Worker Solidarity Action Network
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‘Shocking’: Canadian union fund part owner of a Vegas luxury hotel accused of union busting
www.thestar.com/business/shocking-canadian-union-fund-part-owner-of-a-vegas-luxury-hotel-accused-…
The LiUNA pension fund is part owner of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, which has been embroiled in a bitter strike for weeks. It says it has no role in the collective bargaining process.
Updated 42 mins ago
Jan. 10, 2025
3 min read
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Striking workers with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 are seen outside LiUNA Local 506 in December after arriving in Toronto to talk to Fengate and LiUNA executives regarding the threat of permanent replacements.
Courtesy Culinary Workers Union
Ana-Pereira
By Ana PereiraBusiness Reporter
A massive Las Vegas casino resort and its owners — among them a Canadian union pension fund — are being accused of union busting by threatening to replace striking workers south of the border.
Since mid-November, 700 workers from housekeeping, food and beverage departments, and unionized restaurants at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas have been in an increasingly bitter fight with their employer and two of its owners, Ontario-based Fengate Asset Management and the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Central and Eastern Canada Pension Fund.
The strikers, many of them immigrants in the U.S. demanding better wages and benefits, are represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which covers workers in downtown Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip — the famous road lined with dozens of Nevada’s grand and dazzling casinos, including Caesars Palace and MGM.
It’s surprising that a hotel owned in part by LiUNA — an organization whose purpose is to protect the rights of Canadian construction, waste management and health-care workers — is opposing improvements for Las Vegas service industry jobs, said Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
He also believes that Fengate’s approach in some negotiations with the Culinary Workers Union contradicts the company’s claims that it is socially aware and community involved.
“Canada actually does have a reputation of upholding strong labour standards,” said Pappageorge. “But when Canada comes to Vegas, our standard is getting attacked and we have our first strike in 27 years. It is shocking. And we want answers.”
The LiUNA pension fund says it has no role in the collective bargaining process, according to a statement, while a Fengate spokesperson said the money manager has a “proud history with organized labour across Canada and the United States.” Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is committed to its “track record of good faith, successful collective bargaining with culinary union leadership,” the Fengate spokesperson added.
A statement by Virgin Hotels Las Vegas said that it is “seeking a fair contract that reflects the economic reality of an off-Strip property and positions us to ensure continued employment stability across our property.”
It said the workers’ demands are not “financially sustainable” for them and could lead to future layoffs, going on to explain that “off-Strip” hotels tend to bring in less revenue than those “on-Strip.”
Still, the Culinary Workers Union says all employers, except Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, have signed their standard contract after the previous one expired in summer 2023.
While average workers with the Culinary Workers Union will see an hourly wage and benefits increase of $9.21 at the end of five years under the new standard contract, Virgin Hotels workers would get a wage and benefits raise of $1.50 per hour in that same period under the alleged offer by the employer, according to a union spokesperson.
“When you come to Las Vegas and you bring hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in concrete and steel and glass and buildings, you also have to invest in the workers,” said Pappageorge. “It’s pretty clear that Fengate and their Virgin Las Vegas management team have decided that they’re not going to do that.”
The Culinary Workers Union is blaming the Canadian owners for pressuring Virgin Hotels to hire “scabs,” or non-union temporary workers, to sub in for picketing bartenders, servers, porters, laundry and kitchen staff. Hotel management has also warned that employees who do not report to work because they’ve joined the strike could be permanently replaced, according to the union.
So far, there have been no permanent replacements. But that threat alone led nine strikers on a trip to frigid Canada in mid-December in an attempt to talk to Fengate and LiUNA management at their headquarters. While it didn’t go as they hoped — they were turned away by security at both places — Pappageorge believes they were able to communicate to the owners that the workers are committed to their cause.
With some exceptions, U.S. employers can permanently replace strikers, meaning they can hire someone to do a striker’s work without having to eventually fire that person to create a vacancy for the returning striker, says David Doorey, professor of work law and labour relations at York University. If a vacancy later comes up, the striker has a first right of return to their old job, Doorey added. The strike has no end in sight. LiUNA pension fund spokesperson Victoria Mancinelli claims some hotel guests are being “abused” and “harassed” by strikers, while the Culinary Workers Union charges that Virgin Hotels has attempted to forcibly remove signs on the strike line. Virgin Hotels declined to comment on those allegations.
