Joe “The Boss” O’Dea Hurt and Underpaid Workers
“[Joe O’Dea] is presenting himself as something he’s not… He is a corporate wolf in workers’ clothing.”
A new report from the Denver Business Journal revealed GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea endangered the lives and wellbeing of his workers and underpaid them – resulting in costly fines for multiple violations. Since the start of his campaign, O’Dea has claimed to defend working Coloradans, however his troubling history of bad business practices suggests the opposite. O’Dea has also attributed his candidacy to his business and said he’s “interested in defending [his] business.”
Colorado AFL-CIO Executive Director Dennis Dougherty slammed O’Dea for “presenting himself as something he’s not,” and labeled him as a “corporate wolf in workers’ clothing.” In June, Colorado labor unions spoke out against O’Dea and rallied in front of his business.
According to the Denver Business Journal, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined O’Dea $135,000 for 28 safety worker violations. Additionally, O’Dea was hit with “26 violations of the Davis-Bacon and related acts regarding the payment of prevailing wage and 13 violations of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act for inadequate payment of workers.”
Read more below:
Denver Business Journal: What does Joe O'Dea's record as an employer mean to his Senate campaign?
O'Dea has no record of legislative accomplishments or public votes on which he can run but instead is framing his campaign as that of someone who has for years been bettering the lives of working-class Coloradans.
That is why scrutiny is turning now to the Republican's history as an employer and the differing views that skeptics and supporters hold about his company. O’Dea’s ads tout that he started his career as a union contractor. But he also said on the Mandy Connell Show on KOA in February that he thinks unions have “outlived a lot of their usefulness.”
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Since its 1988 founding, Concrete Express has gotten hit with $135,000 in fines for 28 worker safety violations by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to information available on the OSHA website. It also was the target of a since-settled 2019 age and disability lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado to which O'Dea detractors have drawn attention.
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“O’Dea is selling hardworking Coloradans a bill of goods, and he is presenting himself as something he’s not,” said Dougherty, whose organization has endorsed Bennet. “He is a corporate wolf in workers’ clothing.”
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But in 2007, part of the floor collapsed at a Greenwood Village high-rise building where a crew was pouring concrete, injuring 13 employees of a subcontractor working for Concrete Express… OSHA fined Concrete Express $107,500, according to public records, citing it for violating rules regarding maximum intended loads and other worker safety requirements. It is the largest fine that the federal agency imposed on Concrete Express.
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OSHA also cited the business for 26 violations of the Davis-Bacon and related acts regarding the payment of prevailing wage and 13 violations of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act for inadequate payment of workers. It ordered the company to compensate $16,782 in back pay to 13 employees between March 2010 and March 2012.
Read the full story in the Denver Business Journal.