Tough prevailing wage enforcement and sharp organizing by two northern California local unions have led to 48 felony counts against NBC, a general contractor infamous for underpaying immigrant electricians from China. In the process of documenting the company's lawbreaking, Dublin, Calif., Local 595 has stripped several skilled electricians from the company and initiated them as journeyman wiremen.

In May, the Alameda County District Attorney's office charged NBC's owner, Monica Ung, and two employees with public works wage fraud, grand theft of personal property, forgery and insurance fraud. The construction firm's illegal activities resulted in an estimated $3.6 million dollars in unpaid wages to 19 construction workers. Losses due to illegally misclassifying workers cost the state nearly $1.5 million. Fraudulent wage records were submitted to at least 27 public works awarding agencies.

"This is one of those campaigns that make you proud to be a union member," says Victor Uno, business manager of Local 595, who had grown frustrated with NBC's flagrant abuse of skilled building trade workers within his jurisdiction on San Francisco's East Bay.

On the opposite shore, John O'Rourke, business manager of San Francisco Local 6, was also running up against NBC, especially on public works projects. Together, O'Rourke and Uno decided last year that Johnny Huang, a Local 6 business representative who specializes in compliance and speaks fluent Cantonese, would be best suited to reach out to NBC's work force. He was assisted by compliance officer Andreas Cluver.

After meeting NBC electricians and gaining their trust, Huang reviewed their pay stubs and established that they were routinely being shortchanged with NBC underreporting their work hours. Some were even forced to sign blank time cards.

"John let us know our rights," says Ricky Lau, a one-year NBC electrician who came to the U.S. from China with his parents at age five and had worked for nonunion electrical contractors since graduating from a Job Corps training program nine years ago.

Lau convinced his co-workers to come to a meeting at the Local 595 hall where they were given information on the IBEW and the state's prevailing wage laws. After the meeting, several electricians decided to leave the company to work for signatory contractors. Local 595 members helped several former NBC electricians pass journeyman electrician tests.

Monica Ung's problems were just beginning with the loss of well-qualified electricians. Thirty NBC workers from different trades filed a civil complaint against the company. The charges are being held in abeyance pending the criminal case.

"Because of our lawsuit, dozens of exploited Chinese workers came forward and gave testimony, not only for their civil suit for wages, not just for economic justice, but for the criminal system as well," says their attorney Ellyn Moscowitz.

"Our success at NBC hinged on Johnny Huang's hard work," says O'Rourke, who says that Huang patiently explained the union's culture and goals and joined the NBC workers in after-work activities, including getting up early in the morning and going out to dive for abalone.

O'Rourke likened Huang's activism to Local 6's past battle with the anti-union Residential Builders Association, which employed Irish immigrants who "were paid under the table at the bar." The success in exposing NBC, says Huang, was not his alone, but was a product of the courage of Ricky Lau and other workers who stood up and confronted their own fears.

The struggle at NBC has been widely covered in the mainstream media and in Chinese-language publications. After locals became aware that Ung is being represented by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a traditional labor supporter, they took on the defense's argument that Ms. Ung was being victimized as a minority small-businesswoman.

An NBC workers support committee was formed by IBEW Local 595, NECA and the Asian Pacific Labor Alliance (AFL-CIO). Developments in the case are being closely monitored, and local leaders, community groups and unions are joining the effort to support the NBC workers. A lunch-time rally of union tradesmen working adjacent to an NBC project drew 100 supporters.

Now an IBEW journeyman, Ricky Lau hopes that the exposure of NBC's scam will lead other immigrant workers at nonunion shops to seek out help from unions to bring renegade businesses to justice. He knows it won't be easy. Facing high unemployment and a competitive labor market with limited English language skills, many of these workers "simply have no choice," says Lau.

"We are elated that a contractor is finally being held accountable for many years of illegal activities," says Don Campbell, executive director for the National Electrical Contractor's Association. "Contractors that cheat workers out of wages and cheat on insurance costs undercut good, law-abiding union contractors."

UPDATE: The original version of this story also contained some errors of fact. NBC is based in Oakland, not San Francisco. The civil case against NBC is proceeding, not held in abeyance. NBC workers met at Local 6’s hall and joined that local, not Local 595. Local 595 did not strip electricians from NBC nor help them pass the journeyman wireman’s test.