Recently, standup comedian Steve Hofstetter cancelled a show scheduled at the resort in solidarity with the workers.
There have been no bargaining sessions since the walkout more than 50 days ago and the Culinary Workers Union rejected Virgin Hotels Las Vegas’ latest request for an arbitrator to decide the terms of the new collective agreement.
It believes this would “take the power away” from the workers, union spokesperson Bethany Khan said in an interview.
“The idea that this massive Canadian fund would come to the U.S., to Las Vegas, to wreck our standards is just unacceptable,” said Pappageorge. “It’s unacceptable in Canada, so it’s unacceptable here.”
‘Shocking’: Canadian union fund part owner of a Vegas luxury hotel accused of union busting
www.thestar.com
The LiUNA pension fund is part owner of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, which has been embroiled in a bitter strike for weeks. It says it has no role in the
Who will rebuild Los Angeles? Immigrants.
And many of them will be doing it under threat of family separation.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/09/los-angeles-reconstruction-immigrants-deportation/
Opinion
León Krauze
January 9, 2025 at 3:51 p.m. ESTToday at 3:51 p.m. EST
People return to their home after it was burned down by wildfires in Altadena, California, on Thursday. (Ringo Chiu/Reuters)
Watching the fires raze Los Angeles, a city I called home for years, has been devastating. Santa Ana winds, blowing through the mountains at speeds exceeding 80 mph, have caused catastrophic damage. The west side of the city is barely recognizable. The Pacific Coast Highway, one of the most iconic stretches of the American landscape, lies in ruins. The surrounding area, home to the equally renowned Sunset Boulevard — celebrated in countless dreams and a witness to innumerable Californian sunsets — has been reduced to ashes.
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The full scale of the devastation will be hard to tally for some time. What is clear, however, is the immense challenge that reconstruction will pose. This wildfire is already among the most destructive in the region’s history. Rebuilding will be a monumental task fraught with uncertainty. Building in Los Angeles is notoriously difficult because of complicated permitting and regulations. The city will have to untangle a bunch of its bureaucratic knots — and quickly.
One thing, however, is certain: the rebuilding of Los Angeles will rely heavily on immigrants.
A significant proportion of the region’s construction workforce consists of immigrants. According to a 2020 report by the American Immigration Council, 43 percent of construction workers in California are immigrants. Among these, a majority are of Mexican origin, reflecting a long history of Mexican labor contributing to the city’s development.
The global immigrant shortage is almost here
“Immigrants are the engine of construction in Los Angeles,” Santiago Ortiz, a local designer and building consultant told me. “Without immigrants working the most critical trades in the industry, we won’t be able to rebuild what we have lost over the last three days.”
Immigrant labor has already been vital in the recovery of other U.S. cities devastated by natural disasters. For example, after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston in 2017, more than half of the construction workers involved in rebuilding efforts were immigrants. Thousands of undocumented immigrants worked long hours under grueling conditions, often without proper safety protections, and some were even exploited through wage theft. Despite the challenges, immigrants alleviated a labor shortage in Houston, allowing it to recover more rapidly than anticipated.
Similarly, immigrant workers were instrumental in rebuilding Floridaafter Hurricane Ian hit in 2022. In Southwest Florida, which suffered extensive damage, immigrants made up a large part of the cleanup and construction workforce. Their efforts were particularly significant in areas such as Fort Myers Beach, where entire neighborhoods were leveled. Without immigrant labor, the rebuilding timeline would have been significantly delayed, leaving more residents displaced for longer periods.
Immigrant construction workers are not just vital in emergencies. In California alone, immigrants make up 40 percent of the state’s overall construction workforce. The entire U.S. construction industry depends on their labor year-round. According to the National Association of Home Builders, 31 percent of workers in construction trades nationwide are foreign born. Most plasterers, ceiling tile professionals and most roofers are immigrants. About 23 percent of those workers are undocumented. Almost 40 percent of drywall installers, for example, lacks a permanent legal status in the country.
Immigrants will be the ones bringing Los Angeles back from the ashes. Without them, the city will struggle to recover.
As Trump takes power, vowing to implement punitive immigration policies to vigorously go after the undocumented, it is crucial to acknowledge who truly builds America. It will be a moral failure that as immigrants work to get Southern California back on its feet — cleaning up mountains of debris, erecting wooden beams, installing drywall and wiring electrical systems — they will be doing so under threat of family separation. Their children will be going to school terrified that their parents could disappear at any moment.
