The discovery of dozens of bunk beds stuffed into crude, unfinished industrial spaces in Colchester raises questions about the prevalence of migrant laborers in Vermont’s construction sector — and also shines a spotlight on the growing company that housed them.
Following anonymous tips, Vermont Construction Company has been fined twice in recent months by the state Division of Fire Safety for operating unsafe dormitory-style housing in commercial buildings at Fort Ethan Allen. On December 5, the Town of Colchester issued an emergency order to evacuate one of the spaces, located at the company’s Hegeman Avenue headquarters. Inside, 17 mattresses were arranged in several rooms and hallways, alongside exposed electrical wiring and space heaters. Inspectors did not find any smoke detectors or fire extinguishers; the residence had only one way in and out.
“When you walk through the space, it’s hard to believe,” said Cathyann LaRose, Colchester’s director of planning and zoning.
Vermont Construction is saying little about its unpermitted dwellings; cofounder Dana Kamencik insisted that Seven Days submit questions in writing, then did not answer most of them.
Migrants have long been acknowledged as the force powering the dairy industry in Vermont, but their role in the construction sector remains murkier.
But clues at the sites, LaRose said, indicate they were being used to shelter immigrant workers. Signs were posted in Spanish, and many of the residents’ belongings were kept in suitcases.
Migrants have long been acknowledged as the force powering the dairy industry in Vermont, but their role in the construction sector remains murkier. Some in the trades, however, say migrants are quietly becoming a disruptive force, particularly in the dangerous roofing business. The revelation that one of Vermont’s fastest-growing firms has been hosting dozens of such workers raises questions of fairness and potential labor abuses just as incoming president Donald Trump has vowed to round up undocumented immigrants for mass deportations.
The Associated General Contractors of Vermont was quick to distance the industry from the company’s housing violations and downplayed the prevalence of immigrant workers.
“Seriously, this is just shocking,” executive vice president Richard Wobby Jr. said, adding that he was unaware that Vermont Construction — one of the association’s members — was using an immigrant workforce.
“We have not had the new American wave that you’ve seen in some of the other states,” he said.
Nationally, undocumented immigrants make up somewhere between 15 and 23 percent of construction workers, according to an article in the association’s October magazine. But the group’s surveys suggest that of more than 15,000 workers in Vermont’s construction sector, only about 200 are immigrants, Wobby said.
The actual number is likely somewhat higher, according to Migrant Justice, an advocacy group that primarily represents farmworkers in the state’s dairy industry.
Ecuadorians with roofing expertise began traveling to Vermont from Massachusetts a couple of years ago, Migrant Justice spokesperson Will Lambek said. Since then, more have come to Vermont, including undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. Recently, some Mexican farmworkers have begun leaving the dairies for construction work, where the hours and pay are better.
Lambek figures more than 300 immigrants now work in the trades here. They typically work as subcontractors, rather than as employees; companies that hire subs do not need to verify those workers’ legal status.
Farms in Vermont have long provided lodging to their migrant workers. The accommodations serve a need for workers and employers alike, but living conditions are sometimes woefully subpar. Vermont Construction appears to be adopting a similar approach.
The firm has quickly become one of the most prominent roofing companies in Northern Vermont since it launched in 2016. Kamencik and David Richards, its cofounders, are ambitious entrepreneurs in their thirties. Kamencik also owns Isham Family Farm in Williston and until recently sat on the board of the Vermont Builders & Remodelers Association. Richards joined the board of Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity this month and in 2023, was named a “Rising Star” by VermontBiz magazine.
That same year, the publication reported the company was the state’s fastest-growing, having experienced a 1,400 percent increase in revenue over the previous five years. Vermont Construction actively markets its brand and in September inked a multiyear sponsorship deal with University of Vermont Athletics to be its official roofing partner. The company listed ReArch and Beta Technologies among its commercial customers.
As the company grows, it has gotten into a related business: real estate. Vermont Construction affiliates purchased at least four residential homes in Essex, Williston and Shelburne within the past two years, according to records. State fire inspectors at one point identified 15 people living in the Shelburne home, and the others have yielded noise and trash complaints from neighbors, VTDigger.org reported.
