fortscott

Competing against the hordes of unlicensed hacks in advertising is OUT OF
CONTROL.
The CSLB has NO idea how to deal with the problem due to the sheer number of
operators in every California city. Day labor fills Home Depot parking lots,
specialized posters create professional ads for these thieves and fill
electronic and print media with illegal postings.

ENOUGH! We intend to put CSLB on notice. Tackle this problem NOW, before it
becomes irreversible and our license is worth nothing. If we go out of
business, they will.

For more info about the UCA and what we are doing, visit our website:
gouca.org

Link to the UCA video:
gouca.org/uncon/ucv.html


You can help move our agenda forward by sending this e-mail to as many
contractors as you can.
You can become a member of the UCA for $55.00 a year. We are non profit, all
dues collected keep the fight going, and fund a suit against publishers that
allow illegal advertising.
Send to:

UCA
P.O.Box 13416
Sacramento, Ca. 95813

(916) 749-5333
e-mail uca@gouca.org

Bodger

I'm in. I have been bitching about this for years. I've been inderbid on jobs and had them taken away by unlicensed mopes and I've turned them in via the "hotline". NOTHING has ever happened as a result. The CSLB takes NO action regarding this problem. Occasionally they will, as you know, set up a sting operation where they advertise a job and then bust the unlicensed guys who come and submit proposals. Wasting the time of licensed contractors in the bargain when they also show up to bid.
I'm looking at tlink right now.

BKFranks

Nothing is going to change in CA. The state legislature has been run by the left for decades. They're too busy trying to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens and now trying to drive businesses and jobs out of the state by passing that illegal $10 Billion tax increase.

Non licensed contractors and illegals are rampant and there's no enforcement. There's hundreds of illegals lined up in front of HD everyday and the police can't even arrest them. In places like LA county they have special order 40 which prohibits the police from arresting known illegal alien gang members even if the police know they've been deported before. It's a joke!

The only enforcement is maybe once a year they pull one of those undercover stings and arrest a few people. That's it. Most of the time they get jobs by word of mouth or referrals so the people they're getting work from is someone who knows someone. Many contractors don't care cause they just want the cheapest price. I've seen a bunch of contractors that are originally from south of the border and were either given amnesty back in the 80's, or have become citizens after being here from many years and they are sympathetic to illegals so they hire them.

Before anyone starts thinking I'm some racist I'll let you all know that I am married to an immigrant from Mexico who came here legally and believe me the process of becoming a citizen takes years. My wife thinks it's a total slap in the face that she did it the right way and many others didn't and the government does practically nothing about it. There's all these freebies just handed to illegals and my wife got nothing. She worked hard to learn English on her own. She speaks French, English, and Spanish. She works for a fortune 500 company as a financial analyst and works for two gym's as a personal trainer and teaches aerobics classes. She's also building her own personal clientele so that she can eventual work solely for herself doing only that. Her and I alsorun a few days a week and run marathons together.

Craigslist is post after post of unlicensed people offering services. I took a look at LA County today and it's just unbelievable that people can advertise for work and even get hired by a home owner. I'm starting to think CA is the bizarro world where everything is the opposite. Up is down and left is right, and wrong is right. I'm about a inch away of moving out of this state.

__________________

Bodger

Standing Order 40 is a slap in the face to every law enforcement officer in Los Angeles. And just another example of how this state has become a sanctuary for illegals.
And I'm not to be consiodered a racist either, I have a son whose mother is 100% Mexican. Her parents came here legally and also went through the lengthy process of becoming citizens and learning English. They came here to assimilate into this society, and not be a burden on the system. As it should be.
I am close to leaving this state myself. It has become beyond bizarre. Seems like the less these unlicensed types want to comply with the laws of the land, the more profitable their illegal businesses become.

License Guru

It's only going to get worse come February when the Gov puts us on furlough two days a month!

__________________
Phil Cocciante
You've got Questions? I've got Answers!

License Guru

Let me just add that even though the cslb is self funded, they will not spend more on enforcement. Whatcha see is whatcha get. They believe they are top of the heap and will really only do what they feel is best for them, not the industry. Did I just say that out loud?

__________________
Phil Cocciante
You've got Questions? I've got Answers!

fortscott

Good point Guru.

