Sunday, April 14, 2013

NPR story on Texas construction industry highlights GOP hypocrisy, harm

 JerryNA | dailykos.com
11 April 2013

A two part news series on NPR by Wade Goodwyn displayed the Texas construction industry as harmful to itself and its workers.  Worker injury and death is much higher than the national average and twice California's average.  People are treated as disposable, with no repercussions.

Construction booming in Texas but many workers pay dearly.
Texas contractors say playing by the rules doesn't pay.

(One quibble- what they call "playing by the rules" I call "following the law".)

The reporter completely missed two natural followups: 1. How the GOP plays a part in this massive illegal tax evasion and exploitation of undocumented workers by an entire industry.  Texas government (i.e. Texas GOP) prides and promotes itself on how "business-friendly" it is, and how few regulations an industry has to follow.  Tax evasion and illegal employment (and exploitation) of undocumented workers cannot take place on an industry-wide scale without collusion by the state regulatory agencies.

The NPR reporter quoted or played recordings of construction company owners saying that for 15 or more years they have been hiring workers as "contractors" instead of employees in order to pay wages below industry norm, even below living wages, and as a way to evade paying Social Security and workers compensation insurance.  One owner said he did not believe his contractors paid taxes, and did not think more than a fraction were in the country legally.  No wonder he did not want his last name quoted- he was admitting on the radio to several felonies. (Want to bet how he votes? There is a better than 57% chance it is for the GOP. This is Texas, though, so in some counties it's much much higher.)

Texas is a "right to work" state, so the laws are deliberately lax, but it's even worse for 'contractors' than for employees.  The reporter touched on but did not elaborate on the fact that these 'contractors' got no other benefits as well- no overtime, no health insurance, no sick leave, no vacation time, no freaking nothing except for the right to be worked to death for subsistence wages, all so Texans can buy cheaper houses.

Furthermore, the GOP both promotes and benefits from this illegal activity.  The GOP blocks minimum wage increases.  The GOP blocks a path to citizenship- a path to paying taxes for both employees and employers.  The GOP keeps these workers "illegal" so the workers are afraid to make legal complaints about being exploited, and their families cannot take legal action for the people killed.  The GOP underfunds or actively cuts state and federal regulatory agencies, stopping from having the resources to raid businesses which break the law.  The GOP promotes and exploits the fear of undocumented workers, but their campaign contributors and voters actively exploit those same workers.  There is a lack of empathy in all of this exploitation which seems inhuman to me.

READ IT ALL:

No comments: