Union says worker rights at heart of pending law

No one supervising work at the Henderson City Parking Garage's construction site in March can say for sure whether racism or tension between union and nonunion workers caused an argument.

But after a short exchange of words on a 12-foot-high concrete deck, Carlos Rosales, a nonunion concrete foreman, was lying face down on the ground with two broken wrists, his right thigh impaled by steel rebar and his face cut severely. His signature cowboy hat, which is OSHA-approved for protection, lay in the dust nearby.

Police say a union steelworker, Richard McKiernan, pushed him. They have charged McKiernan with battery.

The case has yet to be heard in court and could remain unresolved until after the 4 1/2-story complex is completed in July. But in many ways it has renewed the anger underlying what are already strained relations between nonunion subcontractor Precision Concrete of North Las Vegas and union organizers for the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

The union has for two years been encouraging municipalities in the Las Vegas Valley to adopt pre-qualification standards for big-ticket construction projects that it says will weed out companies that violate labor laws.

Assembly Bill 461, which was expected to be signed by the governor, would help the union in that effort. The legislation would require the state Public Works Board to draft pre-qualification standards for general contractors bidding on state projects. Municipalities would retain the option of adopting similar guidelines, but if they chose not to, new regulations would limit to an extent the pool of qualified contractors.

Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Clark County School District have attempted to incorporate the new regulations when putting projects out to bid. But Henderson, the union says, has dragged its feet. And it says labor violations at the Henderson parking garage site are an example of what happens without the stricter hiring standards.

But managers at open-shop Precision Concrete and city officials say the union, which has been trying to organize the company's employees since 1997, needs to substantiate its allegations before it can expect them to act. They say workers rights are not being violated, a claim that was largely supported by an initial investigation of pay records conducted by the state Labor Commission at the request of the Sun.

Follow-up visit

But a follow-up site visit Wednesday by Gail Maxwell, the commission's chief investigator, has raised new, serious questions. She ordered Precision Concrete and the Henderson Construction Department to sit down with the union and resolve alleged underpayment of workers. If either side has complaints afterward, they can appeal to the commission, Maxwell said.

As far back as September, Jim Sala, director of organizing for the Carpenters Union, asked the Henderson City Council not to award the $7.2 million project to contractor Korte-Bellew Construction. Sala told council members that subcontractor Precision Concrete had a history of labor violations and would in all likelihood violate workers' rights again.

In an April Henderson City Council meeting, Sala told the council that the labor violations he'd warned of seven months before were occurring.

One example

Rosales' injury was only one example of how inadequate enforcement of safety precautions was endangering workers on the job site, Sala said.

Sala also held up an inch-thick stack of payment schedules, claiming he had documented proof that Precision Concrete was systematically depriving workers of prevailing wages required by state law.

Sala accused the company of misclassifying workers to cheat them of fair wages, and he criticized the Henderson Construction Department for failing to post state construction laws on office trailers where workers could easily read them.

John Simmons, Henderson construction management director, acknowledged that no sign had been posted and fixed the problem within the week.

Allegations denied

But Simmons and Precision Concrete managers deny the larger allegations made by Sala. They say they are baffled by the claim that a nonunion subcontractor should be held accountable for a criminal incident caused by a union worker.

Precision Concrete's managers, three brothers who are longtime friends of Simmons, say the public accusations of labor violations are just the latest attempt by the union to destroy the reputation of an open-shop company and force it to unionize.

At the request of the Sun, Maxwell conducted a random audit of wage records to investigate claims made by Sala. Most of those allegations appeared to be based on a misreading of records by the union.

Maxwell said she found no evidence that workers were being cheated of fair wages in a review of payment records from Precision Concrete over the past six months.

In her sample audit, Maxwell requested documentation of insurance payments paid on behalf of workers to medical and dental providers from November to April. Precision Concrete included copies of canceled checks showing payments to insurers averaging $21,000 a month.

The state requires prevailing wages on public jobs worth more than $100,000 to ensure that companies can't gain an advantage in the bidding process by assuming low wages for workers in cost estimates.

The prevailing hourly wage as of September for a carpenter foreman in Clark County was $34.86. Laborers earned $27.32 while working as a flagperson, but could make up to $31 an hour for jobs requiring more skills.

Payments subtracted

Payments by Precision Concrete of medical and dental benefits were subtracted before taxes, according to records, so hourly wages on pay-rate sheets appear at first blush to be less than the prevailing wages required by state law.

Those discrepancies, often as much as $1 per hour depending on the extent of coverage, led to the mistaken belief by the carpenter's union that workers were being cheated of pay.

"I wouldn't do anything with this complaint," Maxwell said at the time. "There is insufficient cause for a full audit."

Maxwell said if workers were being cheated of wages, she would hear complaints as they left the job or quit. But with the job under way for more than seven months, she said Thursday that she hasn't received any complaints from Precision Concrete employees at the garage site.

Ashton wasn't surprised.

"Many of these workers are used to making $10 hour. When they get on a prevailing-wage job, if they're getting even $20 an hour, that's double what they're used to. They'd rather take $20 than rock the boat," Ashton said.

Ashton argues that in many cases workers receive two pay rates in a single day, working part of the day as a laborer and part as a carpenter. She and Sala allege that Precision Concrete is deliberately misclassifying workers to cheat them out of fair wages.

"If I'm a carpenter, and I happen to pick up a shovel, or if I'm standing smoking a cigarette and sweeping a broom, I'm still a skilled carpenter," Ashton said. "They can't pay below that for their convenience. If they don't have any work, they should send me home."