As during the covid-19 pandemic, the United States is asking its immigrant workforce to perform essential tasks. The least it can do in return is to grant them peace and security instead of subjecting them to persecution and discrimination.
Opinion | Who will rebuild Los Angeles? Immigrants.
www.washingtonpost.com
And many of them will be doing it under threat of family separation.
The Criminals Running United Healthcare
www.facebook.com/reel/2202918590123804?locale=es_LA
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A Whistleblower Report of Investigation
CONSPIRACY: The Big Picture of How Our Constitutional Republic Was Hijacked to Protect Wealth Extraction Projects
drdarrelllwhitman.substack.com/p/a-whistleblower-report-of-investigation?utm_source=post-email-ti…
DR. DARRELL L. WHITMAN
DEC 23
The Diogenes Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Sunday, 22 December 2024
After a very long delay the long-promised whistleblower Report of Investigation into federal government corruption is ready for release, which will begin with this “big-picture” account on what it found. When it began in 2010, none of those involved in this investigation recognized what was a conspiracy to protect senor federal bureaucrats, political appointees, member of Congress, and corrupt corporate officials from accountability for wealth extraction projects.
That specific finding is still being obstructed by diversions attempting to characterize what the public sees as isolated, individual instances of corruption, rather than a conspiracy to loot vast sums of money by arranging their diversion to a network of corruption. That began to change earlier this year and then accelerated as the corrupt organization began to lose its internal cohesion and reveal it real identity. Now, more and more independent bloggers and publishers have now taken up the challenge and are daily exposing it more and more.
The other important change has been more subtle: a rising consciousness within the government that something very wrong and very deadly is happening that is putting the whole nation at risk.
People are no longer afraid to stand up and speak out, and that is leading to organized resistance to corruption, and strong political demands that it be cleaned up. The results of the election reflected that, and now, with this newfound sense of empowerment, more and more people are realizing they really do have power and no longer want to be victims. What remains to be done is to understand how this corruption grew so powerful, and how it can be dismantled without destroying the nation. We hope to make a contribution to that learning process with our Report of Investigation
What is this Report of Investigation, and how can it be used?
This Whistleblower Report of Investigation describes a legally defined process of gathering and substantiating evidence, including witness statements and documents, which is relevant to holding individuals accountable for wrongdoing. It is what the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) could have and should have done but didn’t decades ago when the current criminal organization first began to corrupt the federal government.
This is the first of several Whistleblower Reports of Investigation which will be published in the coming months, each with a particular focus that overlaps with other Reports, reinforcing the proofs of wrongdoing made in individual Reports. What will be common to all of them is that they will present “perfected” allegations, that is a description of the who, what, where, when, and why of an allegation, supported by witness statements and documents that constitute at least clear and convincing evidence the allegation is factually true. These perfected allegations can then be aggregated to support a charge of wrongdoing, which can range from negligence, gross negligence (the person knew and/or should have known the act was prohibited by law, rule , or regulation), to criminal wrongdoing (the person acted with the intent or reckless disregard for the law), to criminal conspiracy (acting with others) to violate the law.
Three allegations common to all these Whistleblower Reports will include: 1) the obstruction of the federal investigative process [18 U.S. Code, ⸹1505]; 2) falsifying or covering up material facts, making materially false or fraudulent statements or representations, or corrupting federal documents [18 U.S. Code, ⸹1001]; 3) conspiracy against the Constitutional right to bring a grievance to the federal government [Const. Amend I]. Of course, there will be other perfected allegations depending on the facts of each Report. But these three are the most common allegations for cases of corruption because concealing crimes is essential to criminal conspiracies.
It is this focus and structure that distinguishes Whistleblower and Legal Reports of Investigation from most of what is published in the general media. In fact, it is rare for the public to be able to see any legally organized Report of Investigation because they appear at the point when an indictment charging a criminal offense is lodged with a court. Very few people in public media have the time, training, and experience to provide the actual allegations, which are not then perfected until the trial is complete.
How is this Whistleblower Report of Investigation organized?
One of the qualities of this Whistleblower Report of Investigation is that it is focused on the system of private-sector and federal whistleblower protection. This focus required testing the federal agencies, programs, and operations involved in whistleblower protection to learn why they are failing . . . and as you will see, they are failing badly. Whistleblowers act as human alarms, the first to detect and warn that something serious has gone wrong that needs fixing.
