Boise, Idaho-based Building Materials Holding Corporation (BMHC) must pay a total of $242,301 to cover claims by 85 workers in California, Nevada and Arizona as a result of a federal class-action lawsuit brought against a subsidiary of the construction firm for failure to pay for overtime hours.
"We showed the company that we could do it," said Pablo Nuñez Castillo, an immigrant from the state of Michoacan in Mexico who now lives in the Los Angeles area. "This shows that there is occupational justice when you seek legal help."
Nuñez said he urges construction workers everywhere to gather up their courage and demand fair pay from employers.
"I ask my co-workers to never remain silent," he said, "to seek help, to go to the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), for example, who supported us with the lawyers who took our case. And we did it — we won!"
Nuñez said that he started working for the BMHC in Southern California in 2003, and in all that time he and his co-workers were never paid for overtime hours they worked.
"I was getting paid $19 an hour, but when we worked overtime, they were 9- or 10 hour days, plus Saturdays — and they never paid us for that, only the normal salary for 40 hours per week," he said. "When someone would demand payment, they would just tell us that's how things are, if you want to work — if not, well then you can go. You put up with it because you need the work, because you have so many things to pay at home for the family, and the children."
Nuñez said that he worked on a very big housing project for BMHC in the wealthy Corona del Mar area of Orange County a little more than a year ago. He said the company fired him in order to hire other people who would work for less.
"In order to be able to finish according to what was established, what the company did was to cut personnel, and that was when they fired me so they could hire new people paying them $9 or $10 an hour," he said.
Nuñez said that the challenges he has had to face in order to get win his case against the company have been many and very hard, causing instability in his marriage and family, which includes two children, ages nine and seven.
"Look, I had my house and I was paying for it without any problems while I was working," he said. "But I lost it in May of last year, seven months after they took my job away. I couldn't find any work, so I couldn't keep paying [the mortgage]. Then I lost my van that I worked with for the same reason."
That has led to some basic changes, including a move to a small apartment.
"This work problem affected me and my family in many ways, emotionally, in not having anything to eat, in not having money for anything," he said. "We had to go out and ask for help at the churches, that's how we were, everything has been very difficult, and thank God we were able to win the lawsuit."
Nuñez said that he hopes his children were not aware of the extent of the family's difficulties during the worst of times.
"Fortunately, my children thought we were going for a stroll visiting churches when in reality we were looking for financial help to be able to eat,' he recalled. "But God never abandoned me, because to pay the rent I always found someone who could use me for a day or two days of work."
Nuñez also asserted that the daily uncertainty put his nerves were on edge.
"I've got it under control now, but it affected me psychologically — my eyelids flickered, I had a nervous tic, I was tense," he said. "Now I'm more relaxed, calmer. because the people I have talked with have helped me more."
Nuñez said that he is still looking for work and he is confident he will find an opportunity with another company in the Los Angeles area or in San Diego. He said that he expects to receive approximately $5,000 from the legal settlement, and hopes the money will help him go on with his life and provide greater stability for his family.
"I'm afraid that the lawsuit might make it more difficult for me to find work, but these are the workers' rights," he said. "We aren't asking for more than the money that we deserve legally — they got rich because of us."
Jose Ivan Carpio, an immigrant from the state of Guerrero in Mexico, said that he was working for BHMC when he decided to join the class action lawsuit so he could get paid for the overtime hours he worked. He said the company fired him shortly thereafter, in 2008.
"I think it was in revenge," Carpio said, adding that company representatives would post photos of workers who had complained about pay or joined the lawsuit in the bosses' offices so they wouldn't be hired again.
David Zacarias, who serves as director of LIUNA, said that the recent win against BMHC and its SelectBuild subsidiary sends a strong message to all the construction companies to stop abusing their employees.
"Companies should change their unlawful practices," Zacarias said. "For many years, workers didn't complain because the country's economy was fine and they had a lot of work, but when the crisis hit and housing construction started to slow down, that's when the robberies and abuses against workers started."
Zacarias also said that the courtroom victory has given a spur to attempts to organize workers of the company.
"The workers at that company are trying to organize to form a union," he added. "The abuses continue, the company doesn't want to give them benefits like vacation time, sick days. They don't have coverage against workplace accidents either, or safety measures that comply with the law, like hard hats and belts because they only try to cut costs."
Zacarias said LIUNA representatives are currently informing the workers of their rights so they will not let themselves be intimidated and they can use the law to defend themselves.
Miriam Reyes is a writer for Impulso.
Photos by Impulso
Read more stories from Impulso »
Leave a comment