11/27/17: Trump doubles down in his attack on the First Amendment.
Hoping to stir his base (to what? violence against reporters?), the president
channels his inner Robert Mugabe.
He tweets: “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks,
plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted
in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad.
Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”
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“We were frightened illegal immigrants and did not know enough about our rights.”
Wojciech Kozak
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IN OLD BUT STILL INTERESTING NEWS, The New York Times offers up the tale of yet another rich businessman who went about screwing his workers in an unwavering effort to fatten his bank account. First, he hired undocumented workers for a job that had to be done. He wanted to knock down an old building so he could put up a mixed-use 58-story skyscraper in downtown New York City.
Second, he conspired to pay those workers less than half what union workers would have demanded.
Third, the businessman required the undocumented to put in 12-hour shifts, but didn’t pay overtime.
Fourth, if those workers (in this case from Poland) complained
about working conditions or because their wages were late or sometimes not paid
at all they would be threatened with deportation.
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The Bonwit Teller building had to come down. |
How did this scam work? Recently, a judge unsealed records from a settlement, twenty years ago. According to that settlement the businessman was forced, after battling for years, to pay the undocumented workers what they said he owed. Including legal costs and interest the tab came to $1.375 million.
The businessman testified that he never visited the work site, where the Poles were demolishing the 12-story Bonwit Teller building. A foreman on the job, Zbignew Goryn, disagreed. The businessman, he said, did visit the site. He marveled about the Polish demolition crew. “He said, ‘Those Polish guys are good, hard workers,’” Goryn told the judge.
A smaller group of union workers, paid union rates, made fun of the Poles. Adam Mrowiec testified in court: “They told me and my friends that we are stupid Poles and we are working for such low money.”
“We worked in horrid, terrible conditions,” Wojciech Kozak remembered.
We were frightened illegal immigrants and did not know enough about
our rights….We were working 12, 16 hours a day and were paid $4 an hour.
Because I worked with an acetylene torch, I got $5 an hour. We worked without
masks. Nobody knew what asbestos was. I was an immigrant. I worked very hard.
Eventually, pay stopped coming. The Poles found a lawyer, John Szabo, to represent their cause. Szabo went to the businessman’s office. If something wasn’t done, he would place a mechanic’s lien on the property. If that happened the building could not be sold until the lien was settled.
A representative of the businessman began showing up to pay the Poles in cash. This insured there was no income-tax-social-security-tax-union-dues paper trail. Joseph Dabrowski testified that the businessman appeared on site and told workers, “If you finish this fast” then “I will pay for it.”
Szabo filed a lien. Daniel Sullivan, a labor consultant, said that the businessman came to him for help. He said he had “difficulties…that he had some illegal Polish employees.” The businessman had his lawyer call Szabo. They were going to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service and have his clients deported. Szabo refused to back down in court. Eventually, the businessman wilted and settled the case. The workers were paid 100% of what they had been demanding for fifteen years.
The new 58-story tower went up at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in downtown New York City.
Proud of his accomplishments, the businessman slapped big
gold letters on the side of his skyscraper: T-R-U-M-P.
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| Trump Tower, New York City. |
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