Roofers union accuses Fridley firm of exploiting workers on public project

Just ask workers at Stock Roofing, a Fridley-based, non-union firm that over the winter won a publicly funded contract from the City of Minneapolis to build a new, “green” roof atop the downtown Target Center.

To reduce costs and achieve the low bid it gave the city, Stock Roofing has failed to provide proper safety equipment, shorted workers as much as $20 an hour and demoted or threatened to fire workers who complained, according to charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board last month.

Local 96 of the United Union of Roofers, Water-proofers and Allied Workers, which filed the complaint on behalf of Stock Roofing’s workers, demonstrated outside the Target Center on May 28. As TV news cameras rolled, union officials and workers called out Stock Roofing for using the recession as an excuse for exploiting and endangering its workers.

“Under-funded projects are putting workers at risk,” Rob Snider of Local 96 said. “It’s a disgrace that economic times are so tough that Minneapolis allows contractors to reduce costs by dangerously cutting corners.

“These greedy business tactics have exploited workers and put them in harm’s way.”
At the rally, Local 96 distributed DVDs showing roofers atop the Target Center, tossing chunks of concrete to the ground below in the near-darkness.

In sworn affidavits provided to the NLRB, Stock Roofing workers allege the company:
• forced workers to start at 11 p.m., with virtually no artificial lighting,
• offered no masks to protect workers from potentially hazardous dust,
• failed to provide proper safety harnessing, and
• laid off, demoted or threatened to fire workers who complained about safety conditions.

One of those workers was Celso Alvarado, a foreman of five years who says he was demoted for alerting officials to Stock Roofing’s safety violations. At the rally, Alvarado said many of Stock Roofing’s workers are immigrants who have been threatened with firing if they complain about poor working conditions.

“With such a bad economy, especially in the construction industry, we have nowhere else to go,” Alvarado said. “We need these jobs to keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.”

Alvarado approached Roofers Local 96 for help in April.

“Enough was enough,” he said. “I was afraid one of us was going to get hurt or killed. I had to let someone know how Stock Roofing was treating us.”

In addition to workers’ complaints about safety, the NLRB charges against Stock Roofing claim the firm “dodged” prevailing wage requirements for public projects, often shorting them as much as $20 per hour.

The charges also claim Stock Roofing classified and paid some workers as landscapers, but required them to perform roofing work.

The union alleges Stock Roofing had to cut corners in order to deliver on its $5.3 million bid to win the Target Center roof project. The bid was more than $1 million less than other bidders.’

Michael Moore edits the Union Advocate, the official publication of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation.

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