When whistleblowers are silenced, and more than 95% of them are, the defective design/part fails, the toxic waste seeps into the air, water, and soil, the financial fraud sweeps through the banking system, the pipeline or drilling rig blows up, and the train/plane crashes injuring, killing and bankrupting vast numbers of people. Worse are intentional manipulation of the financial system, forever wars for profit, and public emergencies prompted by corruption. These are all preventable incidents, if the whistleblower protection systems are allowed to work.
The federal system of whistleblower protection is strangely divided into two parts, one for federal whistleblowers and a second for private-sector whistleblowers. Most of you are award of the federal whistleblower protection system because it involves politically high-profile programs – the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which was created in 1978 for the sole purpose of providing a “safe channel” protecting the identities of whistleblowers and protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. But fewer of you will know much, if anything, about the private-sector Whistleblower Protection Program (WBPP), which is managed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as program operating as part of the U.S. Department of Labor. This report will reveal details about the systemic corruption of both these programs.
This Report, however, will also cover several other federal agencies and entities that interact with the OSC and WBPP. These include: the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), the Office of Personnel Management/Office of Management and Budget (OPM/OMB), the District of Columbia, Office of Disciplinary Counsel (DCODC), and Congressional oversight committees, all of which have a direct role in both OSC and WBPP whistleblower protection. These interconnections were adopted allegedly to strengthen the defenses against corruption, but in the end, they became vehicles to protect it.
Why did whistleblowers conduct this investigation?
This whistleblower investigation was conducted by bona fide federal and private-sector whistleblowers after they endured serious and substantial retaliation for honoring their duty to report wrongdoing. In the beginning, all of them anticipated that the guarantee of protection of whistleblowers was real. But, as they focused on their own case, they became aware the protections weren’t there and they could not succeed on their own, and slowly they began to form into a loose group that shared knowledge and resources and learned how to find and organize evidence for this Report.
As a group, these whistleblowers: a) gained a deeper understanding of the organization and structure of our federal government, and how this allowed for an organized capture of federal programs to develop wealth extraction projects; b) witnessed the conspiracy that manipulated federal agencies, programs, and operations to attack whistleblowers who threatened to expose the corruption; and c) recognized the importance of our Constitution as the means to restore them and the integrity of the federal government itself. This restoration is now withing reach, thanks to you and to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While it goes too often unsaid, “We the people” are the foundation for our Constitutional Republic. Congress is only a “representative” branch of government, the President is only Chief Executive responsible for ensuring the administrative state functions to protect the public interest, and the federal court system is there first to protect the people from government abuse of the rights the Constitution has given us. The rest is just wallpaper, even though the political class and their corporate media wants you to believe, it’s the government itself. Thus, when you organize and act together to exercise your Constitutional power, you dispel the myth that citizenship is a spectator sport and become powerful. We as whistleblowers thank you very much for your commitment.
We whistleblowers are also indebt to our present Supreme Court, who on June 28, 2024, issued one of the most important decisions in our country’s history titled, Roper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, returning the power to interpret the laws back to the courts and away from unelected federal bureaucrats. One of the central findings of our Whistleblower Report of Investigation is that the shifting of power to bureaucrats to interpret federal law in the 1980s was an enabling factor in creating the corruption we now see everywhere in the federal government. Thus, the Roper Bright decision restores accountability to the bureaucrats in the Executive Branch who have been abusing their power to facilitate corporate wealth extraction and deny whistleblowers their duty to report wrongdoing.
The Roper Bright decision was based documented evidence of the damage that has been done by allowing unelected, and now unaccountable, federal officials assume powers the Constitution put in the hands of Congress, and by extension, you. Although the Court didn’t put a number on it, the disaster of the Chevron Doctrine, the law the Court threw out, cost American’s trillions of dollars, making up the lion’s share of our national debt, not simply from the accumulating “bad” interpretations of law by bureaucrats, but from the corruption that followed those bad decisions where accountability had been erased.
Roper Bright and the rising tide demanding accountability from government officials is a good beginning. But it is only a beginning and now we need to use the tools returned to us to craft changes that we have been waiting on for at least three decades. As written on a monument at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance,” points to the reality that if “we the people” wish to regain and keep our liberty, we must stay informed and engaged.
