Nicole Formisano at The Long Island Press reports a Bronx-based contractor has been charged with defrauding the Uniondale School District of millions of dollars.
Now, Long Island Labor Unions are pushing a new law to prevent future school district fraud. Outraged Union Leaders and Elected Officials have gathered in front of the School District Headquarters to sound the alarm about what they say is a pattern of local school districts awarding multi-million-dollar contracts to questionable contractors who break the law and pocket Long Island tax dollars despite refusing to hire Long Island Workers.
The Uniondale School District entrusted the bulk of $150 million in construction projects to Borough Construction Group, which provided the lowest bid, despite warnings that the company had a history of wage theft and labor violations, said Vinnie Alu of Laborers Local 66.
The warnings may have proved true. BWC Construction, a subcontractor hired by Borough, allegedly falsified payroll documents required to secure the Uniondale job and nearly $2 million in payments from the School District. BWC paid its Workers “poverty wages” and “pocket[ed] the difference,” Alu said, adding: “The contractors that built this island, built these public schools and done this public work for generations are no longer bidding on the work, because we can’t compete with the pirates!”
