Boguslaw Moskal started working for Walter Bochenek, a prominent Polish contractor, in 1997. Bochenek owns three construction companies and has long hired Polish immigrants, many of whom don’t speak English. Since 2007, Moskal was among workers hired by Bochenek for a rehabilitation of the Sacred Heart School on the city's north side. 

Payment for contracting is often a fluid situation, with construction workers sometimes waiting on customers to pay the contractor, who then pays them. They often wait a long time before complaining about payments that are later or in lesser amounts than promised. 

But by the time Bochenek owed Moskal more than $20,000, he decided not to take it anymore. This past summer, Moskal visited Arise Chicago Workers Center, affiliated with the group Interfaith Worker Justice, which specializes in fighting wage theft and other injustices against largely immigrant workers.

Much attention is focused on the Latino immigrants victimized by construction industry wage theft. But it's also a serious and widespread problem for Polish workers in Chicago, which boasts the country’s largest Polish population. 

Anna Karewicz, organizer for Arise Chicago, hears many wage theft allegations from Polish workers, but their employers are rarely as high-profile as Bochenek. He is the honorary president of the Polish American Builders Association; the owner of three companies (Master Hand Contractors, Masterhaus Builders and Purcon LTD); and host of a radio program about building.

All this makes him a perfect target for a public pressure campaign of the type Arise Chicago and Interfaith Worker Justice specialize in. “We usually deal with construction companies that aren’t established, [but] he’s a much bigger target,” Karewicz said. “This contractor is one of the big fish in the Polish community.” 

(Please click link to read full story)