Union contractors don't provide health and retirement benefits directly, but rather through multiemployer plans. Contractors are obligated to contribute a certain amount of money on a monthly basis to a joint trust fund administrated and managed by the local union. The amount of the contributions are directly correlated to the number of employees and the number of man-hours worked. The trust fund(s) then pay the healthcare providers and the investment firm that handles the individual annuity accounts for the employees.

Truland stopped making contributions to the trust funds after first quarter 2014. By July, rumor had it that he owed approx. $3 million to the trust fund(s).

It was my understanding that the company had an informal agreement with the union to pay the back owed contributions in installments over the coming months. This obviously didn't happen, and when Truland abruptly ceased operations last Monday, July 21, the union immediately took action to sue for the money the trust funds were owed.

So in short- The union, or the joint trust funds to be exact, are seeking recompense for *millions of dollars owed to them*. They have every legal right to do this, and I think its important in this case to note that the union did not pursue litigation until AFTER Truland ceased operations and let go its entire workforce.

The union should and will get paid what is owed. Rob Truland's grandfather is turning over in his grave. Mismanagement (genes ran dry with the third and last Truland) is one thing, stiffing those who got you where you are is reprehensible.

hell - what about his father who ran the company for decades

I gotta' say...I didn't give this thread much chance. I love being wrong.

I heard someone in the upper ranks was basically emptying the place out. This will come out in court I am sure...

There are multiple reasons for the collapse. The owner tried to convince everyone that he had strong morals and ethics. What a load of crap! He preached morals and ethics as long as it didn't prevent him from making money. Nothing proves this more than his attempts to cover up the trail of disaster that his former COO left behind, but yet RWT kept him on the payroll until the company revolted and he had no choice but to fire him and his trusty side kick. RWT did not want to fire Sean but he wouldn't have any employees left if he didn't.

The executives and employees had enough and said they were done with RWT's inability to function as an owner who refused to make the hard decisions. RWT entrusted his $400M machine to a guy that couldn't even write an email properly.
This guy was an embarrassment to himself and the company but Rob stuck with him.

He just kept chasing numbers and bringing in more loser jobs. He was Clark Constructions personal pin cushion as they knew he would chase any number. Clark played him well for their own benefit. No company could survive the combination of Rob and Sean.

Utah was the nail in the coffin.

The employees are left holding the bag and Sean buys a company, Rob is still rich. Do you believe in karma?

Can we all agree that any organization or country is better off without the corrupt, cancerous unions that promote laziness, mediocrity, socialist politicians and overpriced labor?

NLRB Wrote:
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> Can we all agree that any organization or country
> is better off without the corrupt, cancerous
> unions that promote laziness, mediocrity,
> socialist politicians and overpriced labor?

That is hardly contributing to this thread. Can you offer any proof or a source?

Company w/unionized workforce goes tits up. Film at 11, fuckers.

Again, it wasn't the workforce that brought Truland to its knees - it was the douchebags with the skysuites...

A collection of unionized employees can never be referred to as a "workforce", as that would imply that they ever do some work. A more proper term would be "thugs".

^Extremism does not promote any kind of useful discourse. You know that they do some work and you know that they are not thugs. If you thought about it for a half second, you would realize that they must do some work or Truland would not have been the 10th largest electrical contractor in the US. Truland made hundreds of millions of dollars you know. Your comments are illogical and easy to dismiss.

I am very sorry for all the truly honest and hardworking truland employees and wish you all the best.

It sounds very unfortunate for the employees. When companies go out of business the only people who profit are usually the lawyers. If they had sold and gone thru chapter 11 the employees would still have gotten screwed, maybe just not as quickly.

I've worked at more than one company where the son or grandson gets the company handed down to them. It never seems to end well for some reason.

I guess this is a perfect example of how not everyone is protected by the imaginary "protective shroud of Washington, DC" that people refer to when talking about our local economy. It's hard to believe that we have tent cities in and around the Washington Metropolitan Area.

I work in the Electrical Industry. I was caught up in a RIF (reduction of workforce) back in the end of 2010. The economy in the Electrical Industry is not improving. There are contractors going out of business at an alarming rate. General Contractors are holding onto payments longer to float their debt.

Once the effects set in after The Federal Reserve pumping money into the stock market halts, I would expect to see a few more of the Truland-sized companies take a dirt bath!

NLRB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can we all agree that any organization or country
> is better off without the corrupt, cancerous
> unions that promote laziness, mediocrity,
> socialist politicians and overpriced labor?

Comments like this are driven by ideology, not reality.

I'm amazed that Truland just folded up tent. I get that they're no longer bondable, but I would think that their service department was a cash cow. Is Rob going to revive the service dept under another name, or is he just too old and gave up?

I'm a non-union contractor and have always admired Truland - they were the best in town.

