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Each year, the International Workers Association holds a Week against Unpaid Wages. Before the week begin, ZSP would like to share a story concerning a famous wage thief - the current President of the United States, Donald Trump.

The time was the early 1980s. Trump had decided to build a luxury tower in New York, the famous Trump Tower. In order to build the tower cheaply, Trump looked for cheap workers. Just at that time, some Polish workers had come to New York, fleeing the situation in Poland, looking to earn some money. (By the way, let's remember how many Polish people were political and economic refugees.) Trump hired around 200 Polish workers (with no right to work in the US) to work on the construction of the Tower and the demolition of the Bonwit Teller building, which had previously stood on the site.

The workers were paid $4 an hour – far below the rate of unionized construction workers and had no benefits, poor safety conditions and had to work 12-hour shifts. Worst of all, the building was full of asbestos, which they were not told. They were not given any safety equipment.

Two lawsuits were filed. One by a group of workers who were not paid pension and medical benefits by Trump (another common form of wage theft) and another by the Polish workers. Both cases were ruled in favor of the workers in court, with the Polish workers receiving 1.375 million dollars.

It is not bad enough how Trump had exploited and endangered the lives of the Polish workers. There are many documented incidents of POTUS not paying for work.

When POTUS built a casino in Atlantic City – the Taj Mahal, dozens of contractors did not receive money for their work. Some even had to declare bankruptcy because of this. Some businesses had laid out up to 2 million dollars to complete work on the casino, but did not get paid.
(https://apnews.com/article/10bbe40a86774bac9ad1fbd3a936c808)
Trump owed a total of $70 million USD to 253 contractors. A year after the casino was constructed, Trump – who had millions in various assets – declared bankruptcy. Some people received only one third of what they were owed.

There were numerous other cases of not paying contractors for supplies or labor. For example, during the construction of Trump International Hotel, Trump demanded that work go faster, so people had to work overtime. Electricians were owed $2 million dollars for their work that Trump didn't pay.

In 2016, USA Today published an article after researching how many times Trump failed to pay workers and contracting companies. The newspaper found over 60 lawsuits and more than 200 liens from people who did work for Trump. (https://theweek.com/speedreads/629132/usa-today-investigation-reveals-do...)

When this information came out, Trump of course claimed that all these people had done a bad job, and why should he pay for a job badly done.

What can we learn from this history – besides the fact that Trump in an SOB? What does ZSP want to tell you?

- This „bad job” excuse is one of the oldest in the books and is not acceptable when it comes from people who obviously just want to steal your labor and money. „Bad jobs” have to be documented. Do not accept this excuse. Talk loudly about it and take action against this form of wage theft.

- Wage thieves often claim they are „bankrupt” when in fact, they have lots of money, or at least enough to pay you. In Poland, we know some business people who go bankrupt numerous times and just move assets around. Don't let them get away with it. (You can contact us to know what to do in this sort of situation.)

- Don't work construction without the proper safety equipment. We've already had a few situations where people have been seriously injured because of this. If you see people working without helmets, harnasses or other necessary equipment, take photos and videos and we can do something about this!

- For Polish people who might be getting riled up by the government's and other organizations' anti-immigrant hate campaign, remember that Polish people were and are immigrants in many places in the world and that, as such, they sometimes were severely exploited or had to work in dangerous conditions. The same thing is happening in Poland to many immigrants here who face many different types of abuse. Instead of being brainwashed by the anti-immigrant hate campaign, we need to see that both immigrants and Polish workers, particularly non-skilled workers, are victims of the same system of greed and exploitation and we need to fight together. Our politicians, who have promised for years to get rid of trash contracts are full of shit. They haven't done it, they haven't protected Polish workers from wage theft – they do nothing about it. Instead of dealing with this, they prefer to distract your attention and focus your discontent on foreign workers, such as Ukrainians, who are the victims of a brutal ongoing war. Understand who is really behind the problems that affect so many Polish workers.

- Trump is anti-worker scum, not a person to follow.

For more information on ZSP, check out zsp.net.pl.