Contractors sue union, executive over alleged racial discrimination

Five contractors sued Laborers International Union of North America locals in Las Vegas and a union executive Friday, alleging racial discrimination.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by attorneys with the law firm Callister + Associates, claims the union first recruited black-owned contractors over the past five years for business and political reasons and then discriminated against them.

The firms say Local 872 promised the firms it would help them land contracts and then "would force them into default on their union dues by having clients withhold payment due for work performed, and creating additional burdensome fees and provisions."

The suit claims Local 872 would call clients and other contractors and tell them to stop using the black-owned contractors and assert they were not current on their union fringe benefits.

"Local 872 would also prevent the African American small business contractors from receiving union laborers to work on jobs they had obtained, and threaten to arrest the laborers, as opposed to taking no action against large non-African American contractors," the suit alleges.

The plaintiffs are Gene Collins, owner of Southern Nevada Flaggers and Barricades; Six Star Cleaning & Carpet Service Inc.; Yolanda Woods, owner of Step by Step Cleaning Service; Floppy Mop Inc. and Blue Chip Enterprises Inc.

The defendants are Laborers' locals 872 and 702 and union official Tommy White.

White, business manager and secretary treasurer of Local 872, on Friday denied the allegations.

"Laborers Local No. 872 denies all of the allegations in the lawsuit. The claims against the union are unfounded and frivolous. We believe this to be a futile attempt to delay payment of fringe benefits and ancillaries as a result on non-payment by the contractors. We are confident that the outcome of the case will be a ruling that the allegations are without any factual support and without merit and look forward to the day of that final decision," he said in a statement.

Legal

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