There has been no reason for them to increase enforcement staff proportionate to the problem until now. We will use the media to be heard, the internet to organize and the frustration of contractors to drive the point home.
The CSLB as you know operates under the umbrella of Consumer Affairs, therefore some of the lack of leadership on unlicensed advertisers falls squarely in their laps.

To focus our energies on being the squeakiest wheel makes the most sense. It is after all a Public Safety issue. I have spoken with hundreds of Licensed Contractors in the last three years. Without exception, there is an underlying disgust with lack of enforcement. We know how close the License Board came under the 'sunset provision' to being put out of business this year. The Governor extended them for an additional 18 months. This is a fragile regulatory agency on the brink of collapse.

We believe that the CSLB must be restructured or removed. If they are neither willing or able to get the problem of unlicensed contractors under control, then they should close up shop and let consumers fin for themselves and quit slapping Band-Aids on a bleeding artery.

Why bother to issue licenses and regulate 316,000 contractors while more than 1.5 million unlicensed operators thumb their noses at the CSLB? These illegal contractors are rubbing our noses in it and the board says 'so sorry'. Not good enough. Not for the thousands of consumers getting screwed, not for the thousands of legitimate contractors forced out of business. We pay their salary, and they are pissing our dollars away.

We met with Senator Cox and Senator Steinburg, we are very clear that nothing can change without support from constituents, hence the squeaky wheel. This a growing massive problem and it can not be addressed by sitting on our hands. You may as well bend over.

If you are reading this, and are sick and tired of watching unlicensed hacks saturate advertising, day labor use without the expense of comp driving you out of business, you no longer have the luxury of sitting idly by. I have heard the voice of those who tell us to sit down and shut up. No thanks, I would rather live on my feet than die on my knees.

see our unlicensed contractors video give it a moment to load
gouca.org/uncon/ucv.html


Scott Day
President of the UCA Sacramento, Ca.
scott@gouca.org

fortscott

This is insanity.
Here is a partial clip from the 'bias' New York Times EDITORIAL
Home Depot Amendment


Published: June 22, 2007
Squatting beside the bulk of the Senate immigration bill — a once-in-a-generation attempt to change millions of lives and the direction of the nation — you will find a squalid little amendment. It was placed there by Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia to benefit an Atlanta-based corporate constituent, Home Depot.

The amendment would prohibit state and local laws that required big home-improvement stores to provide rudimentary shelter for day laborers. There aren’t any such laws yet, but the City Council in Los Angeles, where Home Depot wants to open 13 stores, is considering one. Mr. Isakson’s pre-emptive strike would be an extraordinary intrusion of federal power into a local land-use matter.

Home Depot is a magnet for day laborers. Small contractors and homeowners load up on lumber, drywall and buckets of screws, and then grab a crew. Communities have struggled to deal with these often-untidy labor bazaars where looking for work can be hard to distinguish from loitering.

The combative approach, with anti-loitering laws and police harassment, seldom works and has been overturned repeatedly in the courts. The Los Angeles City Council is considering something more constructive, an ordinance that would charge big retail chains that attract day laborers — Home Depot, essentially — about $200,000 per store to provide a bare-bones space with shade, benches and toilets, to bring some order, cleanliness and safety to the daily mixing of men and trucks.

The ordinance treats day labor as a measurable and inevitable effect of Home Depot’s buy-in-bulk business. Just as stores must obtain conditional-use permits, operate at certain hours and install lights and signs to mitigate traffic and other problems they cause, Home Depot would have to help make its stores safer and less unsightly. But after more than two years of discussions with Home Depot, council members were stunned to learn that the company’s backdoor lobbying had gotten Mr. Isakson’s proposal onto the short list of Republican amendments for the Senate’s climactic debate next week.

Supporters say the amendment is germane to the immigration debate, but it’s not. Day labor is often a path for illegal immigrants, but not every day laborer is illegal, or even an immigrant. As long as there are homes and homeowners and Home Depots, day laborers will be with us, and local governments will need the authority to respond to them.

Mr. Isakson pulled his support for the immigration bill on Wednesday, because he doubted it was ambitious enough to seal the Mexico border. Now he wants the Senate to minutely tweak the grand bargain to allow his friends at Home Depot — the country’s second-largest retailer, and a campaign contributor — to save some pocket change and to shuck off responsibility for the unruliness in its parking lots to its customers and neighbors.

