(2012) A Dirty Business: Worker Exploitation in Minnesota's Retail Janitorial Industry

8/17/2019 (2012) A Dirty Business: Worker Exploitation in Minnesota's Retail Janitorial Industry

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A Dirty BusinessWorker Exploitation in Minnesota’s

Retail Janitorial Industry

April 2012

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL), Center of Workers United in Struggle

2511 E. Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55406 (612) 332-0663 www.ctul.net


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2A Dirty Business: Worker Exploitation in the Retail Janitorial Industry -- CTUL


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A Dirty Business:Worker Exploitation in Minnesota’s

Retail Janitorial Industry

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 4

Diversied Maintenance Systems 6

Other Companies Operating in Minnesota 8

National Problems in the Industry 10

What Can Be Done 12

About CTUL 13


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INTRODUCTIONDiversied, which is based in Florida, provides

janitorial services to supermarkets and retail

department stores. It is the largest service provider

to Target, with contracts covering over 600 stores

nationwide.1

In October 2011, twelve Minnesotans led a lawsuit

against Diversied Maintenance charging that the

company required some of them to work up to 80

hours a week without overtime pay.2 This lawsuit,

which is currently pending, is not the rst time that

workers have sued Diversied to get the overtime

wages they believe they were owed.

Over the last ve years, the company has been the

subject of at least six private lawsuits as well as

an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor,

which found that Diversied required employees

to work 7 days a week without any overtime pay.

The investigation also found that Diversied heldnew employees’ pay as a “deposit” that they would

receive when they left the company.3

Although this report focuses mostly on Diversied

Maintenance, this problem is not limited to just

one company. Unfortunately, these problems

pervade the retail janitorial industry in Minnesota

and throughout the United States.

Other cleaning companies with which Twin Cities

area department stores and supermarkets contract

have also been the subjects of similar lawsuits and

Department of Labor investigations for not paying

their workers the overtime wages they earned:4

• Carlson Building Maintenance cleans Target

Lunds, Byerly’s, and Rainbow Foods stores,

among others.

• Eurest Services cleans Target, Best Buy,

Home Depot, and JC Penney stores.

• National Floor Maintenance cleans Lunds

and Byerly’s stores.

• Paquette Maintenance cleaned Lunds,

Walgreens, K-Mart, and Menards stores.

In order to cut costs and avoid responsibility,department stores and supermarkets contract out their

janitorial work. There is erce competition among

the janitorial companies for these contracts, with

each company trying to underbid the other. Since

labor is by far the largest and most costly expense

in a cleaning contract, the company with the lowest

labor costs tends to win the contract.

I worked as a cleaner for Diversied

Maintenance for about 4 and a-half years.

I work to support my family here and the

children that I have in Mexico. For years I

worked 8 hours per night, seven days a week

without a day off, to be able to make extra

money to send home. However, in that time,

I was not paid time and a half for 8 of the

overtime hours I worked. I worked every week.

I am not asking for anything extra. Just to be

paid what I am owed.

– Leticia Baeza


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About 20 years ago, janitorial companies were paid

about 32 cents per square foot to “strip and wax”

tile oors and had to apply four coats of nish. If

this price had kept up with ination, the cost would

currently be 58 cents per square foot. In reality

however, contractors now get 10 to 12 cents per

square foot and have to put down seven to eight coatsof nish.5

In some cases, the janitorial companies try to

minimize their labor costs with practices such as not

paying overtime or by requiring employees to get

more work done in a shorter period of time.

Area janitors report that in the last ten years their

hourly wage has dropped from $10-$11 an hour to

just above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an

hour, and their workload has nearly doubled.6

The contractors count on the predominantly

immigrant workforce

not being aware of

their rights or being

afraid of retaliation if

they complain. In onecase, a Philadelphia

cleaning company

even went so far as to

enslave their workers

and to threaten the

workers and their

families with physical

violence if they tried

to escape.7

INTRODUCTION


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I worked for Diversied cleaning several Target

stores. After all the hard work I provided for this

company, they have not paid me the overtime they

owe me for hundreds of hours’ worth of work.

That’s why my former co-workers and I decided thatwe needed to do something to put a stop to this.

We are part of a lawsuit to recover our wages and

to ght to make sure this doesn’t happen to others in

the future. -- Maria Cruz


An “intentional, willful, and unlawful”

refusal to pay overtime

Diversied Maintenance is headquartered in Tampa,

FL and provides janitorial services to supermarketsand retail department stores.

