Members of our locals in Miami and the greater South Florida area have been demonstrating for over two weeks in the rapidly growing downtown Miami area to send a clear message to developers that the exploitation of construction workers will not be tolerated.
“The demonstration is an education or re-education process of the building managers, the building engineers, the general contractors, and the subcontractors that work in these tenant fit-outs in downtown Miami,” said Frank D’Angelo, Council Representative with the SRCC, who has organized these demonstrations.
“For three weeks, we have conducted demonstrations on Brickell Avenue in Miami,” said D’Angelo. “(Multiple buildings) agreed to include Area Standards language in their construction documents, GCs, and tenant agreements.
The demonstrations have consisted of spreading the word to the community and workers in one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative parts of South Florida.
Western Membership and Engagement Lead for the SRCC, Elizabeth Amonson, has also been in Florida assisting with the demonstrations and assisting in the organizing efforts. She says that our union’s mission to represent workers in South Florida benefits workers who may be being treated unfairly on worksites in Miami.
“They’re not being taken care of. They don’t have fair wages. Some of these people are making $20 an hour with no benefits. None whatsoever,” said Amonson. “Being union, you’re going to have benefits, you’re going to have fair wages.”