Matt Bartolo of Local 165 explains why the union worked on behalf of nonunion workers Warren Little, left, and Juan Goode, right, in a dispute over payment for work for NMR Renovations of California at job site at former Sheraton Four Points hotel in Peoria.
Warren Little was a laborer working on the renovation of Sheraton Four Points hotel project in downtown Peoria for 10 weeks this past summer as an independent contractor. Little received his first paycheck five days before Christmas.
He expects to receive subsequent payments over the next six months under terms of an agreement reached with the assistance of Laborers Local 165 and the West Central Illinois Building & Construction Trades Council.
Even though Little and nearly two dozen other laborers on the site were nonunion, Local 165 intervened on their behalf in a dispute over pay.
Matt Bartolo, secretary/treasurer with Local 165 of the Laborers International Union of North America, said “It is not at all unusual that workers don’t get paid for the work they do.”
He said the situation is repeated in other locations throughout Peoria.
“What is unusual is that we could help,” he said. “Our morals and principles would not allow us to walk away from this.”
Rather than work through state channels that could take up to a year, Bartolo said the decision was made to work with attorney Lance Jones, a partner with HeplerBroom LLC in Springfield. A settlement package of nearly $20,000 was reached covering seven workers and legal expenses, but Bartolo said the actual number of workers who were unpaid could be closer to 20. Local 165 has been unable to get in touch with other workers, many of whom travel around the country from job site to job site.
Sheraton Four Points is the largest hotel in downtown Peoria and it has been closed for a number of years. The city has offered incentives to the new owners Hawkeye Hotels of Iowa.
A call to Hawkeye was not returned.
Mayor Jim Ardis said the hotel renovation is important to Peoria and the Civic Center. He expects the hotel to open in April or May.
The unpaid workers on the job were hired as independent contractors by NMR Renovations of Concord, Calif. Owner Nathan Moore said he has worked on many job sites with both union and nonunion workers with no problems but there was constant friction at the Peoria site.
Moore said he flew to Peoria to meet with each worker and offered them payment of 85 percent of what he owed them but that agreement was later rescinded. He said he lost $47,000 on the Peoria job.
The Contra Costa County District Attorney concluded a 10-month investigation in April into Moore’s company and filed charges against him for wage theft and tax fraud.
Like Warren Little, Juan Goode worked on the Peoria job site for weeks without pay. He drove to work from Canton and paid about $20 in gas daily.
Both men said they received checks from Nathan Moore that bounced.
Goode said he had been asked to work for NMR Renovations on a job site in Texas.
“Working people need work,” he said. “I told them to get right with me on what they already owe me.”
Other workers on the project who believe they were not properly paid can call Great Plains Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trust at 309-310-2947.