Immigrant Union Members Claim Wage Discrimination at Protest in Edison 

Cara Marcano – Reporte Hispano

On Tuesday morning September 10, 2024, a half’dozen members of DC21 painters union – all immigrants – gathered in Edison, NJ in front of the headquarters of Zack Painting Company – a commercial and industrial painting contractor to PSE&G, the Freehold Mall, Johnson & Johnson, Rutgers and other large companies, government agencies and universities- to protest what they say is wage discrimination against them as union immigrant laborers. 

The immigrant union members were at the painting company’s headquarters to protest what they say is essentially theft of their union wages and negotiated pension by the DC21 and Zack Painting, a union contractor who they claim has not been paying all its union workers, especially its immigrant union workers, according to market-rate union contract-negotiated commercial and industrial painting wages. 

The workers were also protesting the fact that they do not receive pension benefits that painters working alongside them do receive and have been receiving from Zack Painting for nine years.  

The workers say they have repeatedly asked about their retirement funds, and although they are told again and again they have pensions, Zack painting is never able to produce the documents showing where those funds are deposited nor how much each of the workers has in his fund, said Alfredo Alvites, one of the workers protesting on Tuesday. Zack, a union contractor that wins many of contracts because it promises its clients it uses union labor, isn’t paying them the $43/hour negotiated by the union, nor the pension benefits also agreed upon, the workers say. 

Immigrant union workers for Zack also say they were treated like day laborers not union contractors, and didn’t know from one day to the next where would be assigned to work or if they would have work the following day on any given job, weren’t paid the union-negotiated $4 extra an hour for spray painting nor the 15% additional over negotiated pay overtime wages for being asked to work nights and overtime. It wasn’t until 2023 that the painters were given any paid vacation time despite having been employed at Zack since 2015, said Alvites, who was accompanied at the protest by Carlos Ayala, German Espichan, Hans Ortiz and Andrzej Pilinski, all immigrants.

“Our overtime is only paid after we have worked 40 hours in a week. The white non-immigrant workers we work next to are paid overtime if they work more than 8 hours on any given day,” Alvites said. 

In 2015, the workers claim Zack painting forced them to sign up for participating in an inferior immigrant union created by the company with union leadership to help Zack painting win contracts from large companies and government agencies that require contractors to use union labor. The protesting workers, all immigrants, claim they were told by Zack and the union that they could not continue working for Zack if they not sign the union contract, which was not explained to them and which offers no pension and rates of $20/hour closer to the market rate for residential painters vs the $43/hour or more other painters doing commercial and industrial union-contracted work are paid.

That union the 2015 agreement , which was called DC 711 was shuttered years ago and the company listed in that agreement was also closed in 2016, and the workers say they want to work on the same union contract as the non-immigrant laborers working next to them. 

“Our contract agreement that they say is still valid was between the 711 and Northeast Contracting Services and neither of these entities still exist. Both of these entities no longer exist.

MY W-2 says that my employer is Zack painting,” says Andrzej Pilinski.

The workers said they were also protesting discrimination by the labor union, despite having signed to be members of the union in 2015, all have been paid less than white, U.S.-born workers of the DC21 at Zack painting. The workers began paying the union 2.5% of their salary in 2015 and now pay 3% of their pay to be members of the union.

Many times Zack painting has sent them without adequate protective equipment and safety training to dangerous job sites exposing them to damaging chemicals such as lead, or to do work with high accident rates, Alvites said, such as painting on a bridge or other more risky painting jobs that usually command much higher hourly rates, often up to $70/hour in New Jersey, according to Bernie DC21 Business Manager and Secretary. 

Union leaders standing across the street from Zack painting on Tuesday, including  refused to identify themselves to Reporte Hispano or comment for this story and workers said the union told them not to protest. 

Pilinski and other protestors say union leadership tried to prohibit them from protesting on Tuesday and has worked to silence them and claims union leadership accepts free vehicles and other perks from Zack and accused the union of taking kickbacks on labor contracts without defending the negotiated rights of the workers.

The workers say the Unions and their leadership are too close to the employers like Zack Painting. 

“The Union’s workers were there at yesterday’s protest at the behest of Zack painting, telling us we cannot protest. They were trying to stop us with the protest because they knew that the media would come,” said Pilinski. “The contractors have to give things to the unions to get the contracts. This has been going on since the start of the Unions in the U.S.”

The Hispanic workers also said they were infected with Covid while working during the pandemic and did not receive workers comp nor pay for the work they missed as a result of acquiring the illness on the job and that Zack painting has received millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Loans that were never used to pay employees salaries as promised during the pandemic, a violation of the law and the forgiveness conditions of those loans, which were to only be converted to grants if the companies who received them could show they had made payroll payments with that money to employees.

Calls and emails from Reporte Hispano to Zack painting owner Michael Zack and his brother David Zack seeking comment about Tuesday’s labor protests have not been returned. An email sent to workers on Friday September 6 shares a letter from the Union and says: 

“Zack Painting Company makes it a priority to ensure that all of our field employees receive the compensation they are rightfully entitled to. I have attached a letter from DC21 Business Manager and Secretary Treasurer Bernie Snyder. Bernie reiterates Zack Painting’s good standing with District Council 21 and its members with regard to wages and benefits. If anyone ever has a question about this or any other topics regarding their employment, please feel free to contact me or David Zack directly. We are truly grateful for everyone’s hard work and commitment to safety, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.”

The letter attached to Zack’s email is  from union leader Snyder to employees at the protest Tuesday and was shared with Reporte Hispano. It says,

“Please be advised that Zack Painting is a signatory contractor in Good Standing with District Council 21. Zack Painting has always made it their priority to ensure our members have received the proper wages and benefits. Furthermore, they have historically made every effort to make benefit remittances to the union on the members behalf in a timely fashion. However, any discrepancies that have occurred from time to time have always been properly rectified through proper and professional communication between labor and management.” 

Respectfully, Bernie Snyder.  

Workers claim they have called the union three times since April to file formal complaints against Zack. Synder denies those claims and also seemed unclear about whether or not the union had received those phone calls, and said workers would be asked to come in to the Union Hall to file written complaints after phone calls were processed. The workers say that when they called the Union they were told their complaints were being processed. 

After beginning their complaints three or four months ago, the workers were no longer called to work. “We weren’t fired in theory” Alvites, said, but they no longer offer us work.”