The company acquired a defunct medical office building in Fort Ethan Allen early this year, and by September, 57 wooden bunks and air mattresses were clustered with as many as six or eight to a room, according to LaRose, the Colchester town official. There was almost no fire detection or suppression equipment, prompting state and town inspectors to order the company to immediately evacuate residents and board up the building. The state also imposed a $1,050 fine.
Earlier this month, following a complaint, inspectors found a similarly dangerous housing setup in a partially renovated portion of Vermont Construction headquarters, just a quarter-mile away. Another emergency order to evacuate followed, as did a $2,500 state penalty.
In an email, Kamencik said Vermont Construction does not provide housing to any of its employees, though the company does use subcontractors.
“We have lease agreements with our tenants — as any other landlord would,” he wrote. Kamencik did not say who was living at the unpermitted sites or whether Vermont Construction was collecting rent from them.
Last week, a different Vermont Construction employee told WCAX-TV that the company was trying its best to house the mostly Latino migrant laborers who are helping support its growth.
“It’s not like they were living in squalor. This is a good accommodation for some of them,” said Byron Gokey, a project manager. Kamencik later told Seven Days that Gokey was not speaking for the company.
One longtime roofer said the use of migrant laborers as subcontractors is already transforming the regional marketplace. Jim Billado runs a small roofing company out of Milton, carrying on a 101-year-old family business. Hiring immigrant subcontractors has become a matter of survival, he said, given the lack of local workers.
Whenever he needs help on a big job, Billado hires a skilled family of Ecuadorians who live in New Hampshire. The subcontractors pay for their own lodging, Billado said, and have assured him they have legal authorization to work.
But Billado sharply criticized Vermont Construction and some other larger firms that appear to use immigrant subcontractors more frequently. The fact that some companies are providing lodging suggests those laborers are functioning more like employees than independent subcontractors, Billado said. Yet companies do not have to pay worker’s compensation insurance or other expenses for the subcontractors they hire. As a result, Billado said, firms such as Vermont Construction are able to consistently underbid him for work.
They’re “cheating the system,” he said. Billado called upon the State of Vermont to investigate.
Kamencik, for his part, did not respond to an emailed request for comment about this specific criticism.
Robert Depper, general counsel for the Vermont Department of Labor, said state and federal laws do not explicitly bar contractors from providing housing as part of a subcontract. There are rules that limit how much control a contractor can have over a subcontractor, however. Depper declined to say whether the department had received any complaints about Vermont Construction or was otherwise investigating the company.
In an email, Kamencik said the subcontractors who provide labor for Vermont Construction do not work exclusively with the firm. The company, he said, has taken steps to “resolve any issues regarding fire safety and prevention measures at our rental properties.”
Roofing is among the most perilous jobs in the country. Last summer, the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration received a complaint that a subcontracted laborer had fallen from a roof at a Vermont Construction job site in Burlington. None of the roofers were wearing fall protection devices, a state inspector observed. The subcontractor and Vermont Construction co-owner Richards declined to allow the inspector on the job site or to provide the names of the laborers, so the state obtained a warrant from a judge, court records show.
Vermont Construction later paid a $4,687 fine for the lack of fall protection. The company was fined another $5,531 in April for fall protection issues at a second Burlington job site, according to federal records.
LaRose, the Colchester official, said she spoke only briefly with Kamencik during the December 5 inspection of the illegal dormitory beneath Vermont Construction’s headquarters. Kamencik, she recalled, “said he had a bid due soon and didn’t have the time” to talk.
Billado’s company, meanwhile, is struggling to stay in business. He once employed 30 people. Today, he employs two.
“Those guys aren’t running [their companies] by the books, and they’re getting away with it, and it’s killing me,” Billado said. “They’re taking all my calls, they’re advertising all over the place, and they’re getting all the work.”
Billado lamented that liberal attitudes around immigration in Vermont may make state intervention unlikely, similar to what has happened with dairy farming. But it remains to be seen whether Trump’s promised immigration crackdown will ripple through the roofing industry.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Risky Business | Housing violations involving a fast-growing Vermont roofing company expose role of immigrants in the trades”
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This article appears in The Reading Issue 2024.
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