Diversied is the largest janitorial service provider

to Target, with contracts covering over 600 stores

nationwide.8

Nationally, Diversied also has contracts with Sears,

Lord and Taylor, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Home Depot,

Macy’s, Petco, JC Penney, and Kmart.9

In 2011, twelve current and former Diversiedemployees in Minnesota led a lawsuit charging

that the company failed to pay janitors for the hours

worked.

The case, which is still pending, alleges that:10

• One employee worked 80 hours per week

without any overtime pay. The other employees

regularly worked 56-60 hours a week without

full overtime pay.11

• The employees were required to work 7 days

a week – 6 days a week under their own name

and the other 1 day a week under a “ghost

name.”12

• When employees questioned a supervisor

about not being paid overtime, the supervisor

threatened to re them or have them arrested

and sent to jail.13

This is not an isolated case. Diversied has a history

of investigations and lawsuits for failure to pay its

workers overtime.

• The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) found

that Diversied owed 19 employees inMinnesota overtime pay from 2005 to 2007.

The DOL found that the employees worked 7

days a week, averaging 57 hours a week, and

were paid $1600 a month, an average of $6.50

per hour. The DOL also found that Diversied

did not pay employees for some weeks when

they rst started. Their hours were held in a

“bank” or as a “deposit” to be paid out when

the employees left the company.14

DIVERSIFIED MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS


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• A 2007 Florida lawsuit charged Diversied

with not paying its janitorial employees

overtime even though they regularly worked

over 40 hours a week. Diversied agreed to

settle the suit.15

• In 2008, Diversied settled another lawsuit

brought by janitorial employees in Florida

about Diversied’s alleged failure to pay them

overtime.16

• In 2008, Diversied settled a separate lawsuit

charging that Diversied had “instituted and

carried out an unlawful policy and practice

of refusing to pay” its janitorial employees

overtime although the employees regularlyworked overtime.17

• In 2009 Diversied settled a lawsuit which

charged that Diversied “repeatedly and

willfully” failed to pay numerous employees

overtime pay, and that this was a “company-

wide” policy.18

• In 2011 Diversied settled a lawsuit by a New

York employee who charged that the company

didn’t pay him overtime although he had to

work eighty-four hours a week.19

DIVERSIFIED MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS


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OTHER COMPANIES OPERATING IN MINNESOTA

This problem is not limited to just one company.

As shown in this report, other cleaning companies

with which Twin City area department stores and

supermarkets contract have also been the subjects

of similar lawsuits and Department of Labor

investigations for not paying their workers theovertime wages they earned.

Carlson Building Maintenance

Carlson Building Maintenance provides janitorial

services, oor cleaning, and maintenance services

in six states.20 About 90 percent of Carlson’s clients

are in the retail sector. In Minnesota, Carlson has

contracts to clean Target, Lunds, Byerly’s, andRainbow stores, among others.21

In 2007, the Department of Labor investigated

Carlson Building Maintenance and found that

Carlson owed back wages to 242 of its employees. 22

“I held two jobs because of the low wages. We work

in a place lled with food and yet we can barely feed

our families,” said one former Carlson employee who

cleaned a supermarket. “They look for a cleaning

company that is going to give the lowest price for the

work. The result for us: lower wages and increased

workloads.”23

This employee said

that the hourly wage at

Carlson had dropped

from $10 to $11 an

hour to just above the

federal minimum wage

of $7.25 an hour, andtheir workload has nearly

doubled.24

“Many who have worked

ten years in the industry

know there were four

workers to a shift and

today there”25

National Floor Maintenance

“Reckless disregard” for overtime laws

There have been at least six signicant investigations

by the United States Department of Labor over thelast decade about labor practices at National Floor

Maintenance (NFM), one of the companies that clean

Lunds and Byerly’s stores.26 In these investigations

the Department of Labor found that NFM failed to

pay the required overtime wages to more than 1,000

total workers.

• In 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor’s

Minneapolis district ofce found that National

Floor Maintenance had not paid the required

overtime to over 100 workers cleaning Lund’s

and Byerly’s stores.27

• In 2006 the U.S. Department of Labor

brought a civil lawsuit against National Floor

Maintenance for repeatedly and willfully

violating overtime laws in Minnesota, Texas,

Colorado, and Nevada. The Department of

Labor and National Floor Maintenance into a

consent judgment requiring National Floor to

pay the back overtime wages owed.28

• In 2005 the Department of Labor’s Houston,

TX district ofce found that National Floor

Maintenance owed overtime wages to almost

200 of its employees.29

• A separate investigation in 2005 by the

Department of Labor’s Denver, CO ofce found

that National Floor Maintenance owed overtime

wages to almost 350 of its employees.30

• A 2002 DOL investigation had found that

National Floor Maintenance failed to pay 459

employees overtime wages. A subsequent

investigation by the DOL found that National

Floor Maintenance continued to not pay its

workers in Minnesota the required overtime

wages in “reckless disregard” of the Fair Labor

Standards Act.31


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Paquette Maintenance

“Paquette deliberately delayed responding to [our]

investigation to be able to declare bankruptcy and

not pay workers.”

