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Construction Workers Assaulted by Water Truck |
At first, the images seem like documentaries from the civil rights marches in the 1960s. But they’re not: The video clips filmed in June 2007 show construction workers peacefully protesting their working conditions—when suddenly they suddenly and repeatedly are assaulted with high-pressure water from a water truck.
The construction workers were protesting at a Pulte Homes construction site in Florence, Ariz., last month demanding that the giant homebuilder and its subcontractors pay decent wages and provide safe working conditions. (See video.)
Israel Hernandez, a painter who works on Pulte homes in the Phoenix area, says:
This wasn’t what we meant when we ask for drinking water on the job site. We spend 12 hours a day building homes for Pulte Homes. As soon as we want to talk about our rights, what we want, they treat us like this. We don’t believe it’s fair.
The workers held a press conference today at the state capitol in Phoenix to release a video of the incident and demand that Pulte treat its employees with respect. The video shows a Pulte representative obviously frustrated at workers demonstrating at the site. After he leaves, a water truck, normally used to dampen the desert dust at construction sites, arrives and repeatedly douses workers with high-pressure water.As soon as the truck passes, it goes into reverse to soak workers again with water, as they try to avoid the painful spray. Victor Trejo, one of the protestors, told Channel 12 News in Phoenix:
We had seen the water truck just come and go, and all of a sudden it just started spraying us. We also saw the Pulte supervisors making fun of us and laughing every time the truck would spray us with water.
Workers, with dripping clothes and soggy shoes, maintained their calm and continued their peaceful demonstration even as they counted up to 16 separate water assaults in one day.
Between 3,000 and 5,000 workers in Arizona and Nevada are employed by Pulte, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, or by its subcontractors. Pulte, which has been dubbed the “Wal-Mart” of home developers, has operations in 50 markets and had more than $14 billion in sales in 2005.
Last month, 30 construction workers from Arizona and Nevada and their supporters rallied outside the Pulte Homes annual shareholders’ meeting in Birmingham, Mich., to demand that the company set standards for its contractors.
As Rogelio Perez, a drywall worker from Phoenix, says:
This is heavy work, and they make us work long shifts every day. Normally, we work 50 hours a week, but one has to do it because the salary is so low. Even working this many hours, you just barely get what is necessary to support the family.
We believe it is time Pulte Homes is held accountable for the actions of its contractors.
The workers also have launched a new website, www.buildingjustice.org, which contains information on the workers’ struggle for justice from Pulte and its contractors. The Building Justice campaign is a partnership organizing campaign comprised of the Painters and Allied Trades and the Sheet Metal Workers with the support of the AFL-CIO.
6 Comments
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I wish I could have been there. I would have loved to fire a brick right thru that assholes windshield!!!
You can contact Pulte Homes on their website: http://www.pulte.com/contact_us.asp
Let them know how you feel!
“Workers, with dripping clothes and soggy shoes, maintained their calm and continued their peaceful demonstration even as they counted up to 16 separate water assaults in one day.”
I’m all for ‘peaceful’ demonstrations when it’s appropriate, but why allow a single driver with a single truck to assault workers in over a dozen attacks in a single day? I’m sick of seeing clips of protesters getting beaten up, why not clips of protesters fighting back and winning!?
Now ‘wobbly’s’ brick through the windshield might be something that’s a little difficult to play positively in the public dialogs but why not block the truck until the police come to arrest the driver? Nobody wants to be on a losing team and nobody wants to go back to the civil rights marches of the 60’s.
Think of the message this video sends… Join the union and you’ll be a victim. (A well publicized victim, but still a victim). People don’t want to join unions to keep being oppressed, people join unions to fight back!
You ask why those workers got hosed down and took it? I’ve got a pretty good guess, and at the very least I have the very reason that they are being victimised. They are either illegal immigrants or they are suffering poor treatment because of the influx of illegal immigrants into their particular job classifications. Lets see, so far we have a painter and a dry wall installer. Those used to be good union jobs, however they seem to have jumped into the jobs that Americans don’t want category. Its happening here in Ohio, I can only imagine how bad it is in Arizona. Sadly, the support that I thought I would receive from the democratic party and the labor movement on this issue has been exactly the opposite, which I can only guess is sad attempt by both organizations to appease the Hispanic population, which is arguably the fastest growing voting and potential memership block in the country. They only forgot one thing, They are going to lose myself and a whole lot like me in the process
Whats the matter? That was the second cooment that I have sent and you printed neither. Do your job, and support the working men and women of this country and you will receive nothing but praise from me. Until then I see you and the democratic party as betraying myself and every worker in this country.
I have to agree with the last two comments. American workers, especially union workers have no party to turn to. The democrats are too busy worrying about winning votes and staying in office to look out for those of us that have been their staple. If they would only wake up and realize they are eroding their base for people who probably won’t register or can’t vote. The Republicons on the other hand are worthless trash with no agenda for the working man and pandering to the corporatists. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul make the most sense to me.