NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 17, 2020 | PAGE 7
JOBS
Tilesetting jobs were the one union sore spot on the Hyatt project
Bricklayers Local 1 warned
Mortenson that there’d be prob-
lems with non-union contractor
By Don McIntosh
The just-opened Hyatt Regency
Portland ended up being a
largely union project, but tile
was a notable exception. Lead-
ers of Bricklayers Local 1—
which represents tilesetters and
tile finishers—got nowhere try-
ing to warn developer Morten-
son and project sponsor Metro
that non-union Sustainable
Floors was going to have to
break the law in order to under-
bid union contractors as much
as they did.
When Local 1 Business
Manager Matt Eleazer and
Business Rep Matteo Russo Jr.
learned that none of the union’s
signatory tile contractors got
work on the massive project,
and that non-union Sustainable
Floors had put in the winning
bid, they met with Mortenson
operations director Mike Clif-
ford to warn there would be
problems.
According to a social equity
report produced by Mortenson,
Sustainable
was
paid
$1,618,642 to do the tile work
in bathrooms in all 600 hotel
In 600 rooms at the Hyatt Regency,
shower tiles were set by a non-union
company that violated prevailing
wage and other laws.
rooms as well as hotel public ar-
eas. Eleazer says that was far
below what union contractors
bid.
Because public subsidy paid
part of the project costs, all bid-
ders for each specialty would be
required to pay the same pre-
vailing wage.
“On a prevailing wage job,
we should be playing in the
same ball park,” Russo says.
“There should be no $100,000
discrepancies.”
Clifford told the Labor Press
by phone Jan. 13 that Sustain-
able got the job because it was
the low bidder, and because no
bids were received from quali-
fied union tile firms that were
certified as minority- or
women-owned, which was a
very important factor for both
Mortenson and Metro.
Based in Fife, Washington,
Sustainable Floors is certified
as a woman- or minority-owned
firm.
“Metro made it clear that
their number one factor was our
ability to achieve the social eq-
uity goals, so we set out to do
that,” Clifford said.
Eleazer and Russo predicted
to Mortenson and Metro that
Sustainable wouldn’t perform
the work with its own employ-
ees, and argued that the com-
pany would be better defined as
a broker, subcontracting to mul-
tiple firms.
After tile work got under
way around November 2018,
that proved to be the case. Local
1 identified tile employees on
the job who were employed by
at least six other companies.
The union also learned of mul-
tiple violations of prevailing
wage and other public construc-
tion laws, and shared its find-
ings with the Oregon Bureau of
Labor and Industries (BOLI),
the agency responsible for en-
forcing those laws.
BOLI assigned several in-
vestigators, who found dozens
of violations. Sustainable itself
was found responsible for 14
separate violations. Among
them: It didn’t have a public
works bond or require its sub-
contractors to have one; it failed
to pay prevailing wage or over-
time in some cases; or keep
records of hours worked.
On behalf of two workers
who suffered wage theft on the
project, BOLI collected
$20,840 in unpaid wages and
damages.
BOLI also found that at least
three of Sustainable’s subcon-
tractors each violated the law
four to six different ways.
It wasn’t just the laws that
were broken: Sustainable also
skirted Metro’s goal of appren-
tice opportunities, Eleazer says.
As part of its agreement with
Metro, which oversaw at least
$74 million of public subsidy
for the project, Mortenson had
agreed that it would aim for
20% of the work to be done by
apprentices. But neither Sus-
tainable nor any of the subcon-
tractors Local 1 was able to
identify were even enrolled in
any state-registered apprentice-
ship program for tilesetters.
“If on Day One they’re not a
IN MEMORIAM
Robert Blanche 1962-2020
Robert Blanche, former presi- TRA from 2017 to 2019.
dent of the Portland local of
In 2011, he was diagnosed
SAG-AFTRA, died Jan. 3 af- with hypersensitivity pneu-
ter a long battle with a lung ail- monitis, an inflammation in
ment.
the lungs that led to pulmonary
Best known as Sgt.
fibrosis. He received a
Franco on NBC's
double lung transplant
Grimm, Blanche ap-
in August 2018, but
peared in over 80 tele-
struggled to recover.
vision and film pro-
Over the past year,
ductions, including
local union members
Men of Honor (2000),
and supporters raised
Rose Red (2002) and
about $45,000 to help
World Trade Center
Blanche and his fam-
(2006), and two
ily cope with medical
episodes of Portlandia. Robert Blanche expenses and the loss
Blanche also played officer of income from being unable
Patrick Bonanno in the TNT to work.
show Leverage.
Blanche is survived by his
Blanche joined the Screen wife June Eisler ,and five chil-
Actors Guild in 1995 and dren.
served as the president of its
The union will honor
Portland branch prior to SAG’s Blanche’s memory at an Jan.
2012 merger with AFTRA, and 19 viewing party for the tele-
on several committees of the vised annual SAG-AFTRA
national union. He later served awards at Lake Theater in
as local president of SAG-AF- Lake Oswego.
Raymond Thomas
James Coon
Cynthia Newton
Chris Frost
Sydney Montanaro
Scott Sell
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820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200,
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Chris Thomas
www.tcnf.legal
registered training agent, how
were they even allowed to bid
this job?” Eleazer said.
Local 1, meanwhile, had
roughly two dozen tilesetter ap-
prentices that could have
worked on the job.
All of these concerns Eleazer
laid out in a March 1, 2019 let-
ter to Metro Chair Lynn Peter-
son.
“It is our experience that bro-
kers like Sustainable Floors
count on a lack of compliance
enforcement, and that is why
their bid tends to be much lower
than a true subcontractor,”
Eleazer wrote to Peterson.
The letter was followed by a
March 20 meeting with Metro’s
General Manager of Visitor
Venues and a Metro attorney.
Nothing came of it, Eleazer
said: “They basically said,
‘sorry for your loss,’” Eleazer
recalls.
Eleazer and Russo said they
thought BOLI did a great job on
the investigation, but it came
too late and was after the fact.
Union firms lose out on bids
fair and square all the time, and
take it in stride, Eleazer said.
What bothers him in this case is
the sense that the non-union
competition won the work by
not playing by the rules.