We respectfully now offer you our small contribution to that project in the form of our Whistleblower Reports of Investigation and invite you to use the information it provides in any way you believe useful, including sharing it with others and particularly your political representatives along with a respectful demand they pledge to end the corruption.
We welcome your comments and will provide reproductions of the actual evidence to paid subscribers on request. The discussions will be useful and informative. But actual evidence provides authenticity and an inside view of what is factually happening in these corrupt government programs.
Dr. Darrell Whitman,
for Whistleblowers United
CWA ISSUE BRIEF: PROJECT 2025
cwa-union.org/project2025
Project 2025 is an almost 1,000-page policy takeover crafted by wealthy billionaire donors and former Trump Administration officials that threatens Americans’ rights and freedoms by granting more control to dangerous anti-worker extremist politicians, judges, and corporations.
What is Project 2025?
Project 2025 is an almost 1,000 page policy takeover crafted by wealthy billionaire donors and former Trump Administration officials that threatens Americans’ rights and freedoms by granting more control to dangerous right wing anti-worker extremist politicians, judges, and corporations over the lives of working families.
This is a real plan put together to undermine the quality of life of millions of Americans, remove critical protections and dismantle programs for communities across the nation, and prioritize special interests and ideological extremism over people should Donald Trump be elected in November.
Who is Supporting Project 2025?
Former Trump officials are central to the plan. At least six former Trump Cabinet secretaries, as well as his former White House Office of Management and Budget Director, his former press secretary, and his former speechwriter, along with many others, are all authors or advisors on the plan. The Heritage Foundation, the Koch Brothers, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and many others are all funders of the $22 million dollar project.
ALEC has pushed model legislation for states to use that prohibit paycheck deductions for dues, introduce automatic decertification, and legalize so-called right to work and union busting among other anti-labor measures. The Heritage Foundation has called for cuts to social security, increasing the retirement age and fought to rollback voting rights for Americans across the country.
Impact on Ability to Organize and Labor Rights:
Project 2025 makes it harder for members to secure better contracts and stacks the deck in favor of wealthy CEOs and corporations by:
Enabling misclassification of employees as independent contractors–eliminating their labor protections altogether (p. 591)
Allowing management-run fake unions like the one T-Mobile set up when workers there were organizing to form a union with CWA (p. 599)
Banning majority sign-up as a way for workers to form unions (p. 603)
Repealing all prevailing wage laws (p. 604)
Rescinding guarantees for mandatory overtime pay when working over 40 hours in a week (p. 592)
Eliminating merit staffing protections for state employees (p. 605)
Abolishing public sector unions (p. 82) and removing civil service protections for tens of thousands of federal employees, so that Trump can replace them with ideological allies willing to carry out his personal agenda (p. 80)
Ending broadband policies that include the first ever labor rights protections on federal broadband funding to create good union jobs (p. 855)
Other threats to workers:
Not only are labor rights under attack, Project 2025 would undermine our economy, reverse decades of progress for civil rights, create unsafe workspaces, and make it harder for working families to make ends meet by:
Eliminating provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices (p. 465)
Cutting Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program available to workers whose jobs are shipped overseas (p. 806)
Encourages termination of struggling pension plans (p. 643)
Allowing teenage workers access to work in dangerous occupations, including mines and meatpacking plants (p. 595)
Making it easier for employers to discriminate based on a worker’s race, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation (p. 583 and p. 584)
Repealing all tax increases on the super-wealthy that were passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, including the stock buyback excise tax (p. 696)
Exempting small business, first-time, non-willful violators from fines issued by OSHA, even potentially in egregious cases of employer malpractice (p. 594)
Eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) (p. 839)
Making it easier for airlines based in tax havens or countries without labor protections to secure licenses to operate in the U.S. market (p. 631)
cwa-union.org
Project 2025 is an almost 1,000-page policy takeover crafted by wealthy billionaire donors and former Trump Administration officials that threatens Americans’ rights and freedoms by granting more co…
IBT DAX5 Amazon Air Hub DSP S.Cal Worker Speaks Out On Strike & Organizing "Not A Living Wage”
youtu.be/o6HNCe7_dYQ
An IBT DAX5 Amazon Air Hub DSP Southern California worker was part of a national 3 day strike on 12/22/24 and he reported on the conditions and the massive union busting drive by Amazon.
He also talks about the the wages of $21 an hour which does not provide a future and the need for a union and the struggle which has changed his life.
