The New England Carpenters Benefit Funds & Iora Health have partnered to offer new primary care doctor's office for members and other adults covered by the Health Fund. The doctor's office convenient after-work hours and has locations in Burlington, MA & Dorchester, MA. Carpenters Care patients, have no co-pays and enjoy free access to fitness & other group classes. Fund participants can join at any time with no commitment and no changes to their benefits. Joining is completely free and voluntary. To become a Carpenters Care patient, call 1-781-222-0930 or go online to CarpentersCare.com to learn more.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 New England Regional Council Scholarship Program. Last year 148 students applied and a total of $50,000 was awarded, including the top prize scholarship of $5,000.
To be considered for an award, a completed application package must be received by 5:00 pm on April 12, 2013.
Please review the Eligibility and Guidelines for the program before completing the application. Applicants will be required to write an essay of between 500 and 1000 words on the following topic:
What impact does “Right to Work” legislation have on labor unions, economic development and the standard of living in a state that adopt the law?
To eliminate bias, the scholarship committee is blind to the identity of the applicant. Essays are numerically coded to prevent any reader from having knowledge of the writer. Winners of the top two prizes will be asked to read their essays at the June 2013 delegate meeting. Persons awarded first or second place in a prior year are ineligible for first or second place in subsequent years.
Bryan Bouchard, who serves as Business Manger of Local 1996 in Vermont, Regional Manager for Northern New England and a member of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters Executive Board has announced his retirement, effective March 11. Bouchard is a 36-year member of the UBC.
Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mark Erlich is appointing John Leavitt to fill Bouchard's unexpired term on the Executive Board as well as his role as Regional Manager for Northern New England.
"Bryan served the members on staff for the Carpenters Union for 26 years," Erlich said. "He has been a quiet but effective leader who always carried himself with dignity and integrity. He will be sorely missed by his members and the Council. We wish him a long and happy retirement."
The 5th Annual New England Carpenters Ice Fishing Derby will be held Sunday, February 17 from 7am-2pm at Singletary Lake in Millbury, Massachusetts.
Organizer Joe Broderick will be set up at 5am at the lake, which can be accessed by West Main Street in Millbury. Look for a banner with the carpenters emblem by the boat ramp. There is a $20 fee to enter. Twenty-five percent of proceeds will be donated to the Valley Tech Educational Fund
Power augers will not be allowed before 7am and no tickets will be sold after 9am. Awards and a shore drawing will be held at the boat ramp at 2pm. Prizes will be awarded to the heaviest fish of any species, with 40% of proceeds going to the winner, 25% to 2nd place and 10% to 3rd place. Ties will be broken by fish length. All fish must be brought in alive.
For questions, please call Joe Broderick of Local 535 at 781-983-1383.
On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, devastating an already impoverished nation. With much of the country's medical infrastructure destroyed, plans that were in place to build a 110-bed community hospital had to be revamped. The Ministry of Health, along with Partners In Health, launched a far more ambitious plan to build a 320-bed state-of-the-art teaching hospital in Mirebalais, which is located thirty-five miles north of Port-au-Prince in the Central Plateau.
Haiti's building industry, however, was simply unable to meet the needs of the new building design. Massive donations of time, materials and skills would be needed for the project to succeed. Union carpenters and contractors stepped up to the challenge to help secure materials and volunteer their time and labor to help build the hospital while teaching Haitian workers valuable craft skills
To learn more, check out the piece NERCC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mark Erlich wrote for Commonwealth magazine about this amazing project following a trip to Haiti in 2012.
Got Training? Posted by
NERCC
on January 07, 2013 at 11:34 AM
Registration is now open!
Registration is now open for 2013 Spring Semester. All training is provided FREE to UBC members. Classes are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so register early!
To register, log onto the training website NECTF.org by using your UBC number (found on your union card) and your date of birth.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 New England Regional Council Scholarship Program. Last year 148 students applied and a total of $50,000 was awarded, including the top prize scholarship of $5,000.
To be considered for an award, a completed application package must be received by 5:00 pm on April 12, 2013.
