Protestors Demand to Know How Pulte Spent Bailout Funds
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Ben Horowitz, a researcher for Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, reports on a protest this morning demanding accountability from homebuilding giant PulteGroup.
PulteMortgage CEO Debra Still came face to face today with workers from the Building Justice campaign and their allies, demanding to know how her company is spending the public’s money.
Even though her company settled with Arizona’s attorney general over allegations of consumer fraud, Still spent the day in Washington, D.C. chairing a meeting on residential mortgaging with professionals from around the country. In the middle of the summit, several hundred community members and workers from the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) interrupted.
“Where is the money? Where are our jobs?” they chanted as they marched past stunned bankers to the podium.
Construction Workers Protest Pulte Homes’ Practices
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Construction workers joined with homeowners, religious allies and local union leaders in a two-day leafleting blitz to educate participants at the annual AARP convention in Orlando, about Pulte Homes’ profits-over-people home construction tactics.
Members of the Building Justice Campaign blanketed the Orange County Convention Center and 17 hotels hosting convention attendees with thousands of fliers outlining Pulte’s practice of hiring contractors who regularly disregard product quality and worker safety in favor of speedy construction. Building Justice is a collaboration of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and the AFL-CIO.
Get the Latest on Pulte Homes
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Keep up with the latest news about Pulte Homes, one of the nation’s largest home builders, on Building Justice’s updated website, http://poorlybuiltbypulte.info/. The site also enables homeowners to complete a survey about their experiences with Pulte.
Building Justice is a partnership of the Painters and Allied Trades union (IUPAT), the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), the AFL-CIO, Pulte homeowners, community members and elected officials to improve conditions at Pulte developments.
Workers in three Western states employed by contractors hired by Pulte report unpaid wages and overtime, pressure to work through break periods and pressure to bypass safety precautions. They report sexual harassment and discrimination on the job. Some workers also report that appropriate construction materials, safety equipment and potable drinking water are not available.
