The interest group welcomes the commitments of housing developers in the field of employee protection

The program, called Building Dignity and Respect, aims to protect workers from wage theft and ensure safe workplaces.

Representatives from Hope Community and Alliance Housing say they will join the program developed in part by the Center of Workers United in Struggle, better known by its Spanish acronym CTUL.

CTUL Board Chairman Douglas Guerra says the program will improve the lives of non-union workers. He spoke in Spanish, while CTUL director Merle Payne translated into English.

“For years we have seen these abuses and through this program we are able to eliminate the abuses and change things.”

CTUL calls the initiative groundbreaking because it aims to hold local developers to a standard that promotes workers’ human rights. According to CTUL, when developers commit to signing up, they agree to use law-abiding contractors.

Signatories also agree to audits by the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council, a new independent monitoring group.

Will Delaney of Hope Communities says the organization uses union labor but wants to be part of the program.

“We felt it was important to still do research to make sure, so that we could get real certainty about that, and then to send a signal to the wider industry that this is not OK, because this is so widespread in residential construction.”

Workers like post-construction cleaner Daniel Sanchez spoke about their personal experiences with abuse. He filed a claim for more than $135,000 in unpaid wages. Payne translated again for Sanchez.

“We have experienced verbal abuse, psychological abuse and in some cases physical abuse. But through this program, through BDR, we have the opportunity to end these abuses and create a different reality for workers.”

Payne says CTUL learned of what appeared to be a threat and took action.

“So there was an employee who was owed wages, and when she asked for her wages, her employer sent her a photo of her pay stub and then a gun on the pay stub.”

He says that the labor organization has contacted the employer directly.

“You have just provided evidence of a threat if you do not pay the employee immediately, and if we hear any further appearance of a threat, we have a photo that we can hand over to the police, and you can be directly involved.”

The employer promptly paid the employee.

According to a CTUL survey, 48 percent of non-union construction workers in the Twin Cities experience wage theft. He also says that 57 percent of women working in the industry experience regular sexual harassment, according to a 2021 survey.

Thirty percent of respondents indicated that they felt unable to speak out about working conditions for fear of reprisals.

A 2023 report from North Star Policy Action, an independent research and communications institute, found that several private developers who received public money to build affordable housing had hired contractors “who have been accused of or face allegations of exploitation , according to interviews with workers and industry experts. .”

Guerra also called on private developers to sign up for the program. Payne translated for Guerra.

“We are hopeful that for-profit developers will join this program and make a real effort to create change. United Properties is one of them,” he said.

Guerra says through Payne that United Properties has met with CTUL once and they have agreed to another meeting.

“We are hopeful,” he said.