Company building Bowdoin's new dorms accused of illegal labor practices

Members of the Bowdoin Labor Alliance (BLA) and the New England Regional Council of Carpenters (NERCC) gathered outside the construction site of new student dorms at Bowdoin College in Brunswick last Thursday to protest Timberland Drywall — a subcontractor for Wright-Ryan Construction working on the dorms — and its alleged misclassification of workers.

The protest at Bowdoin was the first of what will be 30 days of protesting against the company by members of the alliance and NERCC. Two Maine carpenters, Dan Ayotte and Don Desjardins, will stand out in front of the construction site all 30 days to hand out fliers to students and neighbors about the issue.

The NERCC, which is in contact with affected workers, filed a misclassification tip through the Maine Department of Labor website this May, according to a BLA press release. They say that Timberland Drywall has been misclassifying workers as ‘independent contractors,’ a classification used by employers to avoid providing benefits, like health insurance, and paying for work-related expenses. The workers, often unaware of their situation, become their own independent companies, responsible for paying their own taxes, providing for their own sick days, and buying their own equipment. An investigation into the tip against Timberland is ongoing.

John Leavitt, a regional manager for NERCC, described Timberland’s misclassification of workers as flagrant, with the company, for instance, hiring even the foreman for the Bowdoin project as an independent contractor.

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/company-building-bowdoins-new-dorms-accused-of-illegal-labor-practices/