MORE ON THE LABOR ABUSES (illegals) AT DRYWALL IMPRESSIONS – contractor/[alleged] “cocaine dealer”

[Omaha Steve]

http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/more-on-the-labor-abuses-at-drywall-impressions-manchester-new-hampshire-contractoralleged-cocaine-dealer-underpaid-his-misclassified-off-the-books-non-union-carpenters/

By PAT GROSSMITH
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Sunday, May. 24, 2009

An alleged drug dealer charged in the largest cocaine case in the state’s history was a drywall subcontractor on two Manchester construction projects that received federal funding.

And most of the employees Juan Garcia Hernandez supplied to those work sites — Stella Arms on Karatzas Avenue and the Family Willows on South Beech Street — were illegal immigrants from Mexico, according to carpenters union organizers.

Hernandez was a subcontractor on many commercial construction jobs across the state, as well as in Maine and Massachussetts. He paid his workers from $11 to $18 an hour, if he bothered to pay them at all, according to union representatives and wage-claim forms filed by former workers.

The owner of the company that built Stella Arms, a 66-unit apartment complex, expressed shock when informed that an accused cocaine trafficker was a subcontractor on his project.

“Are you kidding me?” said Richard Anagnost, owner of Anagnost Companies. “I didn’t even know he subcontracted (on the Stella Arms project).”

According to Liz Skidmore — an organizer with carpenters union Local 118, of Raymond and Manchester — Granite State Drywall of Manchester subcontracted the drywall work on Stella Arms to Drywall Impressions, also of Manchester. Granite State Drywall, Skidmore said, is owned by Bruno Grenier; Drywall Impressions is owned by Hernandez.

Grenier did not return calls for comment.

[Marksbrother]

1. What's the big deal here?

It's well known that only a very tiny fraction of one percent of the population has ever used cocaine or even seen it, so why get
so upset?