Immigrant Workers on Strike for Higher Wages at Catsimatidis’ Oil Company
The company has sent letters to three of the workers on strike stating that they have been permanently replaced. Neither UMEC nor Catsimatidis himself responded to Documented’s request for comment.
For five years, Dennis Spence has worked as a terminal operator for United Metro Energy Corp. (UMEC). An immigrant from the small Caribbean island of St. Vincent, Spence has three daughters and thought himself fortunate to have a job that paid $27.50 an hour. However, the work was inherently dangerous. Every night, he was required to climb up and down several large oil and chemical tanks to gauge their capacity. One small slip could be fatal.