Workers claiming wage theft protested outside the Joyce Cummings Center on Aug. 23 and 28, as incoming first-year students arrived on campus. Throughout the demonstrations, organized by the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, protesters handed out flyers accusing Tufts of hiring contractors who exploit construction workers at Eaton Hall, Blakely Hall and Halligan Hall.
During the demonstrations, workers held signs reading “Stop Wage Theft” while others drove trucks with the attached signs around the Cummings Center. One truck carried a large inflatable rat as a symbol of protest against unfair practices by employers, especially ones using nonunion labor.
According to Raheem Shepard, President of the NASRCC and a carpenter by trade, contractors hired by Tufts used subcontractors who compensate their construction workers with below-standard wages and benefits.
Shepard said that the subcontractors have a known history of violating wage and tax laws by misclassifying their workers as independent contractors — a practice sometimes used by employers to avoid having to pay benefits and minimum wages to employees.
“The general contractors for these projects relied on subcontractors that do not pay their workers the wages and benefits that are prevailing in the area, so they violate community standards,” Shepard wrote in a statement to the Daily. “There’s a deeper issue, and that is that many of the subcontractors that appear on these jobs have a history of engaging in the violation of labor and tax laws by misclassifying their workers, as evidenced by the statements of their own workers.”
In a statement to the Daily, Tufts’ executive director of media relations, Patrick Collins, defended the university’s hiring practices.
“Tufts works with many vendors and contractors – using best practices for vetting, hiring, and engaging with these third-party companies,” Collins wrote. “In all our relationships, our goal is to support our mission and to follow a set of principles, including providing quality learning and research opportunities, ensuring a safe and respectful work environment, individual and institutional accountability, efficiency, and flexibility.”
According to Shepard, one of the NASRCC’s demands is for Tufts to ensure subcontractors with a history of misclassifying their workers as independent contractors are not used on campus construction projects.
“We’d like a commitment that on these renovations, Tufts not use subcontractors that have a history of avoiding various wage and tax law obligations by misclassifying their workers, because it’s particularly the subcontractors who have been charged with these violations by their own workers,” Shepard wrote.
In his statement, Collins also wrote that “questions pertaining to compensation or subcontractors on construction projects should be directed to the relevant general contractor.”
Although the NASRCC does not represent any university employees and Tufts is not a party to any collective bargaining agreements with the union, the council seeks to spread awareness about unfair labor practices.
“One of the roles that the union plays in the industry that a lot of folks don’t recognize is we go out and represent non-union workers as well,” Bert Durand, communications director at the NASRCC, said. “We talk to them about the wages they’re getting, the treatment they’re getting on job sites, how the contractors treat them in different ways. We do this because we believe all carpenters deserve the standard that the union established in the industry.”
Durand explained that they support workers who have been cheated out of wages by connecting them with enforcement mechanisms and putting public pressure on institutions and contractors.
Catherine Pena, a business representative for the Carpenters Local 330 union who was at the Aug. 23 protest, stressed that a goal of the demonstration was to make every worker aware that they are victims of alleged wage theft.
“The workers that we talk to on these job sites don’t even know that their wages are being stolen,” Pena said. “Especially on prevailing wage jobs, there’s set rates that they’re supposed to get, and some of these workers are not getting those rates and don’t even know it.”
Because construction projects are usually short-term, Durand explained that it can be difficult to hold contractors accountable for wage theft or other improper practices.
“The [Attorney General’s] office [and] Department of Labor, if they do come out and investigate, by the time they finish their investigation, the workers might be gone,” Durand said. “We try to talk to end users, developers, institutions, general contractors, and say, ‘This is what’s going on in the industry. We’re watching, and we don’t want it to happen on your job site. So please don’t stick your head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist.’”
Shepard also called for Tufts to enlist contractors who participate in registered apprenticeship programs, which help women and minorities — who are traditionally underrepresented in the construction workforce — gain jobs in the industry.
Liz Skidmore, a member of the NASRCC and Local 327 who was present at the protest on Aug. 23, explained that she got her start as a construction worker through an apprenticeship program.
“[Apprenticeship] is paid training,” she said. “The union basically spends about $50,000 to train you as a carpenter.”
“Economically, if you want to bring people into a traditional male occupation, the only way you’re going to do it is through a devoted effort,” Shepard wrote. “And so we’re looking for two things: One is no more disreputable contractors whose business model relies on worker misclassification and underpaying their workers, and secondly, positively, let’s have some contractors that participate in legitimate apprenticeship programs.”
Gus Gladstein contributed reporting to this article.
