Vermont Construction Company Vows to Improve Worker Conditions

Tuesday’s press conference Credit: Anne Wallace Allen ©️ Seven Days

Vermont Construction Company, the Colchester contractor that came under fire last month for housing migrant workers in crowded, unfinished industrial spaces, has signed an agreement with a Minnesota nonprofit to set standards for its business practices and worker housing. Company cofounder David Richards joined Burlington-based advocacy group Migrant Justice and a couple dozen of its supporters at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the new arrangement.

The fast-growing construction company’s image took a hit after it was fined by the state Division of Fire Safety for operating unsafe dormitory-style housing in commercial buildings at Fort Ethan Allen. Tuesday’s media event was designed to show the ways that Migrant Justice and Vermont Construction, with help from the Minnesota nonprofit’s Building Dignity & Respect Program, would work to prevent that from happening again.

Richards said his company will support efforts to establish a third-party auditor who will review the pay, living conditions and housing provided by Vermont Construction’s subcontractors. He added that the partnership will help alleviate a worker shortage by attracting more construction workers to Vermont.

“We do not have enough houses. We do not have enough workers,” Richards said at the press conference. “This partnership with Building With Dignity will help attract the very people who will be building houses in Vermont.”

Migrant Justice was founded in 2009 to fight for the rights of migrant farmworkers. But the group has recently expanded its work to the construction industry. Building Dignity, meanwhile, monitors human rights in the Twin Cities construction industry and works with building contractors to improve workplace safety and to give workers a voice.

Will Lambek, a spokesperson for Migrant Justice, said his group has had a long relationship with the Minnesota nonprofit, which plans to open an office in Vermont in the next few months.

Migrant Justice hasn’t gone into details about the standards it’s planning for construction worker housing. In its farmworker housing program, the group has pressed for working smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, dedicated bedrooms with doors, structural integrity in the buildings, mold remediation, and proper heating.

“Construction workers will evaluate the needs for housing in the construction industry, based on workers’ experiences and what they define as dignified housing,” Lambek said in an interview. “It’s somewhat of an open question now.”

Vermont Construction was fined twice last year for building safety violations after the Town of Colchester received anonymous tips about migrant laborers housed in makeshift dormitories. The town ordered the company to evacuate two buildings, one with 57 beds and one with 19, planning and zoning director Cathyann LaRose said on Tuesday.

At Tuesday’s event, Richards, several Latino workers, Lambek and Doug Mork, executive director of Building Dignity & Respect, signed an oversize contract for the cameras as a symbol of the construction company’s commitment to the labor and housing standards program.

“We call on other construction companies to follow the bold example set by Vermont Construction Company,” said Marita Canedo, program coordinator for Migrant Justice’s Milk With Dignity Program, which aims to improve working conditions on dairy farms.

Mork said his program is built to protect workers against wage theft, physical and sexual abuse, and labor trafficking. Through the program, builders agree to require their subcontractors to abide by the program’s code of conduct. The program is the group’s first outside of Minnesota, Mork said, and he hopes to extend it to other Vermont construction companies in coming months.

Mork said the program will empower workers through education and will investigate complaints about working conditions.