The immigration debate has always been wrenching. Now it’s getting shabby.

fortscott

Cops Not Taking a Shine to Home Depot's Day Laborers

By Nina Shapiro
Published on October 02, 2007 at 7:53pm
A U-Haul truck pulls up to the curb along a SoDo street bordering Home Depot. A throng of seven or eight men, who have been standing on the sidewalk, immediately rush the car, surrounding it on all sides. They're part of a crowd of mostly Latino laborers who congregate here every day, waiting for vehicles to drive by with potential employers. They not only rush unsuspecting trucks, but sometimes jump into them unbidden. But it turns out this U-Haul's driver isn't looking for workers, and the throng just as quickly peels away.

Kevin p. Casey

Kicked to the curb: workers under watch.
"That was a little scary," says the jeans-and-baseball-cap-wearing driver, who looks a little dazed and declines to give his name. "I've never seen such a thing." He's a contractor who's driven up from Olympia to pick up cabinets for a house he's building. Despite the shock, he says he's glad to learn these workers are here. "I pay my guys 20 bucks an hour," he says. "These guys will probably work for a lot less."

"Look we've got an uncontrollable problem," says West Precinct Capt. Steve Brown, describing what he says are the views of local businesses. He says they have long complained about laborers mobbing cars, stopping traffic, and participating in other unruly behavior. Angi Davis, vice president of property management at Nitze-Stagen, ticks off a list: "drug activity, open-container drinking, public urination, defecation, harassment." Nitze-Stagen owns the property occupied by the Home Depot, as well as the nearby Sears and Starbucks headquarters.

The number of workers reached a critical mass this summer. "We had 125 guys out there," Davis says, adding that it was hard for pedestrians to walk past. Workers had divided themselves largely by nationality: Mexicans took Home Depot's eastern border, Salvadorans the western, according to police. There was even a guy trying to muscle his way into becoming the boss of workers, telling them he wanted a cut of their pay, says Sgt. Paul Gracy, head of West Precinct's community police team. (The sergeant heard that immigration officials ultimately deported the muscle man.)

In one incident, a Home Depot janitor told a laborer to get out of the rest room and received a punch in return, according to Sgt. Gracy. Not long after, Capt. Brown and the Seattle Police Department's No. 2 leader, Deputy Chief John Diaz, decided to check out the scene themselves. "We were just pulling into the parking lot when a call came over 911 that there was an assault with a knife," he recalls. A laborer had been cut on the neck in a fight with a couple of others. The knife left only a superficial wound, but still, Brown says: "I got a fairly good feel fairly quickly" of the situation. "You take a look at that. You develop a plan."

Police called in the Seattle Department of Transportation to paint many of the curbs red, indicating that cars can't stop there. That has contained the job market to just one street, Utah Avenue South. To make sure workers stay there and don't go onto Home Depot's property, the store has hired extra security officers, who stand all day long in the parking lot under a metal awning, attached to which is a sign that warns: "No Loitering. Police Enforced." Home Depot also hires an off-duty state trooper to man the site.

"We're not trying to stop it," says Gracy. Police couldn't even if they wanted to, he adds, because it's perfectly legal to stand on sidewalks for as long as you want.

Paula Carson stops her Dodge van on Utah, and two workers climb out. They had wanted $27 an hour to load things from her now-defunct restaurant, the Rocket, onto a moving van. "No," Carson says. "You don't get lunch, picked up and dropped off, not pay taxes, and get $27 an hour." She takes two other workers in exchange and speeds off.

fortscott

Thursday, October 20, 2005
Day laborers create quandary at Texas Home Depot store
Atlanta Business Chronicle

Austin, Texas, day laborers who gather in front of the St. John's Avenue Home Depot store looking for work asked the Austin City Council for help Thursday.

"We urge Home Depot to recognize its corporate responsibility," says Victoria Gavito, staff attorney for the Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center, who led a group of about 20 day laborers calling themselves the Day Labor Committee of Home Depot of St. John's. "They are a key player in the day-laborer phenomenon."

The Home Depot store on St. John's in North Austin has become a problem for the home improvement retailer, day laborers, Austin police and others because of a recent corporate policy change that prevents soliciting on company premises, Gavito says.