Paquette Maintenance was a Minnesota based

company which had contracts to clean Lunds,

Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx, Walgreens, Goodwill,

K-Mart, and Menards stores. In 2008 the United

States Department of Labor (DOL) carried out an

investigation against Paquette for failure to pay

proper overtime to its workers. The DOL found that

Paquette owed overtime pay to over 100 workers.33

It appeared to the DOL investigator that Paquette

deliberately delayed responding to the investigation

in order to be able to declare bankruptcy and not

pay workers. The DOL report noted that from the

beginning of the investigation, the company was

“disinterested, evasive, and uncooperative.”35

According to the DOL report, Paquette refused to

calculate the back wages that the DOL requested and

never provided the DOL the names and addresses

of the employees. The DOL wrote that it became

clear that these were stalling ctactics when Paquetteled for bankruptcy in March 2008. The DOL

investigators believed that this was all part of the

company’s strategy to make the back wages part of

the numerous claims included in the bankruptcy.35

The DOL investigator noted that instead of

improving as a result of the investigations, Paquette’s

pay practices actually got much worse. All the

paychecks for the 116 employees bounced in January

and February 2008.36

Eurest/ Kimco

In early 2009 Compass Group bought Kimco

Corporation, an Illinois-based company which

provided janitorial services to commercial, retail, and

industrial customers in 37 states. Compass merged

Kimco into its Eurest Services division.

In Minnesota, Eurest cleans Target, Best Buy, Home

Depot, and JC Penney stores.

In 2010 seven Latino employees led a lawsuit inNew York charging that Kimco had failed to pay

them their wages for overtime as well as regularly

worked hours. According to the lawsuit, one of the

workers who cleaned a Home Depot store was owed

a month’s worth of pay.

When he complained to the company, he was red.

Some of the other employees in the lawsuit also

alleged that they were

illegally red in retaliationfor their complaints about

not being paid. The lawsuit,

which is still pending,

charges that the company’s

retaliation was “malicious,

intentional and performed

with the actual intent of

harming [the workers].”37

One worker who cleaned a Lunds store in Minnesota said, “It’s really

hard because we barely have enough money to pay our rent and we are

struggling every month to be able to buy food for our families,” she said,

adding that many employees fear the consequences of speaking out. “We

have been threatened by managers that are telling us we should

be careful and maintain our jobs and shouldn’t be organizing and

they have retaliated against us.”32

OTHER COMPANIES OPERATING IN MINNESOTA


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“They call it modern-day slavery. It’s hiding in

plain sight.”

In October 2011, two men were convicted in federal

court of operating a slavery ring involving workerswho cleaned at Target, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, and other

stores in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New

York, and New Jersey.38

The men recruited poor, unemployed workers in the

Ukraine with false promises of good paying jobs

and homes. The workers were told their travel

arrangements from the Ukraine would be taken care

of and that they would earn $300-$500 per month,

in addition to their room and board.39 When

they arrived in the U.S., they were told they oweda very large debt, but they were given very little

information about how much the debt was or how

much of it they had paid.40

The immigrants’ passports and travel documents

were taken away. They were put to work

immediately on cleaning crews in department stores

and were forced to work up to 16 hours a day.41

They slept on dirty mattresses on the oor, often ve

or six to a room, and were only paid $100 a month.42

The men created an atmosphere of fear in order to

ensure that the workers did not try to escape. They

beat and kicked the workers, threatened to kill them,

and threatened to harm their families in Ukraine.

In one case, they brutally raped one of the female

workers.43

“They call it modern-day slavery,” Assistant U.S.

Attorney Daniel Velez said. “It’s hiding in plain

sight.”44

NATIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE INDUSTRY

Wal-Mart

“When you don’t pay taxes, don’t pay Social

Security and don’t pay workers’ comp, you have a

40 percent cost advantage,”

Wal-Mart’s motto is “Always low prices.” One of

the ways it sought to keep its prices low was by

exploiting immigrants from Eastern Europe.

