Unions in Action
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Monica's Victims
A Chinatown construction magnate may have ripped off taxpayers and workers for as much as $20 million. Now she's trying to evict Le Cheval.
Monica Ung was a rising star on the East Bay political scene. She was a player in Oakland's tight-knit Chinatown community, and her construction business, NBC General Contractors, was booming. In the past half decade, she had scored dozens of multi-million-dollar public works projects. But as she stood silently in front of an Alameda County Superior Court judge on Monday, facing dozens of felony fraud charges, it was clear that the forty-nine-year-old would no longer be rubbing elbows with the East Bay's political and business elite.
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Building Trades eNewsletter - 4/23
Honor our Veterans with Good Jobs!
The fight for the Employee Free Choice Act is reaching a critical stage. EFCA, which will make it easier for workers to join a union and negotiate a contract, is expected to be voted on next month.
Please see below for the details on Friday’s Town Hall Event on EFCA at Union Station featuring Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Richard Slawson of the LA/OC Building Trades Council, IBEW 11 Business Manager Marvin Kropke and sponsored by the Veteran’s Committee of the LA County Federation of Labor.
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Landmark study confirms project labor agreements benefit developers, don't drive up costs
In what is arguably the broadest, most detailed study ever conducted on the merits of project labor agreements (PLAs), three economic researchers have concluded that PLAs do not reduce the number of bidders or change the costs of construction projects, as frequently claimed by contractor lobby groups such as the Associated Builders & Contractors.
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Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed Against Non-Union Contractors for Assaulting Union Organizers
A civil rights lawsuit was filed on Monday, Mar. 17, against several contractors and multiple unnamed defendants after five union organizers were brutally assaulted last Friday while engaged in a lawful picket at a construction site in downtown Los Angeles. The lawsuit filed against contractors Hirex, Golden Gate Steel and its owner, and the unnamed defendants seeks unspecified damages for violations of California Civil Code section 51...
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Lawsuit Claims Brinderson Used Phony Union to Cut Liability in Overtime Case
A proposed class action lawsuit was filed Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court which alleges that a major oil refinery construction and maintenance firm, Brinderson Constructors Inc.’s (BCI), entered into a contract with a bogus labor organization to avoid continued liability in a separate, ongoing lawsuit over unpaid overtime and other wage violations. The suit claims that workers were forced to join the “union” against their will under threat of losing their jobs. BCI is a major national construction firm that performs construction and maintenance work in power plants, oil refineries and other industrial settings.
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In Memorium
Bruce Gerometta, President Ironworkers Local 416
1956-2008
True Friend and Leader in the Labor Movement
He will be forever missed
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