Please review the Eligibility and Guidelines for the program before completing the application. Applicants will be required to write an essay of between 500 and 1000 words on the following topic:
What impact does “Right to Work” legislation have on labor unions, economic development and the standard of living in a state that adopt the law?
To eliminate bias, the scholarship committee is blind to the identity of the applicant. Essays are numerically coded to prevent any reader from having knowledge of the writer. Winners of the top two prizes will be asked to read their essays at the June 2013 delegate meeting. Persons awarded first or second place in a prior year are ineligible for first or second place in subsequent years.
Misclassification has been a serious problem in the construction industry for years, and something against which the Carpenters union has led the fight locally, regionally and nationally. Union efforts resulted first in greater understanding and awareness among elected officials and now regularly lead to enforcement and publicity on the issue that is either directly a result of union action or an indirect result of efforts initiated by the union.
Two items broke this week that reinforce that point. In Worcester, Telegram and Gazette columnist Clive McFarlane wrote about efforts by NERCC Organizer Manny Gines to chase down employers who cheat by misclassifying workers as independent contractors or cheat them out of their wages.
McFarlane's column ties into an announcement earlier in the week by the Executive Office of Labor in Massachusetts that more they had found more than 2,300 workers misclassified by just three employers. Though the three companies were not involved in the construction industry, the eye-popping $11 million in unreported wages and millions of dollars the state should have received for unemployment insurance payments generated new stories that put the issue in front of the general public.
Yesterday was a good day for union carpenters across New England. Amazingly, all of the Council’s endorsed candidates won election. Obama swept the six states, including winning swing-state New Hampshire by a larger-than-expected margin. In the critical races -- Warren in Massachusetts, Murphy in Connecticut, Hassan/Kuster/Shea-Porter in New Hampshire, King in Maine, Cicilline in Rhode Island – our picks were all winners!!
There is no doubt in my mind that some of the credit for these outcomes belongs to all of you and our members. We worked as hard as we ever have in an election season. We used all the tools available to us – new and old techniques – to educate and mobilize our members. And they responded. Door knocking, phone banks, rallies, visibilities, robo-dials, tele-Town Halls. We had a good story to tell…and we told it well and often.
But it’s important to keep a clear-eyed perspective on where we stand the morning after Election Day 2012. In many ways, we “held serve”. We helped fend off the right wing Republican assault on the middle class. There should be a clear message to the nation’s anti-union forces that their philosophy is not welcome, that the voters do not buy an agenda that favors the wealthy over working families. Yet we still have a divided Congress; we still have a Republican Party that attacks unions. We have some new articulate champions but we also have some old foes. Paul Ryan is still chair of the House Budget Committee and there are no signs yet that the House leadership is prepared to move forward in terms of solving our country’s problems as opposed to scoring political points.
So, as much as all of us deserve to take a deep breath and feel a justified sense of pride in our efforts, we will need to remain vigilant. The economy will not fix itself; it will require more federal and state action to invest in jobs and people. And it will require our continued involvement. Our members need to work; that’s why we endorsed the candidates who understood that the best social program is a job.
Thank you all for your efforts these past weeks and months. It was worth it. Congratulations.
Mark Erlich
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
New England Regional Council of Carpenters
United States Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren visited the Carpenters Center recently to speak with members about issues of specific interest to union carpenters. She took questions from members and spoke individually with members before and after the event. Thank you to Elizabeth Warren for coming by and thank you to every member who cared enough to come out and get involved.
In new report card, Republican Scott Brown fails to support new jobs and Massachusetts’ middle-class
Today, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters issued a report card on Senator Scott Brown’s failing efforts to support job-creating programs and middle-class families across the Commonwealth. Senator Brown received an F on today’s report card for opposing numerous jobs bills that would have supported thousands of good-paying jobs in Massachusetts, opposing the extension of essential unemployment benefits, and failing to fight for fair wages for working men and women.
"Try as he may, Scott Brown cannot run away from his votes along national Republican Party lines,” said Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Council of Carpenters. “Whether it's unemployment benefits, jobs bills, or standing up for fair wages, Scott Brown is not on the side of working families right here in Massachusetts. The attempts to re-make his image cannot mask his record. He sides with huge corporations and Wall Street instead of the thousands of Massachusetts families still looking for jobs.”
