A Sustainable Workforce Starts With You

Let Me See Your ID

Construction Citizen received a video from a fan yesterday.  It shows some guys in hard hats walking onto a Whiting -Turner Construction site in Abington, Pa. and asking the laborers for their papers in an effort to determine whether they were legal.  They were not ICE or Department of Labor.  They began by telling everyone that they were not in any trouble, but that they were just trying to understand whether they are “undocumented” workers.  What they were told is an example of what Construction Citizen has been telling you about wage theft and worker misclassification.  It is also a classic example of how a general contractor can, in good faith, hire a sub contractor and the sub, in turn, hires “undocumenteds” or contracts with a labor broker to do the work. 


According to one of our fans, the language translations are not exactly correct, but you can judge for yourself.  One of the comments on YouTube said that the project is still underway and no one has arrested the illegal workers.  Whiting-Turner is a major contractor in the US who has operations in 29 cities.  Another of our fans asked how these guys just walked onto the jobsite without anyone stopping or questioning them.

What do you think about this one? Do you have similar stories?


Comments

Anonymous's picture

Man I'm a "Ironworker" and I have been doin "Rods" for 18 out of 20 years for Local 377 San Fran/bay area???? And to see this still out their, happening to my brothers and sisters is apauling? This needs to stop? Please? What if some worker, non-union person was to die? What then? Thoes people have familys too??? Get them trained and sign them up? Proper training can save their and our lives? Please? Stop cutting coners to save a few dollars? You can contact me at "Iron1972@yahoo.com or call me @ 209-518-0138 My name is George Rambeau "General Forman- colisuem steel"

Anonymous's picture

Build the Wall - Deport them All

Administrator's picture

Anonymous's picture

well ,i want to say that all this exposed in this video is a lie ,the part that is true is the illegalll workers,but!!! none of the illegall workers that are in the united states cost nothing to tax payers ,and the only reason why is ,because the illegall workers have the tax id ITIN Number and they declare taxes at the end of every year,they deduct what they have to pay to the state and the federal,of course that they have some money in return but,that money in return is because they worked that money,also they can not claim all the credits that the legall residents can claim ,as medicaid ,unenployment and some other issues that i can't think of rigth now,so the real truth is that the federal goverment along with the state goverment ,they together are packing a lot of money that the illegall workers are producing and that money i asume that is to sponsor a lot a programs that the goverment have available to provide a lot of help to ""LEGALL RESIDENTS"",since the illegall people have not the rigth to claim all those benefits , so now all of you tell me WHO IS THE VICTIM HERE??????.
Please be racional,we are a country with the most powerful tec. and very advanced laws,so why we fall into the pond of the racism,and apply the foundamets of this country ,the compasion and the good will.all this in the matter of having a clear point and a very good judgment of this problems that causes a lot of division between us Americans.

Anonymous's picture

Learn to spell or use spell check. They broke the law when they came here. The company they work for is saying their taking out tax's but the company keeps that money and also use's it for a tax right off. I pay my tax's and if I break the law I pay my fine's.

Anonymous's picture

I can tell you this as someone who does payroll. Assume the employer does not know they are illegal as they have documentation. They have a SS#, they claim 9 or 10 kids so that no income tax is taken out. The only withholding is SS & Medicare which are mandatory. After the first of the year the employer receives a letter from the IRS saying that person's SS # is invalid. The payroll department notifies the employee who buys another SS card & name and goes to another job. It is disgusting that the IRS is not cracking down on employers who knowingly hire these people and our government does nothing about the illegals.. They ARE taking our jobs. The government expects the employer to be the police. How can they if the worker presents a SS# or green card?

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