EAGAN, Minn. — A group of workers who helped build the Viking Lakes Apartments in Eagan, along with labor organizers, are calling on the owners of the Minnesota Vikings to take action after allegations of wage theft during construction of the Viking Lakes Apartments in Eagan.
"Today, we stand with dozens of workers who have come forward with complaints of mistreatment on the Viking Lakes development owned by the Wilf family," said Veronica Mendez Moore, co-director of the worker's advocacy group Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL).
The Wilf's development company, MV Ventures, hired subcontractors to complete the apartments, and workers for two of those contractors say they have now filed wage theft complaints against two of them, Absolute Drywall and Property Maintenance and Construction (PMC).
According to the Minnesota Reformer, which broke the story and spent months detailing the specific allegations, the workers say they are still owed more than $100,000 in wages from Absolute Drywall and Property Maintenance and Construction for their work on the Viking Lakes apartments, and much more for work on other recent projects across the state.
"We estimate that workers have been underpaid well over a million dollars in the last two years," Mendez Moore said. "Yet they've taken no real action to remedy any of this."
The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry tells KARE11 it does not comment on active investigations.
The group of workers making the claims were organized with help from the local carpenters union, the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.
"I've been a labor lawyer in this city for 16 years and I have never seen over 25 workers come forward from one specific project," said Burt Johnson, attorney for the union. "I have never seen that."
Though the allegations involve non-union workers, Adam Duininck, director of government affairs for the carpenters union, said they got involved because wage theft practices impact the entire industry.
"An entire business model exists that undermines people who are playing by the rules," Duininck said.
While the complaint is focused on Absolute Drywall and PMC, which have yet to provide a comment or response to KARE11, Johnson says they went public to make a plea directly to MV Ventures.
"Developers can choose who they do business with, they can choose how a job site is managed," Johnson said. "It is incumbent on them to fix it. We're saying MV Ventures is legally responsible for anything here, we're saying that they are morally accountable to the people of Minnesota."
MV Ventures sent the following statement to KARE11 in response to the allegations:
"The Minnesota Vikings and MV Ventures have longstanding, positive relationships with Minnesota labor unions and an extensive history of supporting and utilizing 100% union trades for U.S. Bank Stadium and multiple private Minnesota development projects, including TCO Performance Center, TCO Eagan’s medical office building and sports medicine center, the Vikings Museum and team store, the Viking Lakes Innovation Center, the Omni Viking Lakes Hotel and 240 Park Avenue.
"As it relates to the now-completed Viking Lakes residential project, MV Ventures consistently communicated with union leadership and followed a fair and transparent process that included actively soliciting competitive union bids. As a result, more than 50% of the work on that project was awarded to union trades. All of the selected subcontractors were legally entitled to bid and perform work in Minnesota. They also signed agreements ensuring fair labor practices for workers at the site and requiring strict compliance with all federal and state labor, benefit, workers’ compensation and wage laws.
"Allegations of unfair labor practices on the job site were never raised during construction nor were they brought to our attention in the year since the project opened. Furthermore, at no point during our recent extensive discussions with the carpenters union regarding the next phase of residential construction was there a mention of alleged unfair labor practices, including those concerning the individuals mentioned in the media over the last several days. To date, we have not seen formally filed complaints nor have we been contacted by the Minnesota Department of Labor. Should an investigation be initiated, we will fully support and cooperate, and if these claims are legitimate, the subcontractors in question, neither of which have been selected to work on the future residential project, will have breached their contracts with MV Ventures and should be held accountable."
In 2019, Governor Tim Walz signed bipartisan legislation giving Minnesota what's been called the toughest wage theft law in the nation, making it a criminal penalty.
But Minnesota Reformer reporter Max Nesterak says the reality has been much different.
"Since then we've seen no charges brought against employers for wage theft," he said. "What labor experts - and even lawmakers - say has broken down is, there's not enough investigatory power to actually criminally investigate these cases."
The 2019 law did provide funding for the Department of Labor and Industry to hire seven new investigators.
Nesterak: "But [that] they can do only civil investigations and criminal investigations is a whole other ballgame, and that means it largely fell to police or sheriffs to investigate these cases. Now these are complicated white collar crimes that take months or even years. Police are not particularly well-trained in white collar crimes like this. They have other things to work at that they're good at."
Kent: "Any word that that might be changing?"
Nesterak: "The Attorney General's Office and the Department of Labor and Industry say they have referred cases for criminal investigation, but they can't provide further information. We don't know what those cases are."
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