Laborers at Cobb Courthouse didn't show work permits

By Mary Lou Pickel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A boss who employed bricklayers at the new Cobb County Courthouse in Marietta did not verify that they were legally allowed to work in the United States.

That boss was removed from the job on Friday and the 10 brick masons who worked for him were let go, said Chip Kessler, president of Zebra Construction, the main masonry subcontractor on the courthouse project.

Allegations that illegal immigrants were working on the $63 million courthouse project came to light last week when a bricklayers union organizer questioned the county.

Another bricklayers representative said he talked with employees at the courthouse in November and asked if papers were needed to get a job there. The employees said no papers were needed and that they were paid in cash, said Jose Alvarez, business marketing representative of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers in Washington.

The union members notified the county on Friday of their allegations and that's when Cobb officials called Turner Construction Co., the main contractor on the courthouse job.

Turner called Suwanee-based Zebra, which then asked its masonry sub-subcontractor, Victor Candelaria, if he was checking the legal status of his workers. He was not, Kessler said.

"When we asked him, and he wasn't on that, we changed it and made sure we were in compliance," Kessler said.

State law requires contractors and subcontractors on public jobs to use a federal program called E-Verify, which runs names through a database and checks Social Security numbers and immigration information to make sure a worker is allowed to work in the United States.

On Friday, Zebra hired Stone Wall Masonry to run the bricklaying operation at the seven-story courthouse. The company uses E-Verify and checked the 17 new masons brought onto the job, Kessler said.

Candelaria, a legal worker, is still employed by Zebra in another capacity, Kessler said.

A group of skilled tradesmen told Cobb commissioners on Tuesday they were concerned because they believed that illegal immigrants were building the county's courthouse.

"This is leading to unemployment of tax-paying citizens," Ed Wigart of Powder Springs told the commission. "I know a lot of people are living day to day."

About a dozen plumbers, pipe-fitters, masons and others attended the county commission meeting, led by John Ciancia, the bricklayers union organizer who approached the county.

"People of Cobb County could be put to work," Ciancia said, referring to the courthouse project.

Michael Moten, an unemployed bricklayer from Austell, said he tried to get a job working on Cobb's courthouse in November but was given different names of people to talk to. Finally he talked with the sub-subcontractor, who told him that he would not get a job. "He only hires people he knows," Moten said.