In 2003, federal agents raided 60 Wal-Mart stores in

21 states and uncovered an illegal scheme to exploit

hundreds of janitors. Workers were recruited from

Russia, Poland, and Lithuania. When they arrived

in the U.S., they were immediately put to work on

the overnight shift cleaning Wal-Marts seven nightsa week. One worker said he had worked every night

for the eight months he had been in the U.S.45

The cleaning contractors often paid workers off the

books and did not pay overtime, Social Security, and

workers’ compensation. “When you don’t pay taxes,

don’t pay Social Security and don’t pay workers’

comp, you have a 40 percent cost advantage,” said

Lilia Garcia, executive director of the Maintenance

Cooperation Trust Fund, a group nanced by

California cleaning contractors to police y-by-night

competitors. “It makes it hard for companies that

follow the rules.”46

In 2005, Wal-Mart entered into an $11 million

federal settlement to clear the allegations about its

knowledge of the illegal employment practices.47

Forty-one of the employees have brought a lawsuit

against Wal-Mart, which is still pending in court.

The suit alleges that the janitors routinely workedseven days a week without any overtime pay and

that they were locked inside the stores while they

worked.48


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Target

“Having clean, shiny stores is one of the four things

that Target was founded on. It is part of what we

stand for . . . It is part of our brand statement.” 49

Target has over 1,700 stores in the U.S. Its stores in

the U.S. are known for their trademark clean oors

and bright lights. Most customers are unaware that

the level of cleanliness has been achieved through the

use of sub-contractors who exploit their janitors.

Prestige Maintenance, based in Plano, TX, cleaned

Target stores in several states. In 2009 the company

settled a lawsuit brought by sixteen of it workers

who claimed that the company owed them overtimepay. The workers who brought the lawsuit were

Latino immigrants who cleaned Target stores in

Maryland overnight from 10:30 pm to 8 a.m. every

night.50 According to the prosecuting attorney, this

case “tends to actually reect the norm within the

janitorial industry, that there’s a lot of unlawful wage

practices.”51

Prior to the lawsuit, Prestige Maintenance was

investigated by the Department of Labor three times,

resulting in more than 400 violations for failing topay overtime.

• In 2003, the DOL’s Minneapolis district ofce

found that Prestige owed overtime pay to

almost 300 workers.52

• In 2004, the Department of Labor found that

Prestige Maintenance owed overtime pay to

121 workers.53

• In 2007, the DOL’s Minneapolis district ofce

found that Prestige owed three employees

overtime pay.54

Jim’s Maintenance settled a lawsuit in 2009 brought

by its workers who cleaned Target stores in Texas.55

The workers charged that they were not paid

overtime despite consistently working 55 to 75 hours

a week. Workers alleged that managers locked

cleaning crews in overnight for a typical shift from

10:30 pm to 7 or 8 a.m.

One of the workers stated that they worked 10

hours a day, with only 1 day off every two weeks.

Another worker was paid a at $1,400 a month.

Based on the hours he worked, it came out to anhourly wage of $4.86.56

Global Building Services cleaned Target stores

in California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and

Texas. In 2004 the company entered into a $1.9

million settlement with the United States Department

of Labor over charges that it owed overtime to 775

janitors who often worked seven nights a week

cleaning Target stores.

One worker said that he worked 80 hours a week

– from 10 pm to 8 am without any days off. The

company not only didn’t pay him overtime wages,

but his total pay came out to less than the minimum

wage.57

NATIONAL PROBLEMS IN THE INDUSTRY


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Case Study –

Commercial Janitorial Industry

Ten years ago, janitors who cleaned ofce buildings

in the Twin Cities faced many of the same conditions

as the janitors who clean department stores,described in this report.

The property services industry had changed.

Building owners began to contract out the cleaning

work rather than hire janitors directly. The

contractors were in high competition with each other

and cut wages for their workers.

Janitors earned minimum wage with no paid

holidays, sick time, or vacation. They did not get

any health insurance, and worked only four hours

per night. These workers organized as a union and

as part of the Justice for Janitors campaign they won

a voice at work and raised standards in the industry,

transforming poverty wages into livable wages.

Now, the contractors who work in this eld are

responsible – they pay decent wages and provide

health insurance for their employees. These

contractors also have signed a master union contract,

which not only provides a guaranteed wage andbenet structure for their employees, but it also sets

out decent working conditions.

