{"id":168981,"date":"2026-04-17T23:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168981\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:21:10","slug":"union-pushes-back-against-tax-fraud-in-industry-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/168981\/","title":{"rendered":"Union pushes back against tax fraud in industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Union members and supporters gathered Thursday night in Scranton, one day after the filing deadline for federal taxes, to hear discussion from local leaders about tax fraud and worker misclassification and its threats to fair competition, worker protections and public revenue in the construction industry. According to the group, each year more than 2 million construction workers are misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees, allowing bad actors to avoid paying taxes and benefits.\u00a0State Sen. Marty Flynn, D-22, Dunmore, and state Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton, joined leaders from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters &amp; Joiners of America Local Union 445 at the rally at the Scranton Council Office, 314 Pear St., an official from the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Union workers and supporters gather Thursday, April 16, 2026, at...\" class=\"size-article_inline\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468069_151_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-05.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Union workers and supporters gather Thursday, April 16, 2026, at the Carpenters and Joiners Local 445 building on Pear Street in Scranton for a tax fraud day of action rally. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Drew Simpson, regional manager for the Regional Council of Carpenters,...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468069_357_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-02.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468069_357_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-02.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Drew Simpson, regional manager for the Regional Council of Carpenters, addresses union workers and supporters gather Thursday, April 16, 2026, at the Carpenters and Joiners Local 445 building on Pear Street in Scranton for a tax fraud day of action rally. Seated is state Sen Marty Flynn, who also addressed the group. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Union workers and supporters gather Thursday, April 16, 2026 at...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468070_353_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-01.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468070_353_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-01.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Union workers and supporters gather Thursday, April 16, 2026 at the Carpenters and Joiners Local 445 building on Pear Street in Scranton for a tax fraud day of action rally. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"State Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton, addresses union workers and...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468070_930_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-03.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468070_930_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-03.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Kyle Donahue, D-113, Scranton, addresses union workers and supporters Thursday, April 16, 2026, at the Carpenters and Joiners Local 445 building on Pear Street in Scranton for a tax fraud day of action rally. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp., addresses union workers and supporters...\" class=\"lazyload size-article_inline\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468070_187_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-06.jpg?w=620\"  bad-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776468070_187_STT-L-CARPENTERS-CAPST-0418-06.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp., addresses union workers and supporters Thursday, April 16, 2026, at the Carpenters and Joiners Local 445 building on Pear Street in Scranton for a tax fraud day of action rally. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n<p>Show Caption<\/p>\n<p>1 of 5<\/p>\n<p>Union workers and supporters gather Thursday, April 16, 2026, at the Carpenters and Joiners Local 445 building on Pear Street in Scranton for a tax fraud day of action rally. (CHAD SEBRING\/STAFF PHOTO)\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\" class=\"icon-enlarge mng-gallery-fullscreen-expand\" aria-label=\"Expand fullscreen slideshow\">Expand<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Union members and supporters gathered Thursday night in Scranton, one day after the filing deadline for federal taxes,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-168981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-scranton","12":"tag-scranton-headlines","13":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}