Labor and community activists shut down construction company CEO

An impressive outpouring of union members, community activists and supporters shut down a planned Dec. 15 speaking event by Pulte Homes CEO Richard Dugas in Troy, Mich. Busloads of protesters packed into the Troy Marriott hotel to confront Dugas, who was scheduled to address a Detroit Economic Club meeting.

A multistate, multiyear campaign by the Building Justice campaign is targeting Pulte for its anti-union activities and shoddy residential construction, which the campaign says has put thousands of families under immense hardship. Pulte, based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is the largest residential construction company in the U.S. and has its own mortgage company. The campaign, led by the Sheet Metal Workers International Association and the Painters’ union District Council 15, with assistance from the AFL-CIO, has held speaking tours, set up booths at events, targeted work sites, confronted shareholders meetings, conducted postcard and petition campaigns, staged rallies and more.

Although a DEC spokesperson said the meeting was postponed due to circumstances beyond their control, the protesters claimed victory in shutting down the event. Labor and community members had bought tickets to attend, but Dugas ran away instead of facing the workers and their communities.

A victory rally was held in a hotel ballroom by more than 300 protesters from dozens of unions across the U.S. as well as community organizations, including Centro Obrero of Detroit, the Detroit Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice, Jobs With Justice, the Grey Panthers, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice, the National Lawyer’s Guild, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, the Sugar Law Center and the Justice Caucus.

Especially strong delegations from the Laborers union, the Painters union and the Sheet Metal Workers participated. The unions are particularly incensed because Pulte refuses to hire workers and continues layoffs despite having received $917 million as part of the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. Thousands of other corporations are receiving billions under this act, through which the government is handing over taxpayer funds in the hopes that the corporations will create jobs — with virtually no penalties if they don’t. The unemployment rate for construction industry workers is one of the highest in the U.S.

At the rally Saundra Williams, the first African-American woman president of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO, brought greetings of solidarity and demanded Pulte use the funds given to it by the federal government to fund jobs and stop laying off workers. A representative of Congressperson John Conyers Jr. read a statement, in which Conyers promised to look into corporations that received funds under the Act. A spontaneous booming chant arose from the crowd when union members held up individual letter placards spelling out “Where is the $900 million?”

Other speakers included Pastor John Pitts Jr., president of the Detroit Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice; representatives from the Sheet Metal Workers and the Painters union; and longtime Office and Professional Employees union member and activist Ethel Schwartz, who said: “We have a good beginning here today. Let’s keep it up.”

Angel Rangel, a Latino sheet metal worker from Phoenix, Ariz., demanded, “Where are the jobs?” Many Latino/a workers and their loved ones in the Southwest, in particular in Arizona and Nevada, have been affected negatively by Pulte’s actions.

For more information visit www.poorlybuiltbypulte.info, e-mail [email protected] or call 202-230-4689.