Laborers Condemn Use of Shady Demo Firm

Hundreds of union laborers rallied Thursday in the Flatiron District to protest a luxury residential developer's use of a notorious demolition firm. Laborers' Local 79 and Local 78 workers gathered near Madison Square Park facing the boutique building owned by Rockrose Development to denounce the firm's use of Alba Services on a redevelopment project at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Following the rally, a number of protesting members were arrested for an act of civil disobedience, sitting down on the roadway to bring attention to the workers' plight.

Alba, a non-union demolition and asbestos abatement company long censured by laborers locals, has been accused of mistreating workers, many of them immigrants, by withholding pay, depriving them of care following injuries, not paying them overtime and fighting them on workers' compensation claims. Alba bosses have also been accused of covering up on-the-job injuries, misclassifying workers and of intimidating current and former workers who file workers' comp claims. Alba, its principal and its associated companies have also been sued by the New York State Insurance Fund for failing to pay workers compensation premiums.

A laborer named Tanya, who said she worked for Alba for a year and half, said she felt exploited and abused every day she was on the job. "For that, today I say enough," Tanya, who did not give her last name, said in Spanish at the rally. "I'm here because I want everybody to fight for the workers. I'm not afraid anymore to defend my rights. And we won't allow ourselves to be exploited anymore." Read more in The Chief-Leader and listen to an interview with Local 79 Director of Organizing Oona Adams on WBAI here.