Janitors who clean ofce buildings in the Twin Cities

now:

• Work eight hour shifts

• Earn $13.42 an hour

• Get six paid holidays a year and paid vacation

• Have individual health insurance for $20 a

month and family coverage for $150 a month.

WHAT CAN BE DONE

The retail janitorial industry needs a similar

transformation.

1) Wages and Benets

Twin City retailers should ensure that the janitors

who clean their stores are paid a living wage, as

dened by the Minneapolis City Council, with

annual cost of living increases, and receive benets

that include paid time off, such as paid vacation

days, sick leave, and holidays.

2) Workload

Representatives of the workers and of the cleaning

contractors should work jointly to determine

reasonable standards for workload. Once these

standards are established, the contractor should

provide all employees with this information and

adhere to the standard.

3) Worker Retention

When a retailer changes cleaning contractors, the

new contractor should hire the workers who are

employed cleaning the store at that time.

4) Workplace Rights

Twin City retailers should allow for an annual

training for workers about their basic rights in the

workplace and about the recourses available to them

if they feel their rights have been violated.

5) Compliance with State and Federal Laws

Twin City retailers should require that the contactors

they use comply with all state and federal laws

regarding employees’ rights, and should terminate

a contract if repeated violations are found and not

corrected in a timely manner.

6) Right to Organize

Contractors and retailers should take steps to ensure

that workers are free to exercise their right to

unionize and to engage in collective activity, without

intimidation or retaliation.


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About CTUL

Centro de Trabajadores

en Lucha (CTUL) began

in 2005 as a project

of Workers’ Interfaith

Network (WIN) with the

goal of supporting low-

wage workers who are

facing workplace issues

such as unjust rings

or wage theft. Initially

known as the Interfaith

Center for Worker Justice

(ICWJ), the project served

mainly as a service for

low-wage workers, focusing on resolving immediate

workplace issues mainly through legal means.

In August of 2007, the Workers’ Center shifted from

being a service to a base-building organization.

CTUL began focusing on empowering low-wage

workers to lead a movement aimed at achieving

fair and equitable wages, working conditions and

treatment for all.

Over the past four years workers have succeeded

in recovering back wages and reinstating hundreds

of unjustly red workers, while winning victoriesagainst some of the biggest and most well-

established employers in the area and becoming

rmly established as a major force for worker justice

in the process. We have persuaded 20 companies

into changing corporate policies impacting workers,

gaining improvements for over 600 low-wage

workers. In only four years, CTUL has grown from

a small organization with a few members into a

powerful force for those whose

voices have gone unheard.

Since 2010, CTUL has been

organizing with retail cleaning

workers across the industry.Workers have organized

marches, protests, and

community events, to bring

to light the injustices they

reportedly face every night

as they clean big stores in the

Twin Cities.

In May of 2011, 18 workers and allies participated in

a hunger strike that lasted 12 days. During that time,the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution

supporting retail cleaning workers, and workers

were supported by a number of inuential gures

including, Lutheran Bishop Craig Johnson, State

Rep. Jim Davnie, State Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, and

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison.

Shortly following the conclusion of CTUL’s hunger

strike last June, many workers at different companies

from across the industry reported signicant pay

increases. These were the rst pay increases thatmany workers have seen since they started working

in the industry.

Now, we move into a new phase in this campaign in

which we continue to organize to ensure fair wages,

fair working conditions and a voice in the workplace

for all retail cleaning workers in the Twin Cities.

1 “Diversied Maintenance Systems Hits Several Major Milestones in 2011,” July 12, 2011 press release2 Alvarez et al. v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, LLC et al, No. 0:11-cv-03106-SRN-TNL, U.S. District Court, Dist of MN3 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1479614, Local Filing Number 2007-250-033364 The list of which contractors clean which stores is from CTUL interviews with janitors5 “The Janitorial Pricing Limbo Contest,” Cleaning and Maintenance Management Online, James Madison, Nov 20096 Lunds: Escucha; estamos en la lucha,” Insight News, Ivan Phifer, February 11, 20117 “Ukrainian brothers guilty in slave case,” UPI, Oct. 12, 20118 “Diversied Maintenance Systems Hits Several Major Milestones in 2011,” July 12, 2011 press relase9 Diversied Maintenance “Valued Customers”