Interview by Peter Ross
Additional Media:'
Amazon IBT Workers & The Fight To Organize From Chicago To SF
youtu.be/fzZ6efLuqn4
At IBT SF Amazon DCK6 Strike Waymo Robo Taxi Owned By Google Stopped & Turned Away From Picket
ttps://youtu.be/7-Zrhsh3mNU
Fired Amazon union organizer at Kentucky warehouse alleges retaliation
www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-union-leader-kentucky-fired-retaliation-rcna44489
Shut It Down! Workers Shut Amazon DSF4 San Leandro Warehouse For Health & Safety and Living Wages
youtu.be/LpSrDtHhKVs
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Shock Bezos Union Busters & The Fight Against Systemic Racism
youtu.be/Ib4Xk3_TGWE
National Day Of Action For Bessemer Amazon Workers
supportamazonworkers.org/feb20/?fbclid=IwAR0oDN7AR_AGi0D8z6iynm1xKilW93EmgR3gs8t6rvCXSd3GxDJSntUbVoo
Organizing Meeting Support Alabama Amazon Workers
www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=461776385192382&ref=watch_permalink
#UnionYes #OrganizeTheSouth
Amazon workers are exposing what's happening in Alabama.
twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1357796064670212098
WorkWeek
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
The Checkered Past of the Contractor Monitoring the Air in East Palestine
CTEH has been cited by lawmakers for ‘releasing findings defending the corporate interests that employ them.’
prospect.org/environment/2023-03-03-cteh-contractor-air-monitoring-east-palestine/?fbclid=IwY2xja…
BY DAVID DAYEN
MARCH 3, 2023
GENE J. PUSKAR/AP PHOTO
A black plume and fireball rise over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern freight train, February 6, 2023.
A contractor for Norfolk Southern that is conducting air quality monitoring in East Palestine, Ohio, has a controversial history of what critics have described as inaccurate testing tilted toward the corporations that hire it. The company has been the subject of several lawsuits over its conduct, and members of Congress have warned corporations not to hire the firm in the past.
The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH) has a name that might sound like a state or federal agency, but in reality it is a private, for-profit corporation that has been present after hundreds of ecological disasters—from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to COVID-19. Norfolk Southern has hired them on at least two other occasions, and they have done work for other rail giants, including one job in 2012 that led to an $18.5 million settlement with two cleanup workers who were burned in a fire.
Three years ago, CTEH hooked up with an “environmental solutions” giant, Montrose Environmental Group, in a private equity–funded merger. Montrose has engaged in numerous acquisitions over the past year, rolling up both the emergency environmental response space and the market for corporate and government consulting on environmental matters.
More from David Dayen
The use of a controversial contractor comes amid continued reports of sickness in the area around the derailment. The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, which represents 3,000 Norfolk Southern workers, sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday, explaining that union members sent to do cleanup at the site were coming down with migraines and nausea. Leaders of other unions met with Buttigieg this week to deliver the same message.
Residents and workers near the site, both in Ohio and Pennsylvania, have spoken about similar ailments; several have received a clinical diagnosis of “acute bronchitis due to chemical fumes.” Contamination fears among residents have been rising.
Officially, the Environmental Protection Agency has reported no unusual detections of contaminants in the Ohio River, the air around East Palestine, or in screened homes. But residents have indicated that the bulk of the monitoring is being conducted by CTEH, which makes their track record relevant.
ARKANSAS-BASED CTEH has engaged in thousands of what they call “projects” across the country, including 77 in Ohio. Formed in 1997, CTEH claims to “help companies, governments, and communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from threats to their environment and people.”
It didn’t take long for the company to become a go-to resource for corporations seeking to reassure residents after environmental calamities. Two industries appear to be the most prominent on the client list: oil and gas, and rail.
prospect.org/environment/2023-03-03-cteh-contractor-air-monitoring-east-palestine/?fbclid=IwY2xja…
In 2010, then-Reps. Lois Capps (D-CA) and Peter Welch (D-VT) wrote to BP CEO Tony Hayward, warning him not to use CTEH to monitor health exposures of workers cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon spill. “CTEH has a history of being hired by companies accused of harming public health and releasing findings defending the corporate interests that employ them,” the lawmakers wrote. Welch is now serving in the U.S. Senate; his office did not return a request for comment.