That has forced from the retailer's parking lot the 50 to 100 day laborers who show up there looking for work every morning, day-labor advocates say. The workers now filter out onto sidewalks or streets, impeding traffic and pedestrian flow in the area and endangering the workers, advocates say.

A spokesman for Atlanta-based The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) talked with the New York Times earlier this month about the problem at the St. John's store.

"The existence of this issue is one that's beyond the Home Depot's control," spokesman David Sandor told the Times.

"Like many businesses, we have a policy of nonsolicitation of our stores by individuals and organizations who aren't affiliated with our company. The reason for that is really simple -- our customers tell us they want a shopping experience that's easy and comfortable.''

Gavito says she hopes that by turning to the city for help, Home Depot might be persuaded to give something back to the day laborers in exchange for "millions of dollars in tax subsidies from our community." Home Depot received city incentives for its new 500-employee data center in Austin.

David Lurie, the city's health and human services director, says the already spends $250,000 a year on one day-labor center near 51st Street and I-35, less than two miles from the St. John's Home Depot store.

But the day-laborer advocates argue that there isn't enough work to go around at that location, sending them to the St. John's Home Depot.

"We should potentially be looking at expanding capacity for organized day-labor systems," Lurie says. "The real key is not only getting laborers to access that [I-35] site, but also employers."

The city probably will look at opening another day-labor site elsewhere to better serve the entire city, Lurie says.

Austin Police Commander Sam Holt says police have received 90 complaints about the day laborers at the Home Depot store.

On October 21, 2005, dozens of Austin day laborers appeared at a meeting of the Austin City Council and called on the City and Home Depot to cooperate with the workers in establishing a safe and orderly hiring site for day laborers to seek jobs next to the Home Depot store located at North I-35 and St. Johns Avenue.

Supported by EJC's Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center and Religion and Labor Network of Austin, the day laborers explained that they come to the Home Depot story only to seek work to support themselves and their families. It is Home Depot that has made this particular store a magnet for day laborers, by designating it to be their local store that attracts and caters to building contractors, providing special facilities, staff and services for contractors.

Until recently, the workers and EJC staff had worked out a reasonable informal accommodation with local Home Depot managers allowing workers to utilize an open space behind the store and abide by a code of conduct the workers had adopted. However, Home Depot corporate headquarters recently imposed from above a one-size-fits all national policy that prohibits all job solicitation on their property and forbids local store managers from even speaking with workers or local community groups. This Home Depot policy has not made day laborers disappear; rather has had the effect of merely pushing the workers onto crowded public sidewalks and curbsides and onto the property of neighboring businesses, increasing the unsatisfactory fall-out for neighborhood businesses and residences.

The day laborers who came to the Austin City Council asked that the City to work with them to set up a safe, orderly, and dignified site that will accommodate the concerns of the the City, Home Depot, neighborhood residents, and the workers. They also asked the City to help persuade Home Depot to act responsibly as a good corporate citizen and join the effort to find a community-friendly solution. In addition, the workers, many of who reside in the neighborhood, presented the Council with over 200 letters signed by neighborhood residents who support the day laborers efforts to create a safe well-regulated hiring site at the Home Depot store.

fortscott

Contractors Complain About New Job Center
By Matea Gold
December 20, 1997 in print edition B-3
A newly opened job center in Hollywood where day laborers wait for work is under fire from local contractors, who complain that the center is unfairly promoting the services of unlicensed workers.

Citing a flier for the center that advertises roofers, painters and plumbers, contractors complained that the city-funded center gives an advantage to the laborers, most of whom are not licensed by the state.

“We’re not against these people working, but we definitely think the contractors are being nailed by this,” said Andy Stewart, who owns a plumbing and heating company near the center. “We pay every single little fee, and it’s hard for us to compete when they don’t have to comply with anything.”

However, city building and safety officials said that providing a place for unlicensed workers to wait for employers does not violate city codes.

Homeowners can hire anyone to work on their property as long as they have the proper permits, said Luke Zamperini, an inspector with the city’s Department of Building and Safety.

“You can hire the guy next door and supervise his work if you want,” Zamperini said. “However, we do recommend that homeowners hire reputable, licensed contractors.”