Today, the New England Carpenters gave Senator Brown an “F” for failing to stand up for working families. The grade was based on the following key votes:
Class
Score
American Jobs Act
-Would have cut payroll taxes for 140,000 MA firms
-Supported 11,100 MA jobs
YesNoX
[Roll Call Vote 160, 10/11/11]
Rebuild American Jobs Act
-Would invest $850 million in MA infrastructure including roads, bridges highway
-Would not add to the deficit.
YesNoX
[Roll Call Vote 195, 11/3/11]
Extending Unemployment Benefits
-8 votes to extended unemployment benefits to tens of thousands of MA residents who were out of work
NERCC has reached a tentative agreement with contractors on a new collective bargaining agreement for Boston and Eastern Massachusetts. Details will be given and votes will be taken at meetings for members this Thursday night. Members who have not received a phone call with the time and location, should contact their local union hall.
NERCC members and their families are invited to join in Free Family Fun at the CambridgeSide Galleria.
The day officially begins at 8:30 AM with registration for the kids-only duathlon with biking and running in and around Cambridgeside Galleria. Registration starts at 8:30 AM and the event begins at 10 AM. While the racing competition is in the morning, the Mall and surrounding parks will have activities throughout the afternoon.
Event staff will be collecting new, unused school supply items for donation to the East End House the day of the event.
A large group of carpenters are demonstrating on Newbury Street in Boston today against Callahan, Inc. The Bridgewater-based contractor is renovating a building that will feature housing and retail space. The company has a history of undermining industry standards for carpenters' wages and benefits. The company has been debarred for making misleading statements to qualify for a project and is embroiled in a controversial project with the South Shore YMCA in Quincy.
The South Shore YMCA recently selected Callahan for a new building project. This despite more than $100,000 worth of labor union carpenters had donated to two previous building projects and recieved a commitment from the Y. The Y was recently blasted for its decision-making and ethics by a series of stories in the Quincy Patriot-Ledger. Local 424 Business Manager followed up with a Letter to the Editor:
"The recent disclosure of questionable ethics on the part of YMCA board members comes as no real surprise to the carpenters union. During the general contractor selection process for the Quincy project, we asked that the process pass reasonable standards of integrity and honesty. Instead, they chose Callahan, Inc., a contractor determined to have lied under oath to qualify to bid on a school project in Hanover , where there were multiple violations of state and federal law.
"In the past few years, members and apprentices of the carpenters union have donated over $100,000 in free labor to the South Shore YMCA for work done at the Germantown Community Center and Camp Burgess . Yet we, often described as overpaid, were denied a legitimate opportunity to work on the new YMCA, while insiders collected over $2 million in fees. The Y’s mission statement reads in part; “To put Christian principles into practice…” I think they forgot."
In Hanover, Callahan was found to have made misleading statements to justify its qualifications to bid on construction of a new High School. The town successfully fought to have put aside opinions by the Attorney General's office and a suit brought by union carpenters in Hanover that the project should be rebid. Though Callahan was awarded the job, they were debarred from bidding public work as a result of their actions and the project was not without further problems.
Two subcontractors working on the Hanover High School project for Callahan, Inc. were cited for violations of wage and hour reporting laws. Action Floors was issued a $2,000 penalty for intentionally failing to submit true and accurate certified payroll while Superior Foundations was found to have intentionally failed to pay proper prevailing wages on the project. Superior has been issued a $2,000 penalty for the violations and order to pay $3,802.94 in restitution to workers who were cheated. Superior was also cited for prevailing wage violations for work they did at the Swansea Police station.
Braintree, Massachusetts-based Northeast Interiors has been ordered by the state to pay $20,000 in fines and make restitution of almost $16,000 to twelve employees. The company cheated workers on three projects in Arlington, Swampscott and Salem.