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10 Alvarez et al. v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, LLC et al, No. 0:11-cv-03106-SRN-TNL, U.S. District Court, Dist of MN11 Alvarez et al. v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, pp. 5-712 Alvarez et al. v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, p. 813 Alvarez et al. v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, p. 1114 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1479614, Local Filing Number 2007-250-0333615 Anne Marie Wright v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, No. 9:07-cv-80983-KAM, U.S. District Court, S. District of FL16 Vergara v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, Inc. et al, No. 6:08-cv-00598-ACC-KRS, U.S. District Ct, Middle Dist of FL17 Sousa v. Universal Building Maintenance, Inc. d/b/a Diversied Maintenance Systems, No. 6:08-cv-00245-JA-DAB, ,

U.S. District Court, Middle District of FL18 Munoz v. Building Maintenance, Inc. d/b/a Diversied Maintenance Systems, No. 6:08-cv-922-ORL-DAB, U.S. District Court,

Middle District of FL19 Arellano v. Diversied Maintenance Systems, Inc. No. 1:11-cv-01288-FB-JO, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of NY20 “Case Study: Carlson Building Services,” Amano Pioneer Eclipse Corporation21 From CTUL interviews with janitors22 U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Minneapolis District Ofce, Case ID: 1561107,

Local Filing No. 2010-250-0481623 “Grocery Store Cleaners Enter Day 7 of Hunger Strike,” In These Times, R.M. Arrieta, May 7, 201124 Lunds: Escucha; estamos en la lucha,” Insight News, Ivan Phifer, February 11, 201125 “Grocery Store Cleaners Enter Day 7 of Hunger Strike,” In These Times, R.M. Arrieta, May 7, 201126 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1500383, Local Filing Number 2008-250-0365827 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1500383, Local Filing Number 2008-250-0365828

Chao, Elaine L., U.S. Department of Labor v. Omni Contracting Management, Inc. et al, Case No. 1:06-cv-00164-REB29 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1378019, Local Filing Number 2004-199-0308730 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1379476, Local Filing Number 2008-174-0281131 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1500383, Local Filing Number 2008-250-0365832 “Cleaning Workers Rally for Better Pay, Conditions,” WCCO-TV, Lindsey Seavert, November 6, 201033 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1490944, Local Filing Number 2007-250-035134 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1490944, Local Filing Number 2007-250-035135 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1490944, Local Filing Number 2007-250-035136 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1490944, Local Filing Number 2007-250-035137 Ricciardi et al. v. The Kimco Corporation et al., Case No. 2:10-cv-05371-JS-ARL38 “Ukrainian brothers convicted of forced labor in US,” Associated Press, Oct. 12, 2011,39 United States of America v. Botsvynyuk, et al, Criminal No. 10-159-01, 0240 United States of America v. Botsvynyuk, et al, Criminal No. 10-159-01, 02

41 “Ukrainian brothers guilty in slave case,” UPI, Oct. 12, 201142 “Ukrainian brothers charged with slave labor in Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Inquirer, Nathan Greenstein, July 1, 201043 United States of America v. Botsvynyuk, et al, Indictment, p. 544 Ukrainian brothers convicted of forced labor in US,” Associated Press, Oct. 12, 2011,45 “Illegally in U.S., and Never a Day Off at Wal-Mart,” New York Times, November 5, 2003, Steven Greenhouse46 “Illegally in U.S., and Never a Day Off at Wal-Mart,” New York Times, November 5, 2003, Steven Greenhouse47 “Wal-Mart Mops Up Immigrant Flap,” CBS News.com, March 18, 200548 Zavala et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Case No. 2:10-cv05301-WJM-MF, p. 1849 “Target Target: Janitors win a legal victory,” The Austin Chronicle, Justin Ward, Feb. 29, 2008.

Fuentes, et al. v. Jim’s Maintenance, et al., Case No. 4:06-cv-0172150 Gonzales et al. v. Prestige Maintenance, Case 8:07-cv-01949-PJM51 Overtime suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in Greenbelt settles for up to $3.8 millon”, Caryn Timber,

The Daily Record, December 9, 200952 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1183955, Local Filing Number 2002-250-0044353 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1361131, Local Filing Number 2004-167-0412254 U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Case ID 1447129, Local Filing Number 2006-250-0280355 Fuentes et al. v. Jim’s Maintenance et al., Case No. 4:06-cv-0172156 “Target Target: Janitors win a legal victory,” The Austin Chronicle, Justin Ward, Feb. 29, 2008.57 “Labor Department Wins $1.9 Million in Back Pay for Janitors,” New York Times¸ August 26, 2004, Steven Greenhouse


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Documents

(2012) A Dirty Business: Worker Exploitation in Minnesota's Retail Janitorial Industry