Located on a parking lot behind a Sears, the Virginia Avenue center opened in October as a place for day laborers to wait for work. It is the first city-funded labor exchange to open in seven years.

Center coordinators, who withdrew the fliers after contractors complained, said people realize that they are employing unskilled laborers, not professional plumbers and carpenters.

“I think the flier was misunderstood,” said Nancy Cervantes, an aide to Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who helped set up the site. “These are low-skilled workers helping on jobs. They are not competing with licensed contractors. No one there holds himself out as someone who can complete a job on his own.”

In response to contractors’ concerns, coordinators will provide information at the center about when employers need to hire licensed workers, worker’s compensation and other labor issues.

But the state contractor’s license board, alerted by the complaints, has launched an investigation and last week sent an inspector to the center.

“If it’s a job labor center acting truly in that capacity, then we don’t have a problem with it,” said Dennis Bishop, supervising deputy of the board’s enforcement unit. “But if they’re out there contracting jobs on their own, then that would be a problem.”

Bishop said that if the center is violating state law, it could be cited and fined up to $500.

When it opened, the workers and local businesses praised the project as an example of successful collaboration between day workers and domestic workers.

Dozens of men who had crowded the corners along Santa Monica Boulevard looking for work now gather at the center before dawn. Domestic workers have organized a co-op based at the center to help them get jobs. Organizers also plan job skills and English classes.

The city is spending about $100,000 a year for the program, which includes salaries of three coordinators.

Many workers said they are now able to protect themselves against employer abuses with the help of information about state labor law available at the center.

But the contractors’ concerns have put a snag in the center’s progress, illustrating the difficulties in trying to find a way to organize the massive, mostly immigrant labor pool in Southern California.

Even if the work done by laborers is legal, contractors said they worry that unlicensed workers hired at the center do not have the skills necessary to complete a job.

Cervantes said it is clear that the center is not an employment agency with responsibility for the workers, but simply a safe place where people can hire laborers.

“The center is a solution, not a problem,” she said.

Bodger

And right down the street from that center, where I have an account and buy lots of materials, is a Stock Building Supply, and you can hardly get into the parking lot in the morning because of all the day laborers loitering around the gate. Same with Pennysylvania Builder's next door.
I nearly had to fistfight one of these "day laborers" once for teasing my dog as she sat in my parked truck.
The government won't touch this problem. It's replaced Social Security as the third rail of American politics. We might see some tightening up along the Mexican border if, God forbid, the next terrorist attack on American soil originates with perpetrators that have entered through Mexico.
Otherwise, we are on our own here. The truth is, you don't need a contractor's license to operate in the State of California anymore. It's unpoliced, and everyone knows the odds of getting caught are slim to none.
Sometimes I feel like a complete idiot for complying and having all proper insurance and licensing in place at all times. It's expensive peace of mind, but it sure as hell isn't something to worry about anymore if you don't have it.
The unlicensed illegal aliens are coddled by the government, and supported by the ACLU to the point where it's unthinkable for the authorities to arrest
them because of all the political ramifications. Maybe all unlicensed contractors are not illegals, but my guess is that in Southern California, the bulk of them are.

Nelson Finish C

Like the rest of you, I too am tired of sitting at home twittleing my thumbs, while every unlicensed carpenter in the state and every illegal person is working every day as if nothing is wrong with the economy. I also feel that we must do something to make the CSLB take care of this ridiculous situation that the state of California has allowed to take place here in our state. .

fortscott

The deeper I research this problem, the more I am convinced that if Licensed Contractors not only in California, but Texas, Arizona, Florida, Washington, and others do not rise to oppose the government corruption responsible for not only allowing but enabling the certain and impending demise of the construction industry in these United States, we will in essence promote our own failure.

Ben Franklin wrote to those brave and determined men who risked their homes, their families and their fortunes when considering independence of a new government separate from England and on American Soil,
"We must hang together gentlemen, or we shall surely hang separately".

License Guru

Excellent!! The cslb does bow to political pressure. I've seen it first hand. Keep going in that direction.

Here's a story to give you a hint at the board's mindset...

