April 30, 2015 – RI Future

Unite Here Local 217 has taken the battle to unionize workers at two Providence hotels to another level with the unveiling of a new website, TPG Fails, extremely critical of The Procaccianti Group, (TGP) a “Cranston-based hotel developer and management company.”

Unite Here local 217 has been engaged in a unionization effort at the Providence Renaissance Hotel and Hilton Providence for several years. Both hotels are managed by The Procaccianti Group, who have been relentless in fighting the efforts of employees to receive fair wages and decent treatment.

Subtitled “an independent investor information website posted by Unite Here,” TPG Fails is a compendium of the company’s bad investments, environmental disasters and “wasted opportunities.”

For instance, under “Hotel Failures” the site lists three hotels TPG managed to lose millions of dollars on, resulting in delinquent loan repayments and multi-million dollar defaults.

Under “Costly Cleanups” we learn that “In 2008, The Procaccianti Group discharged its deed of 138 Hamlet Ave. in Woonsocket, RI. The site was built in the early 1900s and was primarily used as a textile manufacturing plant. The Procaccianti Group subsidiary FDS Industries, which stored office and hotel equipment, abandoned the site in 2001. The environmental concerns at this site include a variety of contaminants, including Volatile Organic Compounds, Semi volatile Organic Compounds, Metals, including Hexavalent Chromium, Pesticides, Herbicides, Polychlorinated Biphenyl, Lead, Asbestos, Fluorescent light ballasts, and other solid wastes.” In 2008 Woonsocket was granted $200,000 in EPA funds to clean up the site.

The new website paints an especially grim picture of TPG’s environmental record. “In 2011, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council told Procaccianti subsidiary PBH Realty that it was in violation of six state freshwater wetland laws because of a man made pond PBH had made on a Jamestown property. Chris Powell, who was chairman of the Conservation Commission, said, ‘I chaired the commission for 27 years and these are the most blatant and obvious violations I have ever seen.’ Press accounts [here] and [here] state that after two years, the Coastal Resources Management Council accepted a ‘compromise’ restoration order.”

Wasted opportunities include the boarded up Fogarty Building downtown, and a promised 22 story high rise, “Empire at Broadway” that is today a parking lot.

Every excruciating TPG embarrassment is sourced.

The goal of this website is to pressure TPG to negotiate with the hotel workers in good faith. “UNITE HERE Local 217 is in ongoing labor disputes with two Procaccianti Group hotels in Providence, RI,” says their press release, “Fund managers should do their due diligence before partnering with The Procaccianti Group.”

The Providence Student Union (PSU) called on the General Assembly to “Rebuild Our Schools” in a rally held at the State House. Joining the students was Representative Aaron Regunberg, a co-founder of the group, along with teachers, parents and community members and many elected legislators seeking to, “increase funding to repair the state’s deteriorating school buildings.”

Speakers stood next to pictures projected on a screen that showed rotting ceilings, damaged floors and walls and infrastructure in serious need of repair or replacement. Many of the students at the rally wore yellow construction hats “to reflect the danger of attending public schools.”

Jeremiah Ledesma, a student at Mt. Pleasant High School, spoke about a “very serious rat and roach problem” at his school.

“There’s a rat living in a classroom on the first floor,” said Ledesma. “It pops out every once in a while when it’s looking for food. I’ve seen cockroaches walk across the lunchroom floor.”

Laura Maxwell, a teacher at Hope High School, recalled a classroom she taught in that shared a wall with a student bathroom. “One morning,” said Maxwell, “I smelled something… not so nice… I finally went to the bathroom and saw a stream of human waste coming down the wall from the floor above.”

These stories are shocking, and they serve to highlight the sad state of our schools. The average age of schools in Rhode Island is about 60 years. Only 10 percent of the schools are under 25 years old. The PSU estimates that repairing only the worst schools will cost more than $300 million. Bringing all schools into good condition will cost $1.8 billion.

PSU has “called for an end to the state’s school housing aid moratorium, and for an increase in school facilities funding in the state budget.” They are supporting Governor Gina Raimondo’s addition of $20 million in school housing aid in her state budget.

Participants also support House Bill 5434, sponsored by Representative Regunberg, “to create a $70 million trust to continually generate funding for school repairs.”

According to a press release, the legislation “would establish the Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corporation, which would oversee distribution of funds generated by the trust for school construction and would be responsible for developing and implementing a formula for borrowing and issuing loans and grants to districts.”

The night before the rally, Brendan Caprio, a student at Hope High School, testified before the House Finance Committee on the importance of properly funding our schools. You can watch that here, followed by video from the rally itself.

Day: April 30, 2015

Unite Here Local 217 launches anti-Procaccianti website

Providence Student Union calls on legislature to fix broken schools