The House members cited a New York Times article noting that CTEH produced clean toxicology reports after oil spills from Katrina in Louisiana in 2005, a coal ash spill in Tennessee in 2008, and after allegations of defective Chinese drywall in Florida in 2010, pronouncements that were later called into question. CTEH even found business in Ecuador, arguing in alignment with its client Chevron that there were no cancerous agents left behind from oil drilling in the rain forest, in a long-running case that resulted in environmental activist Steven Donziger going to prison.
Critics charge that, because CTEH’s employer is the company liable for damages, they have enormous incentives to underreport. “They’re paid to say everything’s OK,” one toxicologist told the Times. CTEH findings have been cited by companies in litigation, and its test results have been wielded as evidence to persuade residents not to sue. In 2020, industry groups brought a CTEH toxicologist to a Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hearing, where she dismissed the risks of oil and gas drilling to nearby residents.
Critics charge that, because CTEH’s employer is the company liable for damages, they have enormous incentives to underreport.
In a statement, Dr. Paul Nony, senior vice president and principal toxicologist of CTEH, insisted to the Prospect that the company followed prescribed federal guidelines. “Our scientists conduct environmental monitoring and sampling according to plans approved and directed by the incident commanders of each response including federal, state, and local stakeholders,” Nony said. “Samples are all sent to third-party, nationally accredited environmental laboratories and analyzed by approved methods with results provided to the relevant governmental entities.”
But CTEH’s methodology has been repeatedly criticized. In one case, CTEH obtained soil samples from multiple locations after Katrina, at odds with EPA guidelines. In another, the company used low-volume monitors at a Tennessee coal ash spill that were alleged to have not been in EPA compliance. The Chinese drywall from a manufacturer called Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, which CTEH determined to be safe, was later the subject of a 2011 settlement with homeowners worth between $600 million and $1 billion.
A 2019 story in Grist further detailed CTEH’s alleged mishandling of toxicology reports, including work done during a chemical explosion in Houston that one toxicologist described as “a sloppy job.”
CTEH has popped up numerous times after derailments. Norfolk Southern has hired it on at least two occasions, after a 2005 wreck and chlorine leak in Graniteville, South Carolina, and a crash in Jefferson County, Georgia, in 2019.
In 2012, a CSX train carrying flammable chemicals like butadiene derailed in Jefferson County, Kentucky, and CTEH was hired to monitor the crash site, declaring it safe to begin cleanup efforts. Two days after the incident, workers Leonard Carrillo and Gregory Powers used an acetylene torch to cut through a piece of the train; it caused an immediate flash fire, and Carrillo and Powers suffered severe burns. Eventually, CSX and CTEH settled a lawsuit with the two workers for $18.5 million.
IN EAST PALESTINE, CTEH has been contracted by Norfolk Southern and was testing the air within hours of the derailment. On February 21, the rail company released a video styled like a news report of CTEH toxicologists testing air samples in the village, using handheld devices and stationary equipment. Sarah Burnett of CTEH explains that “we have detected no vinyl chloride or other constituents related to this incident in the air, and that all of our air monitoring and sampling do not indicate any short or long-term risks.” CTEH is described as having “decades of experience” with environmental health issues.
According to a resident of East Palestine who was a guest on Glenn Beck’s radio show, Norfolk Southern is going door-to-door in the village testing air quality. One representative of the company told her, “We follow around the railroad when they make mistakes.” (The woman mistakenly said that CTEH was getting residents to sign long-term liability waiver forms, but they were only for the specific air monitoring work and later were withdrawn by CTEH.)
Tragically, at the same time as CTEH was monitoring East Palestine, a plane carrying five CTEH workers to Ohio crashed last week, killing everyone on board. The incident spawned lurid and rather disconnected conspiracy theories on social media, but the workers were not headed to East Palestine; they were en route to yet another disaster, an explosion at a copper plant in Bedford, outside of Cleveland.
River Valley Organizing, a community group on the ground in East Palestine, has released a list of demands for the region, including continued environmental testing from the EPA, and an “independent scientist,” paid for by Norfolk Southern but chosen by residents, to “represent the community” as a technical adviser. River Valley also wants ongoing medical testing and health services, also paid for by Norfolk Southern.
Norfolk Southern has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In 2020, CTEH merged with Montrose Environmental, a full-service “environmental solutions” company that works on logistics and “regulatory compliance” of environmental issues. The deal, whose specific terms were not disclosed, was financed by Oaktree Capital Management, a global private equity firm. Montrose itself announced it would go public three months after the CTEH merger.
