Individual 1 takes premature victory lap for thousands of electrical workers voting for him in 2020

[Miles Archer]

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

I’ve employed thousands of Electrical Workers. They will be voting for me!

12:44 PM · Apr 5, 2019 · Twitter for iPhone

Link to tweet

[Power 2 the People]

1. Employed them but probably never paid them.

[SeattleVet]

2. How many have you actually paid what you were supposed to?

And how many were forced to settle for pennies on the dollar when you held out on them?

[struggle4progress]

3. Hundreds allege he doesn't pay his bills

Steve Reilly, USA TODAY
Published 2:46 p.m. ET June 9, 2016 | Updated 1:42 p.m. ET April 25, 2018

During the Atlantic City casino boom in the 1980s, Philadelphia cabinet-builder Edward Friel Jr. landed a $400,000 contract to build the bases for slot machines, registration desks, bars and other cabinets at Harrah's at Trump Plaza.

The family cabinetry business, founded in the 1940s by Edward’s father, finished its work in 1984 and submitted its final bill to the general contractor for the Trump Organization, the resort’s builder.

Edward’s son, Paul, who was the firm’s accountant, still remembers the amount of that bill more than 30 years later: $83,600. The reason: the money never came. “That began the demise of the Edward J. Friel Company… which has been around since my grandfather,” he said.

Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will "protect your job." But a USA TODAY NETWORK analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans, like the Friels, who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them ...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

[struggle4progress]

4. A brief history of his small-time swindles

Jeff Spross
July 11, 2018

... Noel Cintron, 59, says he worked as a chauffeur for Trump and his family for 25 years. On top of a mammoth unpaid overtime bill — 3,300 hours in the last six years — Cintron says he only got a raise twice after 2003: to $68,000 in 2006, and then to $75,000 in 2010. The second bump came with a requirement that Cintron give up his health benefits. All told, Cintron is suing Trump for at least $350,000 in damages ...

After putting in long hours for a special event at Trump National Doral, a Miami resort, 48 servers had to sue for unpaid overtime. The settlements averaged around $800 per worker, but went as high as $3,000 in one case. On top of that, a paint shop owner named Juan Carlos Enriquez also sued Trump's business, claiming he never got the final payment for a paint shipment to the same resort. In 2017, after a three-year legal fight, a court found in Enriquez's favor, and ordered Trump's company to pay the final $32,000, plus $300,000 in legal fees ...

Back in 2007, Larry Walters got an order for over $700,000 of curtains, pillow covers, and bedspreads for Trump's hotel in Sin City. Walters said additional orders grew the job to $1.2 million, but the developer, a joint venture LLC called Trump Ruffin, only paid $553,000. Eventually, Walters responded by halting work and keeping the remaining fabric as collateral. Trump Ruffin sued, and sheriff's deputies actually showed up at Walters' business to take the fabric away. Knowing they could drag the legal fight out, Walters eventually settled for $823,000 — about $380,000 short of what he said he was owed. He closed the business in 2011 ...

It was 1988 when Forest Jenkins won a $200,000 contract to install toilet partitions at Trump's Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. For a modest business like Jenkins', it was a huge score. But thanks to the enormous debts Trump built up, the casino went belly up just a few years later, and the payment never came. After years of fighting in bankruptcy court, Jenkins only got $70,000 back, and was nearly ruined in the process. According to CNN, dozens of other contractors on the project went through the same ordeal ...

https://theweek.com/articles/783976/brief-history-trumps-smalltime-swindles

[struggle4progress]

5. Stiffing his own employees

BY TINA NGUYEN
JUNE 10, 2016

... According to a USA Today investigation, Trump has received at least 3,500 official complaints for failing to pay employees, contractors, and other business affiliates money owed. The paper also found at least 60 lawsuits, 24 instances where Trump failed to pay overtime and minimum wage, and countless out-of-court settlements. Among those to whom Trump owed money, according to USA Today: dishwashers, bartenders, painters, real-estate brokers, and ironically, even his own lawyers. In 1990, a casino commission audit of the Trump Taj Mahal, then about to open, revealed that Trump owed an astounding $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors. Marty Rosenberg, the owner of a plate glass company who was owed $1.5 million, said that he was only able to recover 70 cents on the dollar for his work, and that he was one of the lucky ones. “Yes, there were a lot of other companies. . . Yes, some did not survive,” he told USA Today.

Not all of the incidents highlighted by USA Today are in the past, either. The paper found at least two class-action lawsuits settled as recently as two months ago: one where 48 servers at his Miami golf resort alleged that he failed to pay them overtime, and one where a judge ordered foreclosure of Trump’s Doral golf course if the resort did not pay a Florida painter the $30,000 he was owed.

Trump’s history reveals a specific pattern whereby he and his businesses would first claim that a contractor’s work was subpar, and then refuse to pay for it. If he was faced with a lawsuit, Trump would either settle out of court, or, more often than not, threaten to drag out the legal process for as long as he could, making it financially unfeasible for a small, independent business to successfully litigate a claim ...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/06/donald-trump-lawsuit-contractors?verso=true

[shanti]

8. This is his MO, dragging things out

...Trump’s history reveals a specific pattern whereby he and his businesses would first claim that a contractor’s work was subpar, and then refuse to pay for it. If he was faced with a lawsuit, Trump would either settle out of court, or, more often than not, threaten to drag out the legal process for as long as he could, making it financially unfeasible for a small, independent business to successfully litigate a claim...

And it's something he is doing with U.S.!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. The impetus for Trump's tweet appears to be that Joe Biden is criticizing him at an IBEW event.

The impetus for Trump's tweet appears to be that Joe Biden is criticizing him at an IBEW event. The IBEW itself put together an investigation in 2016 discussing, at length, how Trump treats his works, including electricians.

Link to tweet

[True Blue American]

7. Union members

Gave Biden a standing ovation today!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. Trump's long history of (allegedly) stiffing people

When Trump was making upgrades to Mar-a-Lago before his 3rd marriage, he stiffed an 82-yr-old immigrant who installed crystal chandeliers for him.

Trump bashed him in the press and sicced his lawyers on him...then settled, paying only a 3rd what he owed.

Link to tweet