"Building Dignity & Respect: The Case for Worker-driven Social Responsibility in the Twin Cities Construction Industry," 17 Dec 2019

A new report from the Worker-driven Social Responsibility Network surveys working conditions in construction... Among the workers surveyed by... Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), nearly half of respondents reported having experienced wage theft, most commonly in the form of unpaid overtime. A third of workers said they don’t feel that they can complain to supervisors about concerns without fear of retaliation... Last month, Ricardo Batres, the owner of American Contractors and Associates LLC who operated as a labor broker on construction projects tied to several well-known developers, pled guilty to charges of labor trafficking. 

... The report outlines the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model, where corporations at the top of product supply chains or labor contracting chains adopt legally-binding standard-setting agreements with a human rights organization that require those corporations to impose market consequences on suppliers who violate workers’ rights. CTUL and its partners are developing the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council (BDC), a standards-setting and monitoring organization... [D]evelopers and general contractors will enter legally binding program participation agreements with BDC that require all contractors at every tier of a project to abide by basic standards that protect the rights of workers to fair treatment, a safe workplace, and a voice in their working conditions.