Unions cite worker abuse at Viking Lakes in call for greater scrutiny of small construction firms

A woman who worked on last year's construction of the Viking Lakes Apartments in Eagan publicly alleged she was raped on the job, and her cause was amplified Tuesday by labor leaders and union activists who want Minnesota builders to weed out subcontractors that disobey state laws.

At an event involving labor unions, human rights advocates and elected officials at the State Capitol, Norma Izaguirre also said she was repeatedly harassed and shortchanged pay while working on the Viking Lakes project as a site cleaner for Absolute Drywall Inc., a Lakeville-based construction company.

She said she was terminated after asking a supervisor for help.

"I came forward because I want to make sure that no other woman is treated on a construction site like I was," Izaguirre said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter.

"My question for Minnesota developers and construction companies is, 'What will you do to prevent this from happening to another woman?'"

The allegations come months after other workers on Viking Lakes Apartments alleged wage theft by Absolute Drywall and another subcontractor — Property Maintenance and Construction, or PMC. The allegations were first reported by the Minnesota Reformer.

Unions and activists are campaigning for the Wilf family, the New Jersey-based developers who own the Minnesota Vikings and the 200-acre complex in Eagan that includes the NFL team's offices and practice facility, to screen out problem subcontractors.

Barb Pecks, business representative for the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, told the Capitol audience that it stood with Izaguirre "to call upon local elected officials, developers, contractors and all workers to take steps to ensure that contractors with public records of sexual misconduct, wage theft, worker misclassification, child labor and discrimination are held accountable for exploiting workers."

Messages left with Absolute Drywall were not immediately returned Tuesday.

In a statement late Tuesday, Gary Gleason, the construction vice president at the Wilfs' MV Ventures Construction, said the company takes all sexual assault claims "extremely seriously" but that it was never informed about the allegations during or following the construction project's completion.

"We have not been contacted by law enforcement, including the Eagan Police Department or the Dakota County Sheriff's Office, but are prepared to cooperate in any way we can with the investigation," he said.

Gleason emphasized to all project workers "that any workplace harassment or abuse will not be tolerated" and should be reported to MV Ventures.

In May, MV Ventures said union outfits performed half of the Viking Lakes residential construction project and that all subcontractors had signed agreements to ensure fair labor practices at the site and to comply with all labor, benefit, workers' compensation and wage laws.

The carpenters union, the community organization Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL) and the Building Dignity and Respect Standards Council alleged that laborers working on all Absolute Drywall and PMC projects were owed roughly $1 million in unpaid wages in the past two years.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Izaguirre's alleged abuser, Juan Diego Medina Cisneros, 30. He is charged in Dakota County with two counts of criminal sexual conduct for alleged attacks in February and May of last year. He has reportedly fled to Mexico.

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) would not comment on whether it is investigating the new allegations involving Absolute Drywall.

But Gleason said, "while we have not been contacted by DOLI, our understanding is that an investigation into the subcontractors in question has been initiated."

The department previously investigated the company in 2010, 2016, 2017 and 2018 for misclassifying workers, hiring unlicensed subcontractors, providing false information and for discrepancies in prevailing wage reports. Those cases are now closed.

Chad LeBaron, a former office manager for Absolute Drywall, said Tuesday that he remembers Cisneros but doesn't recall any complaints about the former employee.

LeBaron also said the company received no complaints about wage theft or sexual harassment before he left it in February 2021.

He said he processed Absolute Drywall's payroll while with the company and any allegation of wage theft is "a complete shock to me."

Most of its workers had direct deposit, and the remaining paychecks were given to supervisors to distribute. The checks, however, were only issued in the names of employees. As a result, LeBaron said he isn't sure how any underpayment could have happened. "I just don't see how that was possible," he said.

LeBaron said he surmises some workers, many of whom are immigrants, don't understand when payments are issued "legally and not under the table" that mandatory tax and Social Security deductions reduce the size of take-home pay.

Veronica Mendez Moore, co-director of CTUL, told the crowd Tuesday that her group repeatedly warned MV Ventures that subcontractors on the Eagan job site had a history of failing to pay workers their promised wages and harassing workers who complained.

Mendez Moore said CTUL offered to work with the company to help screen out problem managers and to identify victims, but it refused.

"They kicked us off the site," she said.