A banner announcing a new public high school for the trades hangs from the former St. James Hospital building during a private groundbreaking.
A gleaming new public high school envisioned for training Newark students in the construction trades is being built with non-union laborers who are being underpaid for their work, according to complaints filed by workers and union officials.
Last year, Newark Public Schools entered into a $160 million lease with a real estate developer to build the future Newark High School of Architecture & Design at the site of the former St. James Hospital in Newark’s Ironbound. The school will offer classes in construction technology, architecture and traditional trades such as plumbing, electrical and HVAC.
“It’s an unheard-of initiative,” Newark Public Schools Superintendent Roger León said when first announcing the lease plan last year.
But according to complaints filed with the Department of Labor, and interviews with union officials the workers are not getting paid prevailing wage, which the union argues is required under New Jersey law.
In addition, the union alleges the developer has also failed to follow public contracting law, because the project was not competitively bid, nor is it following public works contractor registration law, because certain contractors were not registered.
The complaint was filed with the New Jersey Division of Wage and Hour Compliance by a union representative at Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund, or...
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