Salaries and bonuses in New York are highly dependent on union membership: shocking examples

Victor Ballast was looking for a job. It was January 2018. He had four children and a wife to support, as well as trouble finding work after he returned to the Bronx from Florida. A friend suggested he consider becoming a flagger who helps keep construction projects safe on highways by guiding traffic around jobs. Another friend said he was making $42 an hour as a flagger and was in a union. Ballast enrolled in a flagship certification course and jumped into the industry with both feet. About what happened next, writes City and State.

Ballast began working on Con Edison construction sites for Manhattan-based Griffin Industries LLC. The salary was only $13,50 an hour. It was lower than he expected, but he had ambitions to grow with the company. He completed two courses for construction workers, totaling 46 hours of training, and set his sights on joining a union. “My task was to get into the union so as not to sit for 13 or 15 dollars an hour,” he explained.

Ballast's enthusiasm faded when he realized that securing a higher salary was next to impossible. Like thousands of non-union construction workers across the state, he fell victim to wage theft. He didn't know that state labor regulations required that flaggers working on government projects in New York be paid at least three times what he earned.

Until June 2018, he often worked twelve hours a day, six days a week. Often without any breaks or overtime, standing in traffic jams to direct pedestrians and vehicles away from active construction sites.

Trade union and non-union: a two-tier system

Ballast's salary was so low that he could not pay the rent. He was evicted. Ballast was forced to live in a family homeless shelter for some time.

At work, the Dominican began to notice a two-tier system. All the flaggers he worked with were black or Hispanic and non-union. Other workers on the site were mostly white and unionized. “(Trade union workers. - Ed.) can go to lunch or leave altogether, they can stay in their cars. And the flaggers should be there until the hole in the road is closed,” he said.

Unionized construction workers earn 22% more. A recent analysis of New York City's construction industry found that non-Hispanic whites still make up 45% of unionized workers and only 25% of non-union workers.

There are two ways to join a union: to organize a non-professional workplace or to study in a union program. Originally conceived in the 1990s, training can offer workers a path to well-paying jobs. But the number of places is limited. The state Department of Labor regulates the number of new apprentices who can join construction unions. Candidates for trade unions, among other things, must participate in competitive lotteries. As a result, many subcontractors hire workers like Ballast who can't afford to wait to win the lottery.

When Ballast confessed to union workers how much he earns, they laughed and said that he was being deceived. Confused, the man did some digging and found out about the so-called increased wages. New York law requires builders working on public or government-funded projects to be paid an increased wage rate. Usually it is much higher than the minimum wage. The Department of Labor sets a higher wage rate that entitles most unemployed people in New York to $42 an hour. He was furious.

Millions of lost wages

In July 2020, Ballast and several of his colleagues, represented by attorney Brent Pelton, filed a class action lawsuit against Griffin and Con Edison seeking unpaid wages, daily overtime and additional benefits.

Pelton's firm is currently pursuing several active lawsuits against flagger companies that subcontract to city and state agencies. A spokesman for Con Edison said the company is not commenting on the lawsuit. Griffin's attorney Michael Dichiara declined to comment. In lawsuits, both companies denied all allegations.

Similar lawsuits have been successful. In 2016, following a US Department of Labor investigation into wage theft at a federally funded construction site in Lower Manhattan, 63 flaggers were awarded approximately $1,2 million in unpaid wages. In April, in a five-year class action lawsuit in which Pelton was involved, a judge found that while the same contractor, Judlau Contracting Inc. classed workers as pedestrian crossing guards rather than flaggers, the nature of the work they did required payment of higher wages. Judlau declined to comment for this article.

On the subject: Work sickness: Ignored epidemic kills 7000 New Yorkers a year

According to the latest figures, there are currently 10 New Yorkers working as flaggers. This is more than in any other state. Many make less than $040 a year. Meanwhile, subcontractors are making millions on taxpayer-funded projects. Flagger is one of the most dangerous professions in the country. The workplace death rate here is more than ten times the national average.

“I quit because I knew I was being robbed. I'm not going to stay here for any $15 an hour. It's not worth it,” said former worker Luis Simone.

At Griffin, Ballast wasn't the only worker who felt he was being exploited. The 54-year-old Cuban from the South Bronx drove a van for many years that took women to jails upstate to see their loved ones. He couldn't afford to fix the van when it broke down. Therefore, the Cuban in 2018 moved to work as a flagger. At Griffin, he said, he was paid only $13 an hour. He knew that the salary was too low, but he was married. He had two children to support, so he kept his head down.

“It's very difficult,” he remarked. You are dealing with traffic. When the bulldozers come, you should guide those trucks. It is necessary to ensure that no one crosses the street and no car passes by. It's really dangerous."

Simone began to realize that the company was using him to their advantage. And, like Ballast, he began to notice racial disparity in the workplace. “A lot of the flaggers are black and Hispanic,” he remarked. "Most Con Edison workers are white, they have great union jobs, they're well paid."

Simone and Ballast eventually quit Griffin. In 2019 and 2020, both said they had bypassed several companies, including Out-Look Safety, CE Solutions, Vali Industries Inc and WorkForce 7 Inc, in the hope of finding a normal job. None of the companies paid higher wages. (None of the companies responded to requests for comment.)

Why pay higher wages when no one checks

Wage theft is widespread in the construction industry in general. Diane Florence, who led the Manhattan District Attorney's Building Fraud Task Force until 2020, said nothing was being done to curb it.

“Wage theft is not a crime of necessity, it is a crime of opportunity. And frankly, the government is in the business of allowing it to flourish,” she says. “There is a gap in law enforcement. Therefore, unscrupulous companies make a business decision.”

Workers say widespread wage theft among workers in the construction industry has been going on for at least a decade. In 2017, Pelton's firm filed a class action lawsuit against MECC for failing to pay workers prevailing wages at Con Edison facilities. MECC settled the lawsuit in 2019 for $825, denying all wrongdoing allegations. Last year, another wage theft lawsuit was filed against MECC to recover unpaid base wages, overtime, bonuses and supplemental benefits. MECC denied all allegations in court statements. The case is still pending.

Ballast, meanwhile, has moved to Rhode Island and now makes a living driving a truck. Since filing the lawsuit against Griffin, he has filed lawsuits against Out Look Safety, Vali Industries, Inc. and WorkForce7 which are still under review. In lawsuits, the latter two companies denied the allegations. Ballast hopes his efforts will inspire other flaggers to realize that they deserve more.