Thread: NE: Foreign workers taken off job site

Published Wednesday | March 5, 2008
Nebraska: Foreign workers taken off job site
BY STEVE JORDON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A subcontractor at a $630 million power plant under construction near Nebraska City has removed 61 Filipino welders from the job after Omaha union officials questioned their U.S. work status.

The subcontractor, Integrated Service Co., or InServ, of Houston, Texas, was asked to remove the workers by Zachary Construction Corp. of San Antonio, which is lead contractor for Nebraska City Power Partners, the plant developer.

Omaha Public Power District hired the partnership, which bid $30 million below the nearest bidder, for the project and will use about half of its electrical capacity.

Rick Hazuka, business representative for Steamfitters Local 464, said the union heard about the Filipino workers, checked into their visa status and raised the issue with OPPD. He said the union could have supplied U.S. welders for the power plant job but wasn't contacted by InServ.

OPPD spokesman Mike Jones said OPPD referred questions about the InServ workers to Zachary. "We expect all of our contractors . . . to do whatever's legal," Jones said.

Zachary spokeswoman Vicky Waddy said company officials looked into the complaint. The workers held jobs through the federal H2B visa program, which allows foreign workers to hold temporary jobs when U.S. workers aren't available.

Waddy said Zachary officials were concerned about the process InServ had used to ensure that the workers had proper visas. "In an abundance of caution we asked the employer to remove the employees from the site," she said, and InServ complied about 10 days ago.

Randi Donaldson, managing counsel for InServ, said the removed workers are at another welding job site in the United States that fits their visa status. Other InServ employees from the Philippines remain at the Nebraska City site and have visas that allow them to continue working there, she said.

"When the issue was raised, we looked into it and examined the paperwork to determine whether it could be argued that they were not on the site that they should be on," Donaldson said. "We made the decision to move them to another site.

"All the workers are here in the U.S. legally. They're documented. It's a question of placement on the project sites that we examined. We do continuously assess that issue — the visa issue is not real clear-cut — and make sure they're where they should be."

InServ supplements its U.S. welder work force with H2B visa-holders, she said. "I understand there's a shortage in the U.S. and other parts of the world" of welders with the specialized skills required in power plants.

Donaldson said she didn't know details of how the company decided to send the workers to the Nebraska City plant or whether the company tried to recruit U.S. welders first.

Some of the workers had been at the plant site since November, and some had arrived only last month, said Waddy, the Zachary spokeswoman. About two weeks worth of the welding remains at the plant, she said, and other employees will finish that work.

The workers' departure won't affect the construction schedule, she said. The plant is to go online by May 2009, OPPD spokesman Jones said.

Other participants in Nebraska City Power Partners are Black & Veatch, an international engineering company based in Overland Park, Kan., and Kiewit Corp. of Omaha.

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1 ... d=10274789

The question should be "Why the Labor Unions have NOT been front and center on the ILLEGALS taking the JOBS of United States Citizens that have not as of now been MOVED OFF SHORE???"

It's about time American union leaders earned their pay and stood up for American citizens!

A similar thing is happening this year at Chrysler, where international bodyshopper TATA (TCS) came in and made a lowball offer against their current workforce. http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... Id=9063959

Zachary spokeswoman Vicky Waddy said company officials looked into the complaint. The workers held jobs through the federal H2B visa program, which allows foreign workers to hold temporary jobs when U.S. workers aren't available




Can we see a show of hands from unemployed American welders who "aren't available" to fill those jobs?

I must say that I'm surprised the union spoke up

The H-2 visa class is for blue collar type work and the H-1 visa is for white collar work requiring a bachelors or equivalent.

"The subcontractor, Integrated Service Co., or InServ, of Houston, Texas, was asked to remove the workers by Zachary Construction Corp. of San Antonio..."

Zachary Construction of San Antonio? THE Zachary Construction of San Antonio, which is building the North American SuperCorridor as a joint venture with Madrid-based Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A.? That Zachary Construction of San Antonio asked its subs to remove the illegal aliens working on site?

Originally Posted by lccat

The question should be "Why the Labor Unions have NOT been front and center on the ILLEGALS taking the JOBS of United States Citizens that have not as of now been MOVED OFF SHORE???"

Well, I'd just point out that many US labor unions are generally - but not universally - supportive of IAs. This is demonstrated primarily in their support for 'amnesty' - even though, they rarely couch that feeling in those simple terms.

Teamsters: pro amnesty
SEIU: pro amnesty
AFL-CIO: pro amnesty,
:
(see a pattern here...?)

Thanks MinutemanCDC_SC - that's a good little nugget to know about

Cintra is the same organization that has the "rights" to build the T.T.C.

Originally Posted by MinutemanCDC_SC

"The subcontractor, Integrated Service Co., or InServ, of Houston, Texas, was asked to remove the workers by Zachary Construction Corp. of San Antonio..."

Zachary Construction of San Antonio? THE Zachary Construction of San Antonio, which is building the North American SuperCorridor as a joint venture with Madrid-based Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A.? That Zachary Construction of San Antonio asked its subs to remove the illegal aliens working on site?