Work-based rates

But Maxwell said prevailing-wage rates are based solely on the work performed.

"If a man is unloading a truck for two hours why would we ask the employer to pay him a carpenter rate for doing a laborer's work? It's not how it works," Maxwell said.

However, after visiting the job site Wednesday, Maxwell had a different view.

"I know there are mistakes in the classifications of workers," Maxwell said. "Or I shouldn't say mistakes. Those guys ought to know better by now. They've been in the business long enough."

Maxwell said after surveying the job site that about 60 percent of the work should be paid at carpenter rates and 30 percent at laborer rates. But from her conversations with union representatives, she said the pay rates appear to be about the opposite, with 60 percent of workers being paid laborer rates.

But Maxwell acknowledged that the union and Precision Concrete will have to sit down with state guidelines to determine exactly how various jobs are classified.

Skeptical

Chad Stewart, president of Precision Concrete, said Thursday that he was skeptical that anyone, including Maxwell, could determine the proper ratio of pay rates on a walk-through of the job site. He acknowledged that misclassifications were a possibility on a job of that magnitude. But in many cases, he said, superintendents were approving carpenter pay rates for laborer's work -- overpaying workers, not cheating them.

"This is another example of the outrageous charges Jim Sala has made against us and the city of Henderson," Stewart said. "No one holds him accountable, and then he comes back with a new round of allegations."

Stewart said if there are problems, he'll fix them.

In the meantime, Stewart said there is little his company can do to alter union tactics. The unions have too much political clout and too many financial resources for him to consider any legal action, he said. Stewart points to the example of Jetstream Construction Inc., another local nonunion subcontractor. He says Jetstream was forced to unionize in January after a yearlong pursuit by the carpenters' union, a one-sided media blitz and the support of several workers' rights agencies.

Accused of forcing workers to pay kickbacks to keep their jobs, Jetstream eventually paid six workers a total of $6,300, but company officials admitted no wrongdoing. The Clark County School District barred the company from doing work with the district for a short time. The ban was lifted after it unionized.

"If you read about Jetstream in the paper, you would have thought these guys were the Mafia," Stewart said. "But the day they signed with the union, the union was out there promoting them as the greatest thing since sliced bread."

Union vs. nonunion

Fred Smith, school district construction manager, said that many people in the industry say the Jetstream lawsuit boiled down to one issue: union versus nonunion.

Maxwell, who also was skeptical of the efforts by the union to bring attention to Jetstream's record, acknowledges that there are companies in the Las Vegas Valley that are violating labor laws. She says her agency is pursuing legal action against them. But, with a staff of seven to process wage claims for the entire state, Maxwell says that, in general, until she receives a formal, well-documented complaint, her agency can't afford to conduct a full investigation.

The carpenter union says that until the state has more resources, its members will have to take on the role of watchdog for labor violations.

But Sala and Ashton say that the awarding agencies, in this case Henderson officials, need to monitor work sites closely to ensure labor laws are enforced.

They point to the example being set by construction departments for the school district, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

The school district approved a policy in October 1999 with input from the union that allows the School Board to qualify contractors on an annual basis. The review process takes into account the company's history of complying with labor laws, success in completing jobs, its fiscal history and general experience. Subcontractors also can be selectively reviewed for jobs.

Preliminary attempts

Las Vegas and North Las Vegas have made preliminary attempts to start similar yearly qualifications for companies that want to bid on public construction jobs.

Mark Vincent, who oversees purchasing and construction contracts for Las Vegas, said the city experimented successfully with the prequalification process last year on a contract to build a parking garage. Vincent says he plans to expand the program.

But both Vincent and Smith say they'll need more time and money to effectively screen contractors without creating an "administrative nightmare."

"We're trying to find a way to address the issue without creating a mechanism that is so onerous it brings all of us to our knees," Vincent said. Simmons says the type of monitoring the union wants is already in place. He says for them to say otherwise is "ridiculous."

A prequalification process would be impossible for his four-person staff to manage, Simmons said.

Even so, safety regulations are enforced, Simmons said. And unlike any other municipality in the valley, city employees interview workers regularly to ensure they are being paid properly, he said.

"We're very proud of the way we've administered this project," Simmons said. "I can guarantee you, if something's wrong, we'll be the first to jump on it and make sure it's corrected."

Sala sees things differently.

"Here's a city that says, 'You've put us on notice. We're going to keep an eye out.' And they haven't even done the basics," Sala said.

Highly critical

Ashton also remains highly critical of Precision Concrete, referring to a court decision that describes actions taken by its owners when workers tried to organize in July 1998.

In a ruling issued in August 1999, a regional judge for the National Labor Relations Board cited Chad and Terry Stewart for threatening to report striking workers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service; for threatening to close the construction site if workers continued to strike; and, among other violations, for ordering workers to quit rather than continue striking.

The judge ordered Precision Concrete to reinstate 37 Hispanic workers fired in July 1998 for attempting to organize and to pay them back wages.

Precision Concrete immediately appealed the ruling to the federal board.

Ashton said she expects a ruling within a month.

If the board upholds the 1999 ruling, the Henderson garage could be completed in part by workers who have not seen a paycheck from Precision Concrete for nearly three years.

Meanwhile, Rosales is back on the job, working on a limited basis while his injuries heal. McKiernan, who was fired by his employer the same day as the incident, faces a June 18 preliminary hearing on felony charges.

Their case will wind through the courts to a conclusion, but the struggle to determine whether Precision Concrete is paying just compensation to workers is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

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