Civil citations were issued against Northeast Interiors and owner Kevin Fish for failure to pay prevailing wages for work performed ($5,000), failure to submit true and accurate certified payroll records ($7,500) and failure to keep true and accurate payroll records ($7,500). Violations occured when the company was doing work at Arlington Menotomy Manner, Swampscott Thomson Building and Salem Rainbow Terrace.
In recognition of Earth Day 2012 the New England Carpenters Training Fund is sponsoring a FREE electronics Recycling on Monday, April 23, 2012 at the New England Carpenters Training Center (NECTC), 13 Holman Rd, Millbury, MA 01527.
Items may be dropped off between the hours of 7:00 AM and 2:30 PM (any day this week or on Monday, April 23).
Please call the NECTC at 508-792-5443 to let them know if you will participating so they have an idea of when you will arrive and the items you will be bringing.
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and other industry groups are calling on the Massachusetts legislature to make it a felony for employers to fail to purchase workers compensation insurance for their employees. Senate Bill 915, sponsored by Senator Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) and Majority Whip Ronald Mariano (D-Quincy) also has the backing of Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Operating without workers' compesnation insurance is currently a misdemeanor, punishable by upt oa year in prison or a find of up to $1,500. The new law would make the felongy punishapble by up to five years in state prison, two-and-a-half years in jail or a fine of up to $10,000.
NERCC Political Director Steve Joyce said that although union carpenters are always covered by workers' compensation insurance, they are still hurt by those who cheat.
"In an industry where work most often goes to whoever submits the lowest price, any contractor who does not purchase workers' compensation coverage has a competitive advantage right from the start over contractors who follow the law and have coverage," he said. "That negatively impacts any carpenter that works for a legitmate contractor. We're not looking to hurt all employers, we value the role they play in creating jobs. We just want everyone to comply with the law when they do it."
Even the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), a group that lobbies for businesses, support the bill. In a story by the State House News Service, John Regan, AIM's Executive Vice President described the current situation as unfair to too many.
"Their faliure to have that insurance in place means that if workers working for them get injured, the rest of the employer commnity pays the bill" and that making failure to have coverage a felony "reflects the seriousness of the issue, and conveys how important it is that coverage be in place."
According to the SHNS story, the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents has reported more than 1,000 cses costing the worekrs compensation fund $26 million in the last five years becuase their employer didn't have worers' compensation coverage. In recent years the department has routinely issued Stop Work Orders against more than 3,000 employer found to be operating without workers' compensation coverage.
Information sessions are being held for members who would like to learn more about degree programs available through the union at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Two sessions are scheduled in the coming weeks.
Saturday, April 21 at 10AM: 750 Dorchester Ave., Boston, MA
Saturday, May 5 at 9 AM: 13 Holman Rd., Millbury, MA
Learn more general information about the program by clicking here.
While we love the convenience and immediacy of sharing news and information through the “Council Update” and on NERCC.org and social media platforms, we know not every carpenter is active online. So the New England Regional Council is committed to continuing to produce the New England Carpenter magazine and deliver it to every member’s home.
The latest issue of New England Carpenter magazine has rolled through the presses up in Salem, Massachusetts at Deschamps Printing. You’ll notice some changes in this issue, including some new design elements and more (and bigger) pictures of union members and union projects!
We’re featuring a cluster of stories about member involvement in area standards demonstrations and introducing the Union Participation Program, which will plug active members into ongoing union efforts to protect standards and win more work opportunities.
Multiple enforcement agencies in Massachusetts today announced that five subcontractors employed by Pulte on sites in Eastern Massachusetts have been ordered to pay workers more than $400,000 in owed wages and make payments totaling $141,000 to cover unpaid taxes.
The order is the result of investigations that began after workers complained to Representatives of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters that they had been unpaid for extended periods of time. Workers went on strike at several Pulte locations and filed complaints with the state.
"The investigation fined five separate subcontractors, but the real culprit is Pulte Homes, a multi-billion dollar national homebuilder," said Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. "Those subs are interchangeable and were just doing Pulte's bidding. Cheating is Pulte's business model and, unfortunately, that approach is far too common in the residential construction industry."
Subcontractors that were part of the order include:
--AM Construction Services and its President, Adimar Demoura, age 32 of Framingham, allegedly failed to pay four workers a total of $15,331.50 for framing work done on private residential projects in Braintree and Plymouth. They were also fined $22,500 in penalties.
