Some contractors who worked for Charter during Ida recovery say they were stiffed by the comms giant. Infinite Communications told the Public Service Commission they had weeks or more delays in payments, and say they’re still 16 million short from the 50 million dollar job.
“A lot of these blue-collar workers are out there working day to day, a lot of them are from out of state, they come down, they live from check to check,” Chris Coulon with Infinite Communications told the PSC. “This is all just before Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Commissioner Craig Green expressed concern that this incident could give Louisiana a reputation that keeps contractors away during storms. Some contractors spoke at the meeting.
“Right now because I haven’t got paid I have only 24 guys working for me, so I have lost over half of my company because I have not been able to pay those guys,” said Raoul Rodriguez, an Infinite subcontractor.
Charter addressed the situation, with a representative saying the company is doing its due diligence and vowed to make the situation a priority.
“There is a process, we go through a process that we want to make sure, we have a responsibility to make sure, I mean we are talking about 50 million dollar,” said Jeff Burdet. “We are a company that does businesses as I said in 41 states, this is not a fly-by-night organization we have a lot of customers and we are a Fortune 100 company who is somebody who pays our bills.”
The issue will be revisited at the February PSC meeting.
