Statement of Gonzalo Valencia, Covington, Washington
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support
of the House Committee on Ways and Means
May 08, 2007
Chairman Jim McDermott and Chairman Richard Neal:
My name is Gonzalo Valencia. I have worked as a carpenter for 18 years.
I went through the Union apprenticeship starting in 1989. I worked for fourteen years on union jobs.
After 9-11-2001 work slowed down. I went out looking for work. I went up to a guy who was framing a house. He said, “Can you frame?” I said, “I can frame anything.” He said, “Can you get two guys to work with you?” I said, “Sure”. He paid me as a 1099. Then he recommended me to the homebuilder. I got my contractor license in August of 2003 and they hired me to frame houses. I’ve been there ever since.
I am good at building houses. I love to build houses. I am an honest man. I have tried to do it right. Many others don’t even try to pay the taxes for the carpenters. The homebuilders have accountants and lawyers who decide how much it will cost to build a new house. I think they know that the footage rates are not enough to pay ourselves a wage and cover our own payroll taxes.
It is very difficult to be an independent contractor framing houses. The homebuilder is a big company. I am a carpenter working with my tools. The builder tells you how much you will be paid. On some houses there is not enough money to keep a wage for myself. The homebuilder provides all of the material. The homebuilder sets the schedule. The superintendent calls and yells at you when you don’t show up for work.
The reason I work as an independent contractor is because nobody tells the homebuilders that they have to pay their carpenters as employees.
This homebuilder has a system for building houses. I do the work the way that they say to do the work. They like the windows a certain way, the corners framed a certain way. Now, they started walking through the house when you are halfway done and they make a list of things they want you to change or do-over. On my last house the list had 80 items.
They pay me by piece rate by square footage. This winter the boss told me that the housing market is slowing down and he cut my piece rate from $4.85 a foot to $4.50 a foot. Garages are not included in the footage rate, even detached garages. I am required to frame garages for free if I want to keep the job. If the homeowner wants plant shelves, or archways, or a vaulted ceiling the homebuilder says OK. It requires more hours of work, but it doesn’t cost the homebuilder anymore. They require me to frame the extras and I make less money on the house.
I have framed for the same large homebuilder for five years. I understand that this is an ongoing job; so long as I continue to perform they will keep me on. Sometimes the boss says if I don’t do something that he wants he will fire me. Recently he demanded that I fire one of the guys on my crew.
I’m not a contractor like a plumbing or electrical company. I don’t bid work to other contractors, I don’t have an office or a secretary. I don’t have a company name on the side of my truck. I go to work everyday for the same builder. If this was a commercial job I would be a foreman. Building houses I am called a framing subcontractor.
My situation is very common in new home construction. In five years I have seen many framing crews, hundreds of workers. The workers often get paid less than they were promised or don’t get paid at all. None of the tract homebuilders in our area hire carpenters as employees.
Today, my son is working with me. He is learning the trade. I can teach him to be a good carpenter. I can’t teach him how to make a living working on houses.
I hope that you will help to fix this problem so that good carpenters can be proud of our work and proud of how we get paid.