--Five Stars Construction and its President, Alexandre Miranda, age 40 of Trumbull, Connecticut, allegedly failed to pay two workers a total of $30,700 for framing work done on a private condominium project in Natick. They were also fined $30,000 in penalties.
--Nunes Brothers Construction and its President, Tiago Aguiar M. Nunes, age 28 of Brooklyn, New York, allegedly failed to pay 23 workers a total of $99,086.75 for framing work done on private condominium and single-family homes projects in Braintree, Plymouth, Natick, and Northbridge. They were also fined $112,500 in penalties.
--Seven Seas Group and its President, Jackson Croscup, age 55 of Fall River, allegedly failed to pay five workers a total of $10,333 for framing work done on a private condominium project in Natick. They were also fined $20,075 in penalties.
--Two Brothers Construction and its President, Wellington DeLima Borges, age 41 of East Natick, allegedly failed to pay six workers a total of $34,751.50 for framing work done on a private home development project in Plymouth. They were also fined $34,500 in penalties.
Investigating the complaints were Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office (AGO), the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD), and the Joint Enforcement Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification (JTF). The JTF was established by Governor Deval Patrick through Executive Order #499 in March 2008 to coordinate multiple state agencies’ efforts to stamp out fraudulent employment activities by enforcing the state’s labor, licensing, and tax laws.
“All workers in the Commonwealth deserve to be paid for the wages they have earned, including their overtime,” said Attorney General Coakley. “We will continue to work together and take appropriate action to stop these unlawful business practices, level the playing field for companies and protect workers.”
“The Commonwealth is committed to insuring that all businesses carry both workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance coverage,” said Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne F. Goldstein. “We will not tolerate employers or developers who proceed without this coverage, which puts employees at risk and employers who play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage. The Joint Task Force will continue to take all necessary action to protect legitimate employers, employees and the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.”
Play ball! Posted by
NERCC
on March 10, 2011 at 12:00 AM
Carpenters from Local 424 volunteered their time to build a new snack bar at a local Little League field in Braintree, MA. The snack bar was built at Hollingsworth Park, which hosts over 700 players a year. The volunteers saved the league an estimated $10,000.
“That’s money that we would have had to raise and pay off. It means a lot to the program,” said Steve Guilbault, the vice president for the League’s Board of Directors.
The donation drew the attention of Town Hall, who praised the union’s efforts.
“In these challenging times, this kind of volunteer effort is especially valued,” said Peter Morin, the chief of staff and operations for Braintree.
The volunteer carpenters completed the project in just 5 days. Permanent signage recognizing the efforts of the Carpenters Union will be hung on the outfield wall in the Spring.
The Local 424 volunteers were: Dave Curley, point person and project foreman; Steve Paker; Steve Singleton; Brian Knox; Tom Duncanson; Dave Shurtleff; Brian DuBois; Joe MacLellan; and Frank Baxter.
The Boston Globe ran a piece about the volunteer efforts, it can be read here.
The Department of Capital Asset Management in Massachusetts has proposed debarring Callahan, Inc. from bidding or performing any work as a result of their actions in bidding for the contract to build a new Hanover High School.
After submitting their Statement of Qualifications to the town and submitting the lowest bid, it was discovered that Callahan, Inc had taken credit for projects performed by another company in order to qualify to bid in Hanover. Though the Attorney General twice advised the Town to throw out Hanover's bid or rebid the job through an expedited process, the town moved forward with Callahan.
Petitioned by a group of union carpenters living in Hanover, a judge then ordered work on the project to stop pending further consideration of the fraud and Hanover's selecting Callahan. Another judge over-ruled that order, sending the case to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC agreed with the Town's argument that although Callahan clearly lied on the SOQ, the Town was aware of the lies and chose to do business with the company anyway.
DCAM now appears to be saying that even though Hanover has been allowed to work with a contractor that lied about its qualifications, the State of Massachusetts will not allow it again. Unless Callahan asks for an wins an appeal from DCAM, the already tarnished reputation of the company will be formalized.
