...K P F T news

On Monday of this week, representatives of the Texas carpenters & millwrights regional council met with the Harris county Houston sports authority, to discuss allegations of labor non-compliance at the construction site of the new basketball arena downtown.

In a report filed two weeks ago, KPFT discovered that the concrete subcontractor for the arena, capform inc, purposely omitted an entire class of worker from the companyís payroll. Because of this, the union is calling for an investigation of capform by the sports authority.

The union is also asking that an outside officer with the Harris county public infrastructure deptartment be hired to conduct on-site compliance studies to guarantee workers are being paid for the work they are doing.

After Monday's meeting, Oliver luck, CEO of the sports authority, put the ball in the union's court, asking for specific worker testimony to prove labor grievances exist.

This, the union says, is a difficult task considering that workers are scared to talk to union officials for fear of being fired.

Luck says that there is a three-man panel of publicly appointed board members that are ready to conduct an investigation into the union's allegations.

And he insists that payment to Capform by the Houston Sports Authority can still be withheld months after the job is over if the union can prove there is evidence of wrongdoing.

Stay tuned to KPFT news for more details.

E-mail Jackson Allers at jacksona@earthlink.net .