Base expansion workers say contractor has not paid them

[unhappycamper]

Two protesters chant outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineeers’ Far East District Compound in Seoul on Thursday afternoon. The 23 protesters said a subcontractor hired by the FED hadn’t paid them all the wages they earned while helping with the expansion at Camp Humphreys.


Base expansion workers say contractor has not paid them
By Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, March 1, 2008

SEOUL — Ahn Byeong-chul has supplied gasoline to construction vehicles at Camp Humphreys for 10 months. But he says a South Korean government contractor owes him nearly $150,000 for his work, and he blames U.S. Forces Korea for his missing paychecks.

“USFK says they came here to protect us. And USFK’s top men are always saying ‘Katchi kapshida’ (We go together),” Ahn said. “But I feel they are going just their own way, and we are left out.”

Ahn is one of 23 South Koreans who gathered Thursday outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Far East District compound in Seoul to protest what they say is USFK’s mismanagement of its contractors on the Humphreys project. The district awarded the prime contractor, Seohee Construction Co. Ltd. of Seoul, a $29.7 million contract to prepare 203.6 acres outside Humphreys for an expansion of the base.

Seohee then hired a subcontractor, Jinsung Development, to work on the project, and the protesters say Jinsung owes them nearly $750,000.

Ahn said some of the protesters have had to take out high-interest bank loans or borrow from loan sharks because they haven’t been paid.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52952