Safety problems, muck at O’Fallon Lakes apartment development

O’Fallon — It took a snowplow and an on-site state inspector to clear dangerous mud conditions on Veteran’s Memorial Parkway after the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDot) received reports of blatant disregard for road safety by mostly scab construction workers at the O’Fallon Lakes low-income housing development.

As the job was shut down, groups of imported Mexican workers made their way home in vans with black-tinted windows. The vans were required to wait at the gate because they were not allowed their usual access into the site.

Tom Heinsz, director of organizing for the Carpenters’ District Council of St. Louis, said the carpenters and other unions have long been fighting labor violations at the 262-unit apartment project site. Heinsz said Duo Mark, the Texas-based carpenter contractor for the job uses residents’ tax dollars to build the project, yet pays substandard wages and benefits.

Partner in the project is Gundaker Commercial Group. This is the second major non-union housing project in which Gundaker, one of the area's largest realtors and developers, has been involved. The previous effort was Peine Lake Estates apartment development in Wentzville. In that project, Gundaker officials initially denied any involvement except for managing the apartments once they were built. However, an investigation discovered they were a minority partner with another out-of-state scab builder. That firm went bankrupt and had to withdraw. Gundaker then had to call on local companies using union labor to salvage the project and get it finished. On that project, out-of-state immigrant scab workers were also bussed in to take work from local construction workers. When exposed, it caused the Gundaker Company a great deal of embarrassment.

But it appears, not too much embarrassment, because they are at it again.

The worksite is riddled with license plates from Texas, Oklahoma and other out-of-state locations.

“This situation with the mud shows the neglect of the contractor to keep the roads safe,” said Chuck Williamson, Carpenters’ business representative and organizer. “He was warned last week and didn’t do anything about it. That was just a few days before they shut him down — and they obviously ignored it. They’re not abiding by the safety issue rules that other contractors out here do. They think they can come in here and do anything they want.”

Heinsz said MoDot’s intervention was just another example of the poor work practices at the site that the contractor chooses simply to ignore.

John Scofield, a MoDot permits inspector, said he was sent to the scene about 7 a.m. Friday to shut down the job and ensure that only gravel trucks were allowed in to shore up muddy conditions. The job remained shut down until 8 a.m. Tuesday to allow the general contractor time to build adequate washing stations.

A MoDot snowplow was used to block entrance to the site and remained for several hours until muddy conditions were resolved.

Scotty Ward, senior traffic technician with MoDot said MoDot technically doesn’t shut the job down, they just “prohibit them from gaining access to the site.”

“This was about the sixth or seventh time we had calls about the site from people in the general public. We warned them on Wednesday and they continued to create a muddy road until Friday.”

 Ward said he has never gotten anyone to say they own the site, but NRP is the general contractor, and Gundaker is the owner of the site and managing the complex once it is complete.

“It makes it hard for us to do business when we don’t know who the owner is,” Ward said. “That’s why we have to flex our muscles. The general contractor says it’s not his fault, but everyone had been warned the entire week. When I’m called I have to react no matter what. It was a safety hazard, they had been warned about it on Wednesday and they continued it until Friday.”

Courtesy of the St. Louis Labor Tribune

Dated: January 19, 2006