I went to board meeting here in sac. I brought up the issue of bringing the "school" into the fold because we can help cut back the amount of poorly submitted apps. Thus cutting back on back logs and streamlining the process. Mr. Sands spoke up quickly trying to shut me down (you see, he and I have history. I worked for him at the architects board before he followed me to the cslb) but I refused to be hushed. I told the entire board that they were doing the construction industry a disservice but shutting out people like me who are here to help contractors get thru the system with minimal stress. At that point, the board chair moved on to another agenda item. I left!

The bottom line... they could care less about me, my service, others in the licensing industry. Basically what they are saying is that they dont care about the contractor himself. Why back an industry that helps the 40,000 plus applicants a year? There is nothing in it for them, the board.

Now you did it Fortscott... I'm fired up!!!

__________________
Phil Cocciante
You've got Questions? I've got Answers!

Chap

This is a problem here as well. Starting the first of the year we will be pressuring state and local officials to change some of the requirements to get licensed, and to crack down on the unlicensed. This is becoming a huge problem all over the place and it"s time people take a stand.

__________________
The Savvy Contractor Blog
Follow me on Twitter

fortscott

If you have ever spent hard earned cash to advertise your business and found
your shiny new ad on the same page as a person advertising without a license,
you just might be a 'Disgruntled Contractor'.

Some of you could care less, most of you are fed up. So are we.

How can $55 stop these blasted parasites?

There are thousands of these hacks that have no intention of ever getting
licensed, you know it...I know it, and as they fly a single finger salute all
the way to the bank, they know it to.

I want to say thanks' to the Contractors that showed up for a special
Enforcement meeting last Friday the 9th at the CSLB. There were 9 UCA
Contractors and our Legal Council Mr. Evers made it an even Ten.

David Fogt Chief of Enforcement, Jeff Miller Lead Investigator SWIFT, Carl Vega
SIU,
Dorothea La-Barr who works the illegal advertising angle, faced angry determined
yet respectful contractors expecting not just lip service, but strait answers
and solid commitments. We got both.

After a good two hours, it was clear to all in attendance that the Enforcement
and SWIFT were more than interested in the ideas and solutions we put on the
table. Our main objective was to drive the point home that until the supremely
asinine 'B&P Code 7027.2' was amended, many legitimate contractor businesses
would continue struggling to stay afloat in the face of the economic downturn
and dwindling opportunities while shouldering the added weight of an unfair
business advantage courtesy of the unlicensed hordes advertising illegally at
nauseam.
(7027.2 allows any clown with a hammer to advertise for construction work as
long as he states that he has no license. Pure unadulterated B.S.)

Mr. Evers offered several examples of how publishers may find themselves between
the proverbial 'Rock and a hard-spot'. Yelling 'Fire' in a crowded theater, or
'Bomb' on an airplane is clearly regulated speech. The fat cats in the
publishing biz hide behind the First Amendment whenever they are faced with
having to actually verify whether or not an advertiser is using a valid
contractor license number, or checking to see that a business license number is
not being used to mislead consumers into believing that the poster is actually a
contractor prior to publication.

An injunction against publishers who routinely avoid due diligence is a very
appealing legal avenue for an association such as the UCA. Taking out ads to
hold District Attorneys to task for not aggressively pursuing prosecution of
repeat offenders who flaunt licensing laws is on the table.

Fifty five dollars is like one nail, it's not enough to build a home, but driven
one at a time they get the job done.
Eight contractors who decide to add their nails, will build the foundation for a
suit against a major publisher. It cost just under $400 for a filing. Eight more
will get our message to DA's to get off their asses and stop sending underground
operators home from court with a civic lesson a balloon and a lollypop.

We need your support, or we wouldn't be wasting your time or ours asking for it.

You can support the United Contractors Association by sending us a check for $55
to:

UCA P.O. Box 13416
Sacramento, Ca. 95813

Or you can use your credit card thru PayPal on our secure website link:
gouca.org/pay_now.html

The Official UCA website:
gouca.org

And in case you missed our last UCA Post, our online video might get you
thinking:
gouca.org/uncon/ucv.html (Give it a moment to load)

Thank you for your time.

Scott Day
UCA President
916. 749-5333
scott@gouca.org

Bodger

I just lost work to an unlicensed hack so I'm a little short of funds. Can I just deduct that from my CA state income taxes this year and ask the CSLB to get of their ass and go bust the guy who took my work?
Happy to supply the address where the illegal activity is occuring.