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Men not paid for hard labor in McAllen
Posted: 05.04.2011 at 11:23 PM
Marcy Martinez

Marcy Martinez is an anchor and reporter for Action 4 News.

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They are four men who don't speak English, but say they worked just as hard as the next guy when hired to help clean up the streets of McAllen.

They didn't want to show their entire faces on television, but their names on in black and white on a lawsuit filed by the South Texas Civil Rights Project on their behalf against the City of McAllen and a contractor allegedly hired by the city, Armando Grajales.

They claim that between June and August of 2010, they were not paid a penny after they put in more than 40 hours a week trimming and shaving palm trees for the city of McAllen.

They say up until then, Grajales was paying them cash daily and then it stopped, leaving them with no income to support themselves or their families.

They didn’t even have money to gas up their vehicles in order to seek out employment elsewhere.

Action 4 News tried to track down Grajales by phone, but the person who finally answered said we had the wrong number.

We also sent out an email to an address with his name, but got no response.

The City of McAllen says they have not been served with the lawsuit yet and therefore could not comment.

The men are depending on their attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project to help get them the money they believe they deserve.

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