The arguments before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court regarding Callahan, Inc the handling of prequalification and award of the Hanover (Mass) High School to Callahan, Inc are now available for viewing online at this site. The case is Fordyce v Town of Hanover.
The protest, filed by ten union members who are residents of the town, alleges that Callahan, Inc committed fraud when it took credit for another company’s work and should be removed from the job. The Massachusetts Attorney General joined the members as a party to the suit. They had previously issued an opinion that Callahan, Inc had misled the town, a ruling which the Town ignored.
Three contractors associations--Associated General Contractors (AGC), Construction Industries of Massachusetts (CIM) and the Utitility Contractors Association of New England (UCANE)—all of which represent both union and nonunion contractors in the state, filed briefs with the court in support of the union’s position.
Their involvement, highlights the importance of this case not just to Hanover, but to the construction industry statewide. The CIM-UCANE brief, in particular, illustrates the ways in which the integrity of the public bidding system would be severely undermined should the events in Hanover be allowed to stand. The AGC brief is also instructive.
As to the cost and time delays the Town has consistently cited as a reason for pushing forward with Callahan, Inc., the job was not really begun when the AG issued its determination that Callahan, Inc had lied on its SOQ. Minor site clearing had been done and a temporary parking lot was built. Options other than continuing with Callahan were certainly available to the Town at that point and subsequent to that. Please refer to Note 4 of the CIM brief on page 12:
“It should be noted that the public bidding statutes contain an “emergency” provision that, under certain exigent circumstances, empowers an awarding authority to bid a contract in an expedited manner if necessary and appropriate to safeguard the awarding authority’s interest. SEE G.L. c. 149, S 44A Where, as here, the awarding authority is confronted with late-discovered bidding irregularities that it believes may threaten the timing of the project, this “emergency bidding provision” provides a more than adequate mechanism for promptly and expeditiously re-bidding the project or otherwise rectifying the irregularities at issue. The availability of this alternative procedure (as well as the clearly articulated goals of the public bidding laws) makes the alternative of proceeding with a tainted contract even less justifiable.”
A decision on the case is expected within a week. If the action of the Town to ignore the fraud by Callahan, Inc and award them the job is not reversed it could seriously undermine the integrity of the public bidding process throughout the Commonwealth.
A suit regarding the bidding of work for construction of a Hanover, Massachusetts school was heard by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court this morning. At issue was whether the town acted improperly when it qualified and hired Callahan Construction for the work, despite their failure to meet legally mandated requirements.
Callahan appeared to mislead the awarding body when it took credit for a previous project that it did not complete. Further, the project did not fall within the three-year period required by law.
After the town awarded the job to Callahan, two lawsuits were filed against Hanover—one by an HVAC contractor, the other by ten residents of Hanover. Kirt Fordyce, a retired union carpenter and Business Agent from Local 424, was the lead complainant in the resident suit.
The Attorney General’s Office had advised Hanover to refrain from awarding the job, pending their review of the bid protest. Hanover ignored that request and awarded the job to Callahan. The town then also ignored a later finding by the Attorney General that Callahan had misled the town during the bid process and allowed the job to continue.
A Superior Court Judge then issued an injunction against the Town of Hanover preventing Callahan Construction from continuing work on a $37 million high school. The ruling found the suits clearly established a reasonable likelihood that Callahan had engaged in fraud in qualification documents, that the public interest favored issuing an injunction, and that any additional costs to the Town resulting from an injunction "would be the product of the Town's own doing."
An Appeals Court judge reversed that decision, at which time the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reached down and pulled the case from the appeals process.
Oral arguments will be available for viewing online at this site within four days. The case is KIRK [sic] FORDYCE & others vs. TOWN OF HANOVER & another. The docket number is SJC-10643.
Members of the Carpenters Union passed out information to Hingham residents attending last night's Town Meeting. The meeting considered and passed a motion a Proposition 2 1/2 override question on a town election ballot this weekend. Hingham must secure additional funding (raise taxes!)to qualify for reimbursement from the State School Building Authority for a school building recently completed.
