 "Photo: Emily Morgan/The Quad News")
As summer ends and the students shuffle back to the Mount Carmel campus at Quinnipiac University, they can expect to be greeted by more than their new roommates and professors.
On the corner of Mount Carmel Avenue and New Road, across from the Albert Schweitzer Institute, union protesters have been setting up camp, handing out flyers about alleged illegal work being completed on the Quinnipiac campuses.
The unions claim some of the contractors hired by Quinnipiac University are misclassifying their employees as independent contractors, rather than full time employees, in order to avoid paying taxes and providing them with benefits.
Independent contractors are responsible for paying their own taxes and employers become free of this burden.
"We are informing the public about illegal construction contract practices and the lack of policy on [Quinnipiac] campus projects," Jeff Wolcheski, a business representative and organizer with the New England Regional Council of Carpenters said.
Sheet Metal Workers' Local Union 40 has also been protesting with flyers asking the public to call President John Lahey and tell him to have Quinnipiac adopt a "Responsible Contractor Language." The flyers explain that this requires the school construction projects are "built by contractors who pay area standard fair wages, health benefits and their fair share of taxes and insurance."
"It's almost like the Wild West out there," Wolcheski said about the contractors' misclassifying their workers and failing to follow policy.
Contractors hiring independent contractors can underbid their competitors because they don't have to compensate for paying taxes on their employees or offer them benefits such as healthcare.
Although it's the general contractors who hire their employees, Wolcheski said it should be Quinnipiac's responsibility to "weed out contractors not following the policies" set by the state.
However, Quinnipiac explains that they are not in charge of hiring subcontractors, independent or otherwise.
"The university has no involvement in hiring any of the subcontractors employed by its general contractors," John Morgan, associate vice president for public relations, said in a statement.
Protests began in early June, once enough evidence was collected for the union members to make their claims.
"We did ramp up our efforts last week with more public exposure to the students and parents coming," Wolcheski said.
According to the flyer handed out by the Connecticut Carpenters' Union, no workers have been asked, "to stop performing any services or to refuse to pick up, handle, or transport any goods."
However, a stop-work order was posted at the School of Nursing on North Haven campus. The Connecticut Department of Labor cited Solis Carpeting Installation for misclassification violations and workers compensations violations.
"We have identified a problem and we have a solution to that problem that we want to discuss," Wolcheski said.
The protesters plan to continue distributing flyers and protesting the work sites until Quinnipiac officials agree to sit down with them.
