for ensuring the payment of prevailing wages. Jurisdiction often is determined by which wage rate -- federal or state -- was included in the contract.

Robert M. Lillpopp of the state Labor Department said, "If they know somebody that they think is indeed trying to get a contract, and they aren't paying their people the prevailing wage, the State of New York wants to know about it."

In Suffolk, roofer Dragone hopes for relief from what he said was relentless undercutting by law-breaking rivals.

"Eighty percent of my crews ... come from Puerto Rico, Honduras, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, all are residents," Dragone said. "We feel sorry for them [undocumented workers] because they are being taken advantage of."