Also, aside from the union bashing nonsense, this thread has better info than the newspapers.

As a member of 20+ years in the IBEW and 10+ years with Truland Service, I was shocked that the service dept. went out of business. The president of the service dept. along with his worthless brother who just happened to retire a month before this sudden shutdown sure screwed over their own union brothers and sisters. Hopefully karma catches up with both of them.

Corrupt unions helped elect Obama. Obama is the biggest failure in American history. Unions have fucked America. Fuck the unions.

Union Fallout Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Corrupt unions helped elect Obama. Obama is the
> biggest failure in American history. Unions have
> fucked America. Fuck the unions.


I'm a non-union contractor. This situation has nothing to do with unions. Truland unbelievably (to me) went broke. Only other union contractors are going to step in and pick up the pieces. There are only a small number of non-union contractors that do large electrical jobs in the DC area (other than MC Dean, I can't think of anyone that the Clarks of our area would hire).

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20140731/NEWS/140739732/1064/fort-belvoir-janitors-remain-on-strike&template=fairfaxTimes

Unions are both good and bad. NYC (Electricians) were the worst back in my day. As far as the Washington area, they were not that bad. We had good people. You will always have SLUGS sitting and coming off the bench to be dispatched to projects. That is why project management has to manage the labor.

get a life

If Rob Truland really has millions upon millions, why does he live in such a relatively cheap house?

http://www.trulia.com/homes/Maryland/Germantown/sold/1103201-15800-Darnestown-Rd-Germantown-MD-20874

They have money troubles themselves too, so they probably did put in their own money till the union killed the company:

http://www.lfhrmaryland.org/index.html

FUCK ROB TRULAND THAT CLOWN O ME MONEY

Warren Buffet is not having financial problems and he lives in a 700,000 house---so Mr. Truland's house is worth more. Maybe Truland likes his house.




ttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/warren-buffett-home_n_2507179.html

How many houses and how much land does he have?

In the business section of the Washington Post last week, the bankruptcy section showed 9 different chapter 7 bankruptcy filings for Truland under 9 different entities/names.

Talk about a house cleaning!

That piece of shit of rob truland still o me my last check

local 26 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That piece of shit of rob truland still o me my
> last check

As a union thug, you did nothing but sit around on your fat ass collecting a way-too-fat paycheck while driving your employer into the ground. No one owes you shit.

Does anyone know which EC hired the majority of their employees?

Strong unionis = strong middle class = strong country

Solidarity Forever


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kWp3iWa5nA

OK. Don't have time to read this thread. Haven't but skimmed over it. Keeps popping up. Can someone tell me in 3 sentences or less what is so special about this company that makes the fact it went out of business so controversial? Companies go belly up and/or fire/lay off people all the time. Why the love for Truland?

1. They have been in business for over 100 years, one of the oldest companies in the area, annual revenue over 400 million dollars

2. The were the premier electrical contractor in the DC area and wired most of the large prominent buildings in town

3. They were in the top ten of largest electrical contractors in the USA

4. They had nearly 1,000 local employees

5. They went Chapter 7 (liquidation) seemingly overnight

I didn't include periods, so hopefully this qualifies as 3 sentences or less

Other than this, I got nothing

Greed is good. 1.3 million severance package. To bad all the hard working members of Local 26 did not receive their weekly pay checks. Please apply for work at Power Services, Inc.

Thanks for the Cliff Notes version. Odd, but I have never heard of them...

Union cancer finally kills off another long-suffering host. That sums it up.

Cliff Note Wrote:
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> Union cancer finally kills off another
> long-suffering host. That sums it up.

Weak fruitcake


Corporate greed -nothing more

What ran Truland out of business? Maybe supporting 4" conduit with tie wire instead of proper straps. Tie wire is commonly referred to in the electrical industry as "Truland Straps".

We need to think of the children of the Union Tie Wire Workers.

Who is going to buy truckloads of tie wire now? Oh, the humanity.


And to the dipshit former employee not knowing what to do with the company vehicle he wants moved from the front of his house? Part the sumbitch out on ebay and maybe get your last check paid in full.

Truland is and has always been ratty as hell. If you couldn't see that in your first week on the jobsite, I don't know what to tell you.

My guess is that Truland will come back as an even rattier non-union shop. If that's even possible.

This is exactly what happened. Anyone in management saw the downfall when the president was fired and Sean took over. 93 people quit over an 18 month period from when he took control to when he was finally fired. By then nothing could save the company.

What does the union have to do with any of this? Do people actually believe there is a substantial difference in pay concerning experienced electrical labor?

Own a little bit (or big bit) of Truland. On sale now:

http://rasmuscatalog.com/cgi-bin/mnlist.cgi?rasmus415/category/ALL

Ends soon. Don't wait.

Let the lawsuits begin!

