Lucy Gellman Photos
The scene at Crown & High.
Fat Cat and Greedy Pig spent their lunch hour on one of downtown’s fastest-changing blocks to make a point about who’s benefiting from New Haven’s construction boom.
The inflatable ten-foot-tall protest critters showed up at the corner of Crown and High Streets Tuesday with eight members of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC). Their goal: To draw attention to a state Labor Department stop work order issued this week to Hurricane Construction. The East Haven company was cited for failure to secure proper worker’s compensation and misrepresenting employees as independent contractors.
That order shut down work on 280 Crown Street, a parking garage set to become studio apartments. It is one of a slew of development projects converting a once-rundown block into an upscale block of new market-rate apartments and stores. And it prompted Tuesday’s protest.
Scruffy the Rat has been a favorite prop at these labor protests events. But it turns out that a real-life rat left the Scruffy riddled with holes. So the inflatable understudies crawled into action, and helped make the organizers’ point.
NERCC members spent the lunch hour speaking to passersby about Hurricane’s alleged process of misrepresenting employees as 1099 independent contractors, a process used to cut labor costs. Handing out fliers titled “Shame on Hurricane Construction/For Desecrating the American Way of Life,” NERCC researcher Danny Ravizza of New Haven expressed concern in the practices, which he said have become more common in the city as construction has boomed.
“It’s particularly concerning to me as a taxpayer and a resident, because you get hit on both sides,” he said. “You get hit on the economic recovery with the workers, and you get hit on the taxpayer side because when folks are misclassified as 1099 independent contractors, even though they’re being told how to work, when to work, where to work, and being told to follow all the rules of an employer, they’re not paying payroll taxes.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but our state is kind of in a budget crunch right now. So it’s incredibly concerning. To see these towers go up, to see these residential towers go up and all of ths construction happening downtown and throughout New Haven, you want that prosperity to be shared. For folks in my generation, this is sort of taken as a standard business practice. If there’s this much going on, we deserve to have it be done by responsible contractors.”
The contractor declined to respond to a request for comment. Robert Smith of Metro Star, the developer who hired Hurricane, said his company is reviewing Hurricane’s records and has so far found all to be legit.
Eye-Catching Cat
Martino.
Construction worker Chris Martino, who has been doing subcontracted work with Hurricane for eight years through his company Angel Remodeling, was driving down Crown Street to get lunch when he saw the sun-soaked inflatable duo on the corner, bobbing slightly in the wind. He stopped his car and looked around.
“This is bullshit,” he declared of the protest, casting an angry glance at the farm animals towering above him. “Dude, this shit is wrong.”
Not so, insisted NERCC rep David Jarvis. Taking Martino aside, he said that the East Haven-based LLC is a repeat offender cited by the Labor Department, which has issued 17 stop work orders altogether downtown and around New Haven in the past two years.
“Once, it’s a mistake,” he said. “More than once, and it’s not a mistake anymore.” He encouraged Martino to look over the stop work order, a laminated red sheet tacked to the side of 280 Crown. Martino shook his head angrily and took cell phone pictures of it as the two spoke.
“I’m really just wondering what’s going on,” he told the Independent after their exchange. “How we’re going to fix it if there is something wrong. That’s really what it is. We’ve got a lot of people that — they’re good workers, we try to put ‘em to work … you obviously want to do it the right way, legally. So — our guys are good, they’re professional, but you’ve gotta have things the right way. I don’t know Chuckie [Coyle, owner of Hurricane Construction] to be the type of person to slight anybody or try to get it over on anybody, but that’s what they’re [NERCC] saying.”
Armino.
Construction laborer Mike Armino, who was doing work downtown for Babbidge Construction, stopped to read a flyer and chat with NERCC members Tim Sullivan and Dean Pallotti, standing with literature at the corner.
“I couldn’t miss this,” he said, motioning to both NERCC members and the cat and pig. “I had to see what was going on. Being in this business, it’s interesting to me to know what’s going on out here. There’s probably a lot of information that I can get out of this that doesn’t happen to me, things that don’t occur in my company.”
Behind him, a driver honked twice in solidarity, two quick, joyous beeps flying from the car. “Go get ‘em!” he yelled out his window.
Greedy Pig Attracts Questions
Most passersby walked quickly past the demonstration, some pausing to take a flyer while others crossed the street or snapped quick iPhone photos. A few out for lunch or a midday walk asked about the odd couple parked at the corner, their motors whirring away as they swayed above street level.
“Do they [Hurricane] harass their workers?” one woman (who asked not to be named) asked Ravizza.
“They misclassify their employees,” Ravizza said.. “What they say is: ‘I’m going to pay you as a 1099.’”
A few feet away from them, Fat Cat seemed to squeeze the inflatable construction worker in his paw a little tighter. Ravizza motioned to the stop work order as he spoke.
“I mean, do they get away with this all the time?” she asked. “I feel like if it’s this easy to get it stopped, do people think they can get away with this?”
Ravizza nodded. “It’s incredibly prevalent,” he said.
Charles.
Lifelong New Havener Timothy Charles, an employee of Adkins Bee Removal who stopped by close to the end of the hour-long demonstration, didn’t need to be reminded of that. “Shit,” he said reading the flyer that Sullivan handed him. “I’ve been watching them [laborers] work their asses off. That’s insane.”
On Tuesday evening, MetroStar Founder Robert Smith responded with this statement:
“We require contractors working for us to provide insurance based on industry and government standards. Insurance policies and endorsements are checked every month prior to payment. We have reviewed in detail Hurricane’s insurance policies and found nothing incorrect or underinsured.
“Additionally, we mandate all contractor’s employees to be paid through payroll (not as subcontractors) and we monitor pay rates as compared to industry standards. Hurricane has provided all payroll records to the authorities and are waiting for the review to be completed. Hurricane expects all to be in order.
“We do appreciate the authority’s hard work and diligence regarding these matters. We apologize for any disturbance for pedestrians walking Crown or High street today and we look forward to completing our project in the great City of New Haven.”
Chuck Coyle of Hurricane Construction did not respond to requests for comment.
Not saying there's no illegality but It seems unusual for a developer for a project of this size to mandate direct employment of all trades as opposed to allowing subcontracting. I wonder why?