The CTEH acquisition was one of the biggest of a litany of transactions for Montrose, which appears to be attempting to obtain market dominance in environmental consulting. In 2022, it acquired Industrial Automation Group, Environmental Standards, TriAD Environmental Consultants, AirKinetics, and Huco Consulting, and in 2023, Frontier Analytical Laboratories and Environmental Alliance.
Montrose earned over $544 million in revenue in 2022, though in its growth stage it has yet to turn a profit. The company, which has 2,900 employees and 5,600 clients, has acquired 65 companies in the past decade, and sees continued gobbling up of rivals as key to its growth and market leadership. Upon this week’s release of Montrose’s annual report for 2022, CEO and Director Vijay Manthripragada said, “Since the start of 2023, we have increased our cadence of M&A [merger and acquisition] activity … with more expected this year.” The annual reportdiscusses “thousands of potential acquisition targets.”
While Montrose says at multiple points in its financial disclosures that environmental consulting is a fragmented industry with no single brand leader, it explicitly sees itself as “uniquely positioned to become a leading platform in the industry,” and mergers are a key node in that strategy. Smaller firms, it says at one point, have “barriers to entry,” and those like Montrose that work across jurisdictions have “competitive advantages.” As Montrose concludes in its financial disclosure, “The success of our business depends, in part, on our ability to execute on our acquisition strategy.”
The Checkered Past of the Contractor Monitoring the Air in East Palestine
prospect.org
CTEH has been cited by lawmakers for ‘releasing findings defending the corporate interests that employ them.’
Amazon IBT DCK6 Workers In SF Strike For A Contract On National Day Of Strike Action
youtu.be/y_SrcEfocy8
As part of the first national Amazon Teamsters unfair labor practice strike, DCK 6 workers in San Francisco and their supporters picketed at the terminal and talked about the strike issues and the union busting campaign by Bezos.
Workers are facing union busting not only at Amazon but many other facilities.
Additional Media:
IBT Amazon DCK6 SF Workers & Teamsters Speak Out For A Union & Justice On The Job
youtu.be/s0-NwMLyGqo
The War At Amazon For Worker & Union Rights With Michelle Valentin Nieves Amazon Labor Unon VP JFK8
youtu.be/_zFdzlJAuYA
Fired Amazon union organizer at Kentucky warehouse alleges retaliation
www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-union-leader-kentucky-fired-retaliation-rcna44489
Shut It Down! Workers Shut Amazon DSF4 San Leandro Warehouse For Health & Safety and Living Wages
youtu.be/LpSrDtHhKVs
Bessemer Alabama Amazon Workers Shock Bezos Union Busters & The Fight Against Systemic Racism
youtu.be/Ib4Xk3_TGWE
National Day Of Action For Bessemer Amazon Workers
supportamazonworkers.org/feb20/?fbclid=IwAR0oDN7AR_AGi0D8z6iynm1xKilW93EmgR3gs8t6rvCXSd3GxDJSntUbVoo
Organizing Meeting Support Alabama Amazon Workers
www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=461776385192382&ref=watch_permalink
#UnionYes #OrganizeTheSouth
Amazon workers are exposing what's happening in Alabama.
twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1357796064670212098
Alabama Amazon Organizers & Workers Speak Out On The Valley Labor Report
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F7kIhQP9UY&feature=youtu.be
Additional Information:
IBT On San Francisco Amazon DCK6 Workers Joining Teamsters
teamster.org/2024/10/amazon-warehouse-workers-in-san-francisco-join-teamsters-union/
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
Contract NOW Or Shut It Down! AFA CWA UAL Flight Attendants & Allies Rally For Living Wages At SFO
youtu.be/FfSNj45sSTQ
UAL AFA CWA Flight attendants have been fighting for a contract for more than three years under the Railroad Labor Act and continue to face union busting and concession demands from the UAL management according to their leaders.
On December 19, 2024 as part of a national day of action AFA members and other UAL workers rallied throughout the country for a contract and spoke out about their issues.
Additional Media:
"UAL Mechanics Living In Their Cars" IBT856 Mechanics & AFA Members Demand Wages & Contract AT SFOhttps://youtu.be/_PaJUYobY3Y
Production of Labor Video Project
www.labormedia.net
