New Orleans, LA, Oct. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades Council will hold a candlelight vigil for the construction workers who perished or were injured in this weekend’s building collapse at the Hard Rock Hotel construction project in New Orleans, Thursday, October 17, 2019 at the site of the Molly Marine Statue on the south side of Canal Street, between S. Liberty and S. Saratoga, at 6:00 pm. 

Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary Andy O’Brien, stated that “Our collective hearts go out to the workers and their families impacted by this horrible tragedy. While our organization represents 16 unionized construction locals, we have always felt it is our higher responsibility to look out for, protect, and represent in any way possible all workers involved in construction in Southeast Louisiana.”  

Southeast Louisiana Building and Construction Trades Council Organizing Committee Chairman Chip Fleetwood adds “We don’t know what happened exactly, and won’t know until the investigations are complete. We do know that something like this should never occur on a construction site.  For more than a year now our organization has been talking to workers on the job site and trying to educate officials and the concerned public that the Hard Rock project epitomizes what is wrong with the construction landscape in Southeast Louisiana: Construction projects and sites rife with bottom-line developers with questionable track records, job health and safety concerns, workers being misclassified, construction workers without worker’s compensation, rampant tax fraud, profit-first labor brokers, workers without proper training, certifications or licensing, and most importantly, ongoing and pervasive worker exploitation. While we planned this vigil to honor those adversely effected by the building’s collapse, we also feel is our duty to bring attention to the bad, illegal, and unsafe practices that have become the norm in New Orleans construction.”

Press Contacts:
Chip Fleetwood 504-913-5757 
Maximus Perdomo 504-453-6761    

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 The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades represents a growing community of over 110,000 active and retired craftspeople in the United States and Canada. Recognized as one of the most active unions in the labor movement, IUPAT members help shape their communities in many ways: through an abiding commitment to service, by fighting passionately for workers’ rights that benefit all working families, and through effective worker education and mobilization. Learn more at www.IUPAT.org

John Doherty
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
6175922230
jdoherty@iupat.org