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2014/08/robert-truland-and-his-wife-could-be-personally-on.html

Unions Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Strong unionis = strong middle class = strong
> country


Ummm hows that working for the air traffic controlers? Or the municipal unions in Chicago? Or in China oh wait a minute there are no unions in China so no exorbitant labor costs. You think thats why manufacturing has moved off shore? Thats where America's middle class is now. So your precious union IS building a strong country except that that country is China.
Union fucktards lolz
Nip

Well, unions don't really matter much and haven't for a long time---it's all about supply and demand. You have to pay people enough so that it's worth working. You can go with no health care and benefits, but don't complain when your taxes go up to pay for those things. The union isn't the cause of those problems. The air traffic controllers get pretty good wages because the job is difficult and demands responsibility. If you want to import a China man to do it, fine. If you like communism, fine. It's not how people roll here. People here believe in taking care of each other (at least that's how it used to be). If you want to live in China, go right ahead.

NippleChuck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> exorbitant labor costs

The day we started viewing paying working men and women a wage that allowed them to live a middle class lifestyle was the day this nation started down the drain.

Looks like former employees are entitled to some compensation.

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2015/08/settlement-proposed-for-former-truland-employees.html

did he ever work at the lockheed facility ?

take a Union Law class at George Mason University

polititians are abusing union law by raping (or allowing the raping, funneling, without prosecution) of union funds

polititians are abusing union law by having union control parts of the government (ie, the black run DC teachers union), which do no compete for pay - because unlike a business, their products are sold at gunpoint "or else"

polititians are skipping court when charged, but using heavy handed police take downs when someone else is charged

polititians abused union law by forcing USA companies to pay higher than market wages even though the law CLEARLY SAYS the courts are NOT to be involved except when the dispute is over minimum wages (the federal minimum wage)


Clinton, Obama, Hillary (bush to, did nothing about it though didn't start it

NEVER FORGET THE GREAT IRA RIP-OFF BY OBAMA.GOV

1/2 ALL ALL WORKING AMERICA'S SAVINGS (NOT FOR A YEAR BUT LIFETIME SAVINGS) WENT MISSING INSIDE A YEAR, via NY,NYC.

only a whimsical +-1 pt. excuse was given for the jaw dropping losses, and the media hardly covered it - though financial journals DID and still do cite it in today's articles

not to mention Clinton era "don't prosecute golden parachutes" (!! by people that didn't own the company just worked there and not long !!), "investors fuck off - CEOs tell you what you can vote on", "hands off wallstreet", "give bailouts", and "don't prosecute chinese for dumping", "no money for USA factory upgrades - but plenty for ones in china", etc etc

every day of the first 7 years of obama was one published scandal after another

Hillary acts like the USA has a short short memory.

Trulandpays Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks like former employees are entitled to some
> compensation.
>
> http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_gro
> und/2015/08/settlement-proposed-for-former-truland
> -employees.html

No former employees have received any money, does anybody know if this is still a possibility. It was expected to take up to two years.

I just received word from a fellow former Truland employee that he received a check associated with the WARN Act Class Action Settlement against Truland. It was equal to approximately 1 week's pay. I spoke to the attorney that handled the case and supposedly payouts to employees will be made between now and the end of January. I understand that all 700 or so employees that were employed until the end will likely receive something.

Former Truland Employee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just received word from a fellow former Truland
> employee that he received a check associated with
> the WARN Act Class Action Settlement against
> Truland. It was equal to approximately 1 week's
> pay. I spoke to the attorney that handled the case
> and supposedly payouts to employees will be made
> between now and the end of January. I understand
> that all 700 or so employees that were employed
> until the end will likely receive something.

Thanks for that info..no word here, I'll let you know.

So I received a check on Monday. It was for about 1 week's pay. Here's the law firm that won the case:

Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg
1835 Market Street
Suite 1400
Philadelphia, PA 19103
T: 215.569.2700
F: 215.568.6603
Website: http://www.klehr.com/index_y.cfm

Link to article where they won the case: http://www.klehr.com/?t=40&an=46968&format=xml#

Charles Ercole was the attorney that led the case. His assistant was familiar with it and said she'd get back to me to confirm that I was included. Although I spoke to her last week and she didn't respond. Here's his info: http://www.klehr.com/?t=3&A=787&format=xml&p=1119

Good luck!

Dont spend that money just yet former Truland employees

"This settlement insures that to the extent money is recovered by the Trustee, employees are guaranteed to share in that recovery.” (Mr. Ercole noted that given the current financial status of the Estates, the total amount and timing for payments is very difficult to predict).

That the people who were running Truland are now in charge of Power Services. The employees that used to work at PSI have either left on their own or been forced out. I was also told that the PSI employees were part owners before the change and were supposed to get some payola, as they were part owners.?

Who is the California law firm who sent checks to former employees...