Building Trades is always fighting for you

By Kevin Ferreira
Executive Director, Sacramento-Sierra’s BCTC

Happy Labor Day to our Building Trades family and all of our sisters and brothers in the Labor Movement.

I am happy to report that the Building Trades is having a stellar year, marked by an abundance of work, more in the pipeline and a Council that is busy fighting for our future.

From Project Labor Agreements to the new and powerful Workers’ Protection Unit at the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, the SSBCTC is always fighting to secure good jobs, protect our wages and make sure our worksites are safe and fair. We are committed not just to protecting our members today, but to battling for a strong tomorrow.

One of the best examples of this is the Workers’ Protection Unit, which is a wage theft task force that was created this summer through collaborative efforts with Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho.

We all know that wage theft happens in this industry, and it’s one of the most egregious wrongs bad bosses try to foist on us. But it doesn’t just hurt workers. It’s tax fraud because the state is robbed of its revenue on those unpaid wages, and that hurts us all. The California Department of Labor Standards Enforcement estimates that misclassification of workers, just one kind of wage fraud, costs taxpayers more than $7 billion a year. When employers cheat on wages, they’re shortchanging all workers by cheating their way out of paying into benefits such as Social Security, unemployment insurance and workers compensation.

This new Workers’ Protection Unit will investigate bad bosses and more importantly, hold them accountable. Already, the first case was presented by Carpenters Local 46 about one local contractor who failed to properly pay his employees. In May, Ho filed felony charges against Rocklin-based Proframe. The charges alleged that the company underpaid workers on a public works project.

This is just another example of how our Council and our unions are constantly working to protect our members, and all workers, regardless of whether they are in a union or not.

With so much work right now, it’s easy to lose track of what our Council fights for and what our unions do. This Labor Day, I hope you’ll take a moment to consider how important our unions are in our lives, and in our families’ lives.

It’s through our unions, and this Council, that we have the power to fight for good jobs and fair wages. It’s an honorable fight, and one I am proud to be a part of. Happy Labor Day.