The majority of about 100 Filipino workers contracted to work on the Westar Energy peaking plant outside Emporia have been released from work on the plant, and the remainder of them were apparently scheduled to be released today, according to a Westar official in a conference call this morning.
“The majority had already been released, and I think the rest of them are going to be released today,” said Mark Schreiber, Westar’s director of government affairs. Schreiber said he had gotten the information from Jim Ludwig, Westar’s executive vice president of public affairs and consumer services.
Questions recently arose about whether the Filipino welders and pipefitters were legally authorized to work on the project, with state Rep. Candy Ruff, D-Leavenworth, attempting to find out whether the workers had gone through the proper verification process to work on the project using H-2B work visas.
Schreiber, who participated in the conference call with Westar Corporate Communications Director Karla Olsen, said there was no connection between the controversy and the decision to release the workers today. He said as the workers’ particular tasks are completed, they are released from the project.
“It’s our understanding their task, as I mentioned, was completed,” he said.
Olsen said the Emporia Energy Center plant itself was just about complete, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for sometime in the next couple of months.
The foreign workers were provided to Overland Contracting Inc. by Integrated Service Co., a Tulsa, Okla.-based company also known as InServ. Overland Contracting is a subsidiary of Black & Veatch, a Westar contractor on the Emporia Energy project.
The Omaha World-Herald reported last month that 61 Filipino workers, provided by InServ for work on a Nebraska City, Neb., power plant project, had been pulled off the job after their work status was questioned. Randi Donaldson, InServ’s managing general counsel, told the World-Herald that the removed Filipinos had been moved to another U.S. job site where they had legal work status.
H-2B visas allow foreign workers to come to the U.S. to work on projects for which there aren’t a sufficient number of available American workers with the skills to do the job. In order to work on the Westar plant with H-2B visas, the Filipino workers would have to be certified by the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Kansas Department of Commerce would have to verify that there weren’t enough American welders and pipefitters available to do those jobs.
The state department of commerce’s public information officer, Joe Monaco, said this week that no application for such verifications had been submitted by Westar, Overland Contracting, or InServ. Black & Veatch had recently submitted such a verification application, but for just one position.
Olsen said Friday that Westar had been assured by Black & Veatch last week that the workers’ legal status had been verified.
“But, of course, it is important to us,” Olsen said, “so we continue to follow up with additional inquiry for further reassurance of those facts.”
Schreiber said he was expecting to receive more information later Friday.
Earlier this week, Black & Veatch spokesperson George Minter said that the company’s subsidiary, Overland Contracting, had contracted with InServ to provide legal workers, including the 100 Filipinos.
Schreiber said verifying the legality of the workers is the responsibility of the contractor.
“They’re the ones that are hiring the contractors and the (subcontractors),” he said. “Because of the questions that were raised earlier, we’re wanting reassurances of that.”
Donaldson, InServ’s managing general counsel, couldn’t be reached Friday afternoon.
For more on this story, see Monday’s Gazette.
Comments
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
Posted by justaflushaway (anonymous) on April 11, 2008 at 3:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Schrieber knows that he is lying out his a$$, this crap that westar is blowing that they knew nothing and their
(the illegals) jobs were completed, is also a damn lie, come on, they got caught?? schrieber gets paid for pulling westar out of crap like this and delaying things like this and blowing smoke up peoples rears.
Posted by lcountyvictim (anonymous) on April 11, 2008 at 3:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Incredible timing! To think that the need for these workers is coincidently over. I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the recent revelations.
Posted by pizza (anonymous) on April 11, 2008 at 5:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Schrieber gets paid to blow smoke up the public's a$$ but what about Heerman who was blowing all that smoke about all the new jobs that were to be created for local people. What about the tax benefits Westar received from our pockets? Is any of that going to be repaid? I really think there is more to this than just these workers which is bad enough. I think that whole RDA needs investigated as to the false statements they are making just to get the taxpayers to buy them a business to bring to town so they can brag. Hell, Westar would have been here anyway. We need some transparency within that RDA outfit and not more secret studies that we paid $75,000 to get. Guess we are good enough to pay the bill but not good enough to see the results.
Posted by midnight_rider (anonymous) on April 11, 2008 at 7:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This afternoon one of the bus that transports the illeagls was parked at Candlewood. schreiber, heerman and zimmerman are all a like. No Good for Emporia. There should be some TRUTH from westar, rda and the city. Remember the rda is suppose to be accountable to the city.
If this workers are illeagl, who are their translators? How long have they been in AMERICA, taking jobs away from our citizens? Where were they before they were in Nebraska? Where are they going to after they leave here? We will never know. Where has OSHA been all of this time? We will never know.
Since they DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH, and they DO NOT UNDERSTAND OSHA, and they ARE WELDING at a plant that has 17-inch GAS LINES. Who that has any common sense, is going to INSPECT that place before it is started up? "BANG! BANG!
Posted by booker5m (anonymous) on April 11, 2008 at 7:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We are at fault for electing people who let them do this. Vote smart for change instead of a party!
Posted by create (anonymous) on April 11, 2008 at 8:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"no connection between the controversy and the decision to release the workers today." Oh PUH-lease!!! They must think we're all incredibly stupid! That's not even smart damage control.
Pizza, you have many good points. I wish you would e-mail Senator Barnett and make those points about Westar's use of our tax dollars and RDA making false statements. His e-mail address is on the other Westar story comment section posted by blulite special.
Posted by pizza (anonymous) on April 12, 2008 at 9:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The very folks that have been mentioned above are all the old establishment of Emporia. They all cover each other and have few, if any, new thoughts and all hate change. They looked a long time before they found a new city manager that would fit in to their way of thinking. They didn't want anyone with new, fresh and maybe even radical ideas. The RDA, the city commission and the chamber are all supposedly the community leaders but they just keep pursuing more of the same failed policies. Until some of this changes there will just be more of the same and they are very much opposed to any new ideas that might threaten their secure position as big fish in a tiny pond. There were some excellent ideas posted on this and other threads but it's going to take a bulldozer going through the establishment to get anybody to listen.
Posted by dhcc66 (anonymous) on April 12, 2008 at 11:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
umm...can anybody say TYSON???
how long have we overlooked just a few illegal employees there. frankly, i'm a little more worried about the beef on my plate than my electricity. both are important but come on now.
secondly....all this complaining about the city manager and city government....i thought the westar plant was in the county and most of what went on went through the county commission....i guess i'm not clear on that. or maybe some just want to continue to bash the city as usual. oh well, nothing new there either
Posted by justaflushaway (anonymous) on April 13, 2008 at 11:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
no one is bashing anyone, just bring to light the truth.
the rda/mr heerman was involved with bringing the westar disaster to town and mr. heerman reports to the city. where do you think his money comes from?
Open you eyes and realize the bottom line - westar knew the workers were illegal. mr. schriber (westar's puppet) know he had to stall in responding to the questions, so that they could all get their acts together and cover the behinds, and get the illegals out of town before the TRUTH came out.
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)