Trouble brewing at the courthouse site

[thelakelander]

Feds: 100 workers at Duval courthouse site provide fake ID documents

More than a quarter of the workers at the new Duval County Courthouse construction site provided false identification documents to the city, authorities said.

Federal officials discovered about 100 fake documents after looking at the paperwork the city started collecting three weeks ago to crack down on arrests of undocumented workers.

The city was informed of the federal checks Monday , the same day four more undocumented workers were arrested near the construction site, according to immigration officials.

Nineteen illegal workers have been arrested in three incidents since September.

A top aide to Mayor John Peyton asked city attorneys Monday to determine whether the continued problems could be considered a breach of contract by Turner Construction, the contractor on the $350 million project, or any of the firms hired by Turner.

full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-11-09/story/feds_100_workers_at_duval_courthouse_site_provide_fake_id_documents

[ac]

I for one am shocked. Shocked! Who'd-a thunk something would be amiss regarding this courthouse project?

[Johnny]

more than a quarter of the workers??? That's a bit extreme... I can accept a handful slipping through, but 100?? i love taxes!! 

[mtraininjax]

Another failure of the Peyton Administration in managing the workers on the site. You'd think that after all these failures, one after the other, they would have competent people working in the City.

Then again, this is the Peyton Administration, beget by scandal after scandal.

[sheclown]

So many of our local people are without jobs and begging to get any sort of work they can.  People don't want a handout, they want JOBS. 

City of Jacksonville, take care of your own.

[heights unknown]

Please don't take this as me being prejuidiced or racist, but don't tell me, but I'll bet most of the workers are foreign or mexican; and we know that they will work for less than the American workers.  I don't have a problem with American companies doing this (except it's taking away jobs from Americans), but at least do a background check, etc. to ensure that these workers are legit and legal and not illegal refugees from other countries.  Kind of pisses me off a bit when I know that Americans are being refused jobs by American Companies over foreigners, and then the foreigners are found to be illegal aliens or immigrants and shouldn't be in this country.

Heights Unknown

[sandyshoes]

You know the Mayor's trying to save a buck here and there, since the City doesn't have any more money...call it "International Economics" 

[Overstreet]

The city really doesn't have a dog in this hunt. It is the contractors that hire the workers.

The prospective workers give you the green card, ssan, and driver's license. It meets the requirements and seems legal. Then the feds come in and check ssan against the data base and find out Juan Valdez has Mary Smith's ssan. They get arrested for using Mary's ssan and you get a black eye.  You can check that but it is above and beyond the current requirements.

The myth that foreign workers will work for less money is not always valid, especially in heavy commercial construction. The key though is that they will work. The work is often hard and uncomfortable but better than what they have back home. They often are "travelers" and will want all the hours they can get and are willing to work 7 days a week from sun to sun. Families are back home and they are just working and sending the money back. 

They are not stupid either. They get into "crews" and go for the best wages they can get in that market. The crew is usually led by the English speaker who drives.  Besides commercial construction wages are above minimum wage.

Then again many are not as skilled as they profess, but that is true all around.

They come from all over. I've had workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, Croatia, Canada and Ireland.

[RiversideLoki]

This is not surprising, but disappointing.

Let me be the first to say:

DEY TUK ER JERBS!

But I do echo what Overstreet said when he said this:

The myth that foreign workers will work for less money is not always valid, especially in heavy commercial construction. The key though is that they will work. The work is often hard and uncomfortable but better than what they have back home. They often are "travelers" and will want all the hours they can get and are willing to work 7 days a week from sun to sun. Families are back home and they are just working and sending the money back.

That's the truth.

[tufsu1]

Another failure of the Peyton Administration in managing the workers on the site. You'd think that after all these failures, one after the other, they would have competent people working in the City.

Then again, this is the Peyton Administration, beget by scandal after scandal.

so wait...everyone gets upset when the project costs too much....but illegal workers are just about always cheaper labor....makes you wonder where our values/priorities are.

[JeffreyS]

As a business owner I can see the temptation to use workers who may be less expensive if not for lower wages certainly other associated costs of having an employee are less.  I would think it would be obvious to all how this hurts our country.

I can see the temptation of having people willing to work 7 days a week sun to sun. That is certainly not what we want for our work force either. We as a country seem to have chosen 40 hours a week as standard. I do not want to see that become we are willing to toil every waking hour away just to compete for local jobs with those less fortunate in the world.

There are good workers here in America. I do not like the attitude that we have no work ethic if we have any pride or want of some free time.

Migrant workers are a good part of our economy but we as business owners have to keep it legal. illegal workers are a drain on our communities mostly because their illegal status prevents much of their ability to positively contribute.

Maybe if we had a tax system that did not require status, accountants, lawyers and S.S.#s to pay(V.A.T or preferably the Fair Tax based on consumption) we could have a more harmonious mix.

[mtraininjax]

The city really doesn't have a dog in this hunt. It is the contractors that hire the workers.

That is complete and utter hogwash. When the City was overbilled and had a contractor not fulfill the work at the Ed Ball building, it was the City and their project team overseeing the work. Same here, the City has a project manager overseeing the work. Every BJP project has one.

Having a few City contracts in my time, the pre-bid meetings restrict using illegal aliens on City projects. They are there in black and white, and its the city who is responsible for checking up with the contractor to make sure that the people working on the job have the proper documentation.

You can't let the City project manager off the hook for this, 100 jobs for aliens because they could not find anyone else in Jax who was willing to take a job? Min wage at least is close to 7.50 an hour, but LAW they have to pay them at least that much. Turner and the City should get 2 black eyes for this.

[heights unknown]

Yeah but that temptation (to use cheaper workers for your labor to save money) is invalid, unjust, and counter productive for our nation as a whole (in may different ways in which I will not list).

Despite the fact that these workers may not be working for less as it may appear, they are in fact working for lower wages, and, the Employers are more willing to hire them than the normal everyday, also "HARDWORKING" American.  I still say give Americans the chance on these jobs despite the $15 an hour versus $9 an hour you may pay the foreigner.  If you do the right thing good will come back to you.  I am not saying that hiring a foreigner for less is wrong, and I am not saying do not hire foreigners, but it appears that most employers are hiring foreigners over Americans which in my mind and opinion you're also, in essence stealing and/or snuffing out your American Brother or Sister.

Heights Unknown

[civil42806]

I worked with a guy whose father owned a potato farm in spuds.  He was going on and on about how hard the illegals worked and how they never complained. I stated of course they do, what would your father do if they complained and didn't slave away.  The answer of course is thier a** would be kicked off the farm or turned into INS.  Illegals are a great way of getting cheap easily abused labor.

[jandar]

Please don't take this as me being prejuidiced or racist, but don't tell me, but I'll bet most of the workers are foreign or mexican; and we know that they will work for less than the American workers.  I don't have a problem with American companies doing this (except it's taking away jobs from Americans), but at least do a background check, etc. to ensure that these workers are legit and legal and not illegal refugees from other countries.  Kind of pisses me off a bit when I know that Americans are being refused jobs by American Companies over foreigners, and then the foreigners are found to be illegal aliens or immigrants and shouldn't be in this country.

Heights Unknown

When you talk to legal immigrants, they usually get pissed about this as well.
Too many illegals using the systems to their advantage. Even the legal immigrants are having problems finding jobs.