Quoted Text

Big developers’ lowball hiring tactics harmful to local contractors

    Corporate greed and outsourcing of American jobs are the reasons our economy is so bad, and you don’t have to go far to see it. Take, for example, the construction project in Wilton past Exit 15 on the Northway or the one by the Rotterdam Mall.
    Big developers like Bette and Cring and Albany Partners are given the OK by local planning boards to do these “large, highend luxury condos” (their words). They, in turn, outsource the project to a builder from Texas who is able to outbid local builders by at least 30 percent. Supplied with a completely out-of-state work force with questionable [immigration status] that works seven days a week in the rain and snow, these developers and the owner of the company sit back and get rich.
    Even worse is what they are doing to the local economy: Local builders have to lower their prices 30 percent if they want to compete and they will pass this on to the worker who lives local and now cannot afford his mortgage.
    Change is needed, and not just in Washington. If our local planning boards and supervisors are willing to sell out the local taxpayer to these big developers, they should not be re-elected. The local politicians should be concerned with creating more jobs for local taxpayers rather than more money for greedy developers. Remember, “it’s all about job creation,” and I don’t mean for out-of-state contractors or developers who bend tax laws and take advantage of immigrant workers to make more money.

    JAMES STANDHART
    Rotterdam
The writer is a local building contractor.