Some North Dakota construction companies are paying workers under the table and skipping benefits to avoid paying taxes, local union advocates and University of California, Berkeley Labor Center data analysis say. which reveals that the construction industry may no longer be able to provide workers with “family-supporting jobs”.
Isaac Prieto said he came to North Dakota for higher wages, but eventually discovered that his drywall employer was deliberately denying him benefits and even demanding more compensation than he was receiving in order to making illegal payments to other workers.
“I was working 70, 80 hours a week,” he said. “I never get paid for overtime. And there’s a lot of people who don’t have papers. Every year I was getting about $4,000 or $5,000 extra on my salary that I didn’t make. I guess they thought I wasn’t going to do my taxes.”
Even if workers receive their full wages and benefits, the report says, their compensation may not be enough. He suggested that low construction wages force more than a third of American workers to participate in public assistance programs, at a cost to taxpayers of nearly $28 billion a year.
Adam Duininck, director of government affairs for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, a union that helps workers negotiate with companies and state lawmakers, said holding companies accountable helps more than just construction workers.
“Tax evasion in the construction sector affects everyone,” he said. “You have this labor that is not paid. There are social charges [that] are not paid on them, unemployment insurance, health care that they can use. It ends up costing us as taxpayers. We have to foot the bill.”
The council represents nearly 27,000 union members and their families in the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
The industry was known for allowing workers without a college education to find well-paying jobs. Prieto said he joined the union to prepare for the future.
“I want to retire one day, get my full 401(k),” he said. “I don’t want to owe the government money. I want to know that everything is legal, that everything is taken care of. I don’t want to become an old man, and then you know, I haven’t put in a lot of money. money in my retirement.”
Disclosure: The North Central States Carpenters Regional Council contributes to our Living Wages/Working Families, Social Justice Reporting Fund. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
get more stories like this via email
A bill to extend certain eviction protections for an additional three months, through July 1, is due to be heard in State Assembly today.
The move comes as time is running out for people to apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance Scheme, which stops accepting applications on Thursday.
Tina Rosales, a housing lawyer and lobbyist for the Western Center on Law and Poverty, said people who have lost their income due to the pandemic should apply now by application.
“The program will pay 100% of past due rent and future rent for a total of 18 months,” Rosales explained. “Landlords and tenants can apply.”
The eviction protections are designed to avert a wave of homelessness as around 366,000 people wait for their claims to be processed. According to the state’s Housing is Key website, the program has paid out more than $2.4 billion so far, an average of $11,000 per household.
Rosales pointed out that many people whose primary language is not English have struggled to file a complaint, but the issues are mostly resolved now.
“There were technical issues and issues with the application, so Spanish-speaking and Chinese tenants were unable to apply for the program,” Rosales noted. “And now they only have a few days to apply.”
People can apply regardless of their immigration status. The application requires proof of income and proof that their household income does not exceed 80% of the median for their area.
get more stories like this via email
An estimated 50,000 West Virginia children are once again living below the poverty line, since families received their last expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) payment late last year.
The US bailout increased the CTC in 2021, with families receiving up to $3,600 for each child under age 6 and $3,000 for children ages 6 to 16, split into monthly payments.
Experts say most families used the extra money to buy food and pay bills, and save for emergencies.
Jim McKay, state coordinator for Prevent Child Abuse West Virginia, a program of TEAM for West Virginia Children, said financial stability has had a positive impact on children.
“There has been a 41% increase in child poverty in the state,” McKay reported. “It really helped so many kids in West Virginia get a taste of what it’s like to live without the burden of poverty.”
According to a report by Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, black and Latino children nationwide are more likely to fall back into poverty within months of the expanded CTC expiring.
McKay added that amid inflation and rising gas prices, the situation for low-income families could get worse. He pointed out that families and advocates are frustrated with the lack of action on the tax credit, so much so that a group of mothers from West Virginia traveled to DC last month with 500 bears in plush, in what they call the unbearable campaign.
“So the 500 teddy bears, each teddy bear represented 100 West Virginia children who were pushed back into poverty without the expansion of the child tax credit,” McKay explained.
In addition to increasing housing instability and hunger, many studies have shown that poverty increases stress and affects children’s development, learning and decision-making abilities.
get more stories like this via email
Nurses at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh have been working without a contract for two years and have urged the hospital administration to come to the table to negotiate.
The New York State Nurses Association members at the facility include not only registered nurses, but also pharmacists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nutritionists, and laboratory personnel, among others.
Liz Craigmyle, a registered nurse who works in the hospital’s emergency room, said that over the past decade nurses’ pensions, worker morale and standards of hospital care have slowly disintegrated.
“We are trying to negotiate a contract that includes secure staffing, fair compensation and the benefits we currently enjoy,” Craigmyle explained. “It’s never a good idea to stretch bedside nursing so little. Safety standards exist for a reason.”
She pointed out that the union fought for high-quality health insurance in its last contract negotiation, but that the University of Vermont Health Network, which runs the hospital, is aiming to pull it out. Union members picketed last week in an attempt to pressure the administration to start new negotiations.
Craigmyle added that the network has forced through a restructuring that has created issues with nurse-to-patient ratios and is filling positions with expensive travel nurses instead of working on recruitment and retention.
“We’ve had a brain drain of mid-level qualified nurses, say three to five years,” Craigmyle said. “And most of that comes from the administration here continuing to disincentivize them to stay by denying them a fair and legal contract and trying to take away their health care.”
Research shows that having lower nurse-to-patient ratios makes a big difference for patients, nurses and the hospital. Hospitals with one nurse per eight patients experience an average of five more deaths per 1,000 patients than hospitals with one nurse per four patients.
And research has shown that safe staffing reduces turnover, which saves the hospital money. It costs about $82,000 to $88,000 to replace a registered nurse.
get more stories like this via email