The information handed out by carpenters made the connection between the underground economy and overrides like the one in Hingham. As you recall, several subcontractors for Avalon Bay have been cited recently by the Attorney General’s Office for misclassification of workers and other wage and hour law violations. Misclassification cheats the feds, state and local municipalities out of owed tax revenue and is a significant problem in the construction industry state-wide.
Avalon Bay CEO Bryce Blair is a Hingham resident.
Rick Braccia, President/Business Manager of Carpenters Local 424 submitted the following letter to the Hingham Journal:
April 23, 2009
To the Editor;
Last year, in this and other local newspapers, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters shed light on the illegal business practices of a number of developers and contractors, both large and small. In Hingham, we focused on Avalon Bay and its CEO, Hingham resident, Bryce Blair. It was our contention that our members, as well as every other taxpayer in the Commonwealth were being cheated by the failure of Avalon Bay’s contractors to comply with state and federal tax laws. In many cases, we were dismissed as sore losers because our contractors and members were not being awarded the work on the projects.
In February of this year, the State Attorney General’s office issued citations against several contractors who worked on Avalon Bay projects throughout New England. The fines imposed were for the same violations which the carpenters union claimed were standard procedure on the jobs, and in fact, were part of the Avalon Bay business model.
However, vindication is far from sweet. These same business practices continue unchecked, not only in the world of profit driven private development, but in public construction as well. As Hingham is facing an override to secure state funding for the new elementary school, V Locke Contracting, a major subcontractor on that same school is under investigation by the Attorney General’s office for multiple violations, including worker misclassification, falsification of public documents, and undercutting the state-mandated wage. I have personally interviewed several workers who worked on this project and who were paid in cash, at less than the prevailing wage.
There seems to be more than a trace of irony in this. Avalon Bay’s contractors, V Locke Contracting, and hundreds like them are cheating Massachusetts out of hundreds of millions of dollars annually in unpaid taxes. And now Hingham is in the position of asking their taxpayers to come up with more cash out of pocket to supplement the shortfall in state revenue.
I have to ask- where is the outrage? I urge Hingham taxpayers to visit the new school on Collins Avenue and talk to the superintendant. His employer, CTA, won the bid based on a cheater’s price. Ask him why you should pay his salary. I also urge any resident who sees Bryce Blair around town for a thank you or an apology. After all your taxes are subsidizing his business.
Local 424 Business Agent Rick Braccia checked in with some goings-on in his area...
--StreetWorks, the Master Developer of Downtown Quincy is presenting their proposal to the City Council on Monday night at City Hall at 7:00 P.M. The plan was presented to the Building Trades last week. Although the project isn't a solution to our immediate needs for jobs, the potential for development in Quincy is unbelievable.
--There is a public hearing on Thursday night (March 5) at the former Watson Library in Braintree. This is a joint hearing by Braintree and Weymouth officials to explore infrastructure improvement as a means of attracting business development to Weymouth Landing.
--Last Tuesday night, there was a meeting of the Braintree Town Council Ordinance Committee at which NERCC Director of Organizing Brian Richardson, Local 33 President John Murphy, and Rick Braccia testified in support of a responsible employer ordinance (REO). The town currently has an REO Policy, but this is merely a recommendation to contractors doing public work in the town. If Braintree adopts this as an ordinance, it give legitimate contractors a more level playing field. The response of the committee was overwhelmingly positive. The REO is being proposed by Councilor Tom Bowes.
--The next VOC meeting is on March 11. On the same night, we are asking Quincy residents to attend the Planning Board meeting at City Hall at 7:00 P.M. The Planning Board is going to reject an application by anti-union, developer Michael Corcoran, and it would be beneficial to have some applause in the audience. A few years back, Corcoran was the developer of the Cliffwalk Apartments on Willard St that we held rallies and a six month picket line on. That was the job with Plumbhouse as a GC. In case nobody recalls, Plumbhouse is the guy who has his trucks lettered "Merit Shop Builds Best."
Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 New England Regional Council Scholarship Program. Last year 148 students applied and a total of $50,000 was awarded, including the top prize scholarship of $5,000.
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