At a press conference Monday, organized by the nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, some of the workers said they struggled to support their families and were forced to deplete their savings while receiving partial or no paychecks from Milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was extremely difficult when rent came due \u2014 especially when it came to paying for gas just to get to work,\u201d said Jesus Martinez, 32, in Spanish. \u201cAt the same time, it was incredibly frustrating not having an income \u2014 particularly because I was dependent on this job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez, the father of a 9-year old girl, estimates his due wages at $18,000.<\/p>\n
His father, 54-year old Eusebio Martinez, a foreman in the project, said he himself lost sleep and saw his diabetes worsen because of the alleged wage theft. Despite fielding questions from other roofers who were not receiving their full paychecks, Martinez said he got no clear answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stress made me sick\u2026. I had such severe anxiety that the doctor prescribed medication for it,\u201d said the elder Martinez, who has worked as a roofer for 25 years. \u201cWage theft is unfair; it is undignified. I felt frustrated. I had no money to bring home.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260427-CONSTRUCTIONWORKERS-22-BL-KQED.jpg\")
Construction workers and supporters march through Oakland to the Lion Creek Crossings, an affordable housing complex, on April 27, 2026, as part of a demonstration calling for more than $300,000 in unpaid wages from Bay Area contractors Milestone Roofing and Saarman Construction. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n
As part of Monday\u2019s announcement, more than a dozen workers and supporters marched to Saarman\u2019s offices to deliver a follow-up letter demanding they be properly paid.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Milestone Roofing representative said the Tracy-based company is investigating the accuracy of the workers\u2019 allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cNegotiations with Saarman Construction, the contracting party, are ongoing,\u201d the spokesperson said, adding that the company is \u201cnot in a position to offer further comment\u201d until those matters are settled.<\/p>\n
General contractor Saarman Construction said the workers alleging underpayment were hired by its subcontractor Milestone Roofing, not Saarman. The construction firm, founded more than 40 years ago, said that it\u2019s also reviewing the allegations against Milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take wage compliance on all our projects seriously and expect all our subcontractors to do the same,\u201d the company said. \u201cWe are working to verify the facts and are engaging with counsel for the workers to address their claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson with the Labor Commissioner\u2019s Office, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws, confirmed it has received complaints involving Saarman Construction and Milestone Roofing, but declined to comment further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At a press conference Monday, organized by the nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, some of the workers said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-288956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}