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Merit Drywall <br />Clearwater, Minnesota <br />On November 23, 2020, the former owners of <br />Merit Drywall, LeRoy and Joyce Mehr, were <br />sentenced for a fraud scheme that bilked <br />an insurance company out of more than <br />$300,000 in unpaid workers' compensation <br />insurance premiums. The Mehrs were fined <br />$30,000 and ordered to pay Federated <br />Insurance $309,000. The couple was also <br />sentenced to 180 days of electronic home <br />monitoring and, five years of probation, and <br />30 days of community service.52 <br />The Minnesota Department of Commerce's <br />Fraud Bureau found that the Mehrs and their <br />company, Merit Drywall, fraudulently treated <br />employees as independent contractors, <br />allowing them to save hundreds of thousands <br />of dollars in workers' compensation <br />premiums. These practices, in turn, put <br />Merit in a position to underbid honest <br />contractors.53 <br />• Merit Drywall was observed on the TIF <br />subsidized Moline Apartments - Doran <br />(Hopkins) <br />Stone Pro Masonry <br />Eau Claire, Wisconsin <br />For years, Stone Pro Masonry company has <br />faced allegations of exploiting immigrant <br />workers, including guest workers employed <br />under the H-2B visa program. Use of H-2B <br />visas has been described as rife with abuses <br />and as a form of indentured servitude by <br />the Southern Poverty Law Center, because <br />immigrant workers are shackled to a single <br />employer, have little recourse when they <br />5z Kate Raddatz, Hennepin Co. Attorney Mike Freeman <br />Announces Felony Charges Against Former Owners Of <br />Merit Drywall, WCCO News, January 21, zozo, available here: <br />https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/hennepin-co-at- <br />torney-mike-freeman-announce s-felony-charges-against-for- <br />mer-owners-of-merit-drywall/. <br />53 Estefan Saucedo, Former owners of Merit Drywall charged <br />with insurance fraud and theft by swindle, Kare rr News, <br />January zi, zozo, available here: https://www.kareii.com/ <br />article/news/local/former-owners-ot-merit-drywall-charged- <br />with-insurance-fraud-and-theft-by-swindle/89-9541fc84- <br />dc3b-4e7d-bzl9-eacfoaod5515• <br />are cheated or abused, and enforcement of <br />program rules is Iax.54The accounts offormer <br />Stone Pro employees seem to support the <br />Southern Poverty Law Center's conclusions. <br />Over the past several years, Stone Pro has <br />obtained permission to employ dozens of <br />what the company referred to as "carpenter <br />helpers" on H-2B visa workers in the Twin <br />Cities and Western Wisconsin. The H-2B <br />program requires employers to pay minimum <br />wage rates based on the location and type <br />of work performed in order to protect <br />immigrant workers from exploitation and <br />prevent the program from displacing local <br />workers or eroding area wage standards. <br />But worker testimony and field observations <br />suggest that Stone Pro H-2B employees have <br />been underpaid and mistreated. <br />For example, one H-2B visa worker <br />interviewed by LIUNA described performing <br />masonry and concrete work that evidently <br />should have earned them roughly $8 to $12 <br />in additional hourly pay.55 The worker also <br />indicated that company representatives <br />were well aware that they were hiring skilled <br />block masons and concrete laborers, but <br />encouraged them to conceal that fact <br />from the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey. The <br />worker also detailed other pay irregularities, <br />including being shorted pay for driving the <br />company van and working in the shop and <br />being paid in cash, and he described being <br />crammed into a residential home in Eau <br />Claire, Wisconsin, with more than a dozen <br />other workers. <br />54 "Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the <br />United States," Southern Poverty Law Center, Feb. <br />19, zoi3, https://www.splcenter.org/zo13o218/ <br />close-slavery-guestworker-programs-united-states <br />55 Construction workers that place concrete are classified <br />as Laborers under Federal and state prevailing wage laws, <br />and have been consistently designated as Construction <br />Laborers by other area concrete contractors that em- <br />ploy � H-2B workers. The applicable rates can be found <br />U .S. Foreign Wage Certification Data Center Online <br />Wage Library "Mean Wage (H-2B"} listing for the <br />Minneapolis -St. Paul -Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical <br />Area:: https://flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults. <br />aspx?code=47-2o61&area=3346o&year=19&source=l <br />North Star Policy Action 15 <br />