Workers' Dignity staged a protest outside of the Target store on Charlotte Pike to support two workers who have claimed their employer stole more than $10,000 in wages from them.
The workers, Gerson Mendez and Antonio Vasquez, said they were hired by Diversified Maintenance, which provided janitorial services to Target, but after months of work, neither were paid.
Diversified Maintenance issued the following statement in response to the protest.
"We can’t confirm or deny whether the people making the allegations are indeed owed money. All we know is that someone with Worker’s Dignity contacted us but the names they gave us for the so-called employees did not match our employee records. The representative also would not give us any specific information as to when they worked. When we offered to work through this to make sure if they worked they were paid in full, the caller ended our discussion in lieu of the publicity stunt."
A press release from Workers' Dignity said both Mendez and Vasquez have tried to negotiate with their former employers, including making phone calls, sending letters, and visiting different stores for a solution.
"Were demanding we be paid for our work," Mendez said, who claimed he worked for Diversified Maintenance from February to March 2017. "At this point, we're owed over $10,000 in all. It's time for this wage theft to stop."
