Vol. 72/No. 23      June 9, 2008

Work stoppages to protest racist mistreatment and worksite protests by carpenters and Black community activists have taken place over the past year at public housing renovation sites in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhoods.

A petition has been circulated denouncing construction bosses for stealing portions of the paychecks of Latino workers, who are mostly immigrants from Mexico. Last December, more than two dozen Black and Latino carpenters united to file a class-action lawsuit in Superior Court against the Apartment Investment Management Co. (AIMCO) and its subcontracting outfits.

The suit demands an end to the racist practices. It charges that qualified Black carpenters were repeatedly told there was no work available, while Latinos continued to be hired. Black and Latino workers were put on separate crews. Few Blacks ever worked a full 40-hour week, while Latinos frequently worked overtime. One boss told Latino workers they could do substandard work on a set of housing units because only Blacks would be living there.

In February carpenters testified before the Neighborhood Services Committee of the city’s Board of Supervisors. As El Tecolote, a bilingual newspaper here reported, “worker after worker detailed how their money was stolen and how project supervisors and foremen attempted to divide Latinos and African Americans.”

El Tecolote quoted carpenter Gregory Hall as testifying that the construction bosses “told us we were too slow. So we sat down with AIMCO and (they told us) the only way they would hire another community resident is if they put Latinos on one wall and African Americans on another wall and we would race to see if we could keep up with the Latinos (and only) then they would hire another African American.”

Apolinar Cornejo, who wasn’t yet in the union, told the committee, “When the union reps would come, the company supervisors would hide us in a warehouse.” He said that the bosses “would say we had to share our checks with the foreman like the other Latinos do. They wouldn’t let us associate with the African American workers.”

On May Day, carpenters Gregory Hall and Richard Rankins spoke to several thousand young people and workers at the immigrant rights rally at the Civic Center.

Hall, a carpenter for 27 years and a member of Carpenters Local 22, says things are better now at his worksite, since the workers forced AIMCO to replace several of the subcontractors who were pitting immigrant workers against Blacks.

Hall helped initiate the struggle to end the practice of subcontractors stealing between $100 and $400 per week from the paychecks of at least a dozen immigrants working as carpenters at these sites. He circulated a petition among carpenters denouncing the extortion by bosses and got it out to local, district, and national carpenters’ union officials.

Hector Rodríguez, a carpenter for 11 years and member of Local 713, and Richard Rankins, a carpenter for more than 30 years and member of Local 22, addressed some three dozen people at the Militant Labor Forum here May 16. Rodríguez and Rankins are plaintiffs in the suit and part of the ongoing fight against racist practices by the construction bosses. They were joined at the forum by other carpenters, who participated in the discussion.

Rankins detailed what he called “this nightmare” of repeated racist practices. Fighting back, he said, was not for the money, but “it’s the principle, of right versus wrong.” He said he would like to see those responsible put in jail.

Rodríguez told how several weeks after being hired last summer, a boss started taking $100 a week from his paychecks, claiming it was a union fee. A boss later confronted him, saying, “I hear you’re rebelling. Now it will be $200 a week.” Rodríguez discussed this extortion with a union official, he said, and afterward, bosses threatened him and castigated him for being like “a little girl.”

Gerardo Sánchez, a meatpacking worker and Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 12th C.D., also spoke. He stressed the continuing importance of the fight to maintain affirmative action in the hiring of Black workers. He said the bosses try to use the fact that millions of immigrants lack legal status as a “tool against the unions.” He underlined the importance of the participation of the union carpenters in the May Day rally for legalization of undocumented workers.

“The struggle of these brothers is inspiring other workers,” Sánchez said. “It is touching something that workers know is important—overcoming the divide-and-rule tactics that bosses use in every workplace. It is through such fights that the unions will be strengthened. That will lay the basis for a labor party based on the unions, a party to represent the interests of workers.”

A lively discussion ensued and a collection was taken for La Raza Centro Legal to help cover the carpenters’ legal expenses.  
 
 
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