Shareholders, Workers and Homeowners Protest Sour Pulte Practices

Robert Masciola, deputy director of the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, describes this week’s Pulte shareholder meeting in the Detroit area. 

Some 100 activists gathered on May 15 in Birmingham, Mich., at the annual shareholder meeting of Pulte Homes, with a straightforward message: Pulte must be held accountable for the conditions on its job sites!

Dissatisfied homeowners and workers were joined at the rally by supporters from the Detroit union movement, including many members of the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), along with members of the Detroit Metropolitan Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues and community supporters. Saundra Williams, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO, emceed the rally. 

Protestors dressed as giant lemons drew attention to complaints of poor quality in homes built by Pulte, the third largest home builder in the United States. Banners waved with the message Poorly Built by Pulte, in connection with a recent report by the Building Justice Campaign that documented construction defects in Pulte and Del Webb homes throughout the Phoenix Valley.

Gilberto Lopez, a sheet metal worker from Phoenix, pointedly asked senior executives and board members how they would better monitor subcontractors on Pulte job sites. As Lopez said:

In my opinion, some of the contractors hired to help build houses for your company do not meet the standards they should. When this happens, workers cannot do a proper job.

The Pulte board and executives also heard from Vanessa Trujillo, a painter from Las Vegas. Trujillo told the company that when it bought out Del Webb, many workers were forced to speed up production. As a result, she said:

We had to do twice as much work in the same amount of time.

Terry Templeton, a disgruntled homeowner from Arizona dressed as a giant lemon, stood before Pulte CEO Richard Dugas and asked him to describe the policies and procedures in place to remedy construction defects. Templeton referenced the Poorly Built by Pulte report, which she happily provided to the top executives of the company, and asked:

Would these conditions exist in a high-quality home?     

What a shame she didn’t get an answer.

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