BY DICK METZGAR
Staff Writer
The owner of a South River construction company says a million-dollar lawsuit against his firm involving wages is the result of a failed attempt by a labor union to organize his workers.
The lawsuit filed by 44 current and former immigrant workers Feb. 28 in the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick contends that John Andre, owner of Andre & Sons Construction, South River, a masonry and concrete contractor, cheated them out of more than $1 million in wages over the last five years.
The lawsuit was spearheaded by the Laborers Eastern Regional Organizing Fund (LEROF), a union representing building and highway laborers. Vincent Giblin, an Iselin attorney, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.
No hearing dates have yet been set by the court in the matter.
David Johnson, the union’s director, said the employees had worked in publicly funded projects throughout the state over the past five years.
Under the law, Johnson said, construction workers on public projects must receive the prevailing wage as set by the New Jersey Department of Labor. The lawsuit contends that Andre Construction and its owner failed to pay his workers the minimum wage, pocketing the money and thereby defrauding both the workers and taxpayers, since some projects have been publicly funded.
Andre said his company, which has been in business for 26 years, normally employs about 75 full-time workers.
Andre denied any wrongdoing on the part of his company in the matter.
“This is a group of workers being driven by a union,” Andre said. “This union has been trying to get into my company for a number of years and has been unsuccessful in doing so because my employees did not give in to them. This union is looking every way for something to upset my company.”
Johnson said that many of the 44 plaintiffs were undocumented, but are still entitled to fair wages under state law.
“Many of these guys [the plaintiffs] are not even in the country anymore,” Andre said. “Furthermore, we do 98 percent of our work in the private sector. We are actually subcontractors, doing masonry and concrete work at sites throughout the state.”
Andre said that some of the plaintiffs still work for him, and noted that he demanded documentation from employees whom he hires.
“We do not hire employees if they do not have photo identification and Social Security numbers,” Andre said. “We pay our income taxes. We do not pay a dime in cash. We pay everyone with checks. I can’t afford to take the risk. I have to pay the government its taxes.”
The lawsuit states that some of the workers were intimidated by their employer when they complained about inadequate wages, and that some of the plaintiffs had been dismissed after they complained.
“I don’t bother any of my workers as long as they do their work,” Andre said in response.
Johnson also charged that Andre’s company falsified reports to state labor officials concerning the amount of time they worked, indicating that the workers were receiving the correct wages.
Andre denied this allegation.
“We submit our weekly payroll to the general contractor for work we do,” Andre said. “The general contractor then turns this report over to the state.”
Hector Fuentes, a Hudson County resident who is the union’s lead organizer in a state campaign to organize workers so that they receive appropriate wages, said he believes all 44 of the plaintiffs are still in this country.
Fuentes said the immigrants, some of them he believed to be undocumented, come from a number of countries such as Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and Portugal.
“Even if they are undocumented, they are still entitled to fair wages under state law,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes said the plaintiffs were being paid between $10 and $16 per hour for work in publicly funded projects where the prevailing wage was $38 per hour.
The organizer said that, while some of the plaintiffs still work for Andre, four have allegedly been dismissed from their jobs because they complained about their wages.
He said that Andre is not unionized and that the 44 plaintiffs were not members of the union.
“After they were fired from the company, the union has tried to help them find other work,” Fuentes said.
Andre denied the allegations in the lawsuit and said his company will be vindicated when all of the facts come out.
“The union has been unsuccessful trying to disrupt my company in the past, and I believe will be unsuccessful in this latest attempt,” Andre said.