The law permits labor organizations to recover wages for members and nonmembers alike when direct employers vanish. Never before has a union invoked the provision. 

More than 240 laborers poured concrete through the summer of 2024 as they worked on two luxury towers rising above Journal Square: One Journal Square and 35 Cottage Street. They lifted rebar through the heat and mixed cement while supervisors pushed for a faster pace and fewer breaks. Two years later many are still waiting for weeks of pay.

Now their union is taking the contractors to court, the first suit filed under New Jersey's up-the-chain liability amendment.

One laborer identified only by pseudonym addressed reporters at the lawsuit announcement on August 12. "The work was very hard, and the foremen were always pushing us to work faster, often without breaks. We felt like they didn't see us as people," he said. He is still out more than $4,500.

The workers are not suing their bankrupt direct employer. They are suing general contractor AJD Construction of Middletown and subcontractor Concrete Rising from Eatontown — the parties "up the chain" who, under N.J.S.A. 34:11-67.1, now face liability even after the labor broker vanished. The statute permits labor organizations to recover wages on behalf of members and nonmembers alike.

Then-Acting Governor Sheila Oliver signed the Wage Theft Act in 2019, extending the statute of limitations from two years to six and authorizing liquidated damages equal to 200%. The legislature added the union-enforcement pathway in 2024 (P.L.2023, c.210), the "up-the-chain" amendment that the current suit draws on. The amendment closes a gap that opens when labor brokers fold and workers have nowhere to turn. Never before has a union invoked it.

The 14-page complaint, filed August 11 at Hudson County Superior Court, demands more than $2 million in damages, built on the $716,000 in unpaid wages from 2024 that state labor investigators have already documented. Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 3 and the Laborers' Eastern Region Organizing Fund brought the action. Attorneys for the workers say a favorable ruling would mean general contractors statewide can no longer hide behind labor-broker bankruptcy.

State regulators have caught Concrete Rising shorting workers before. In April 2024 they extracted a $402,397.28 settlement from the company for wage violations at The Wave, a residential complex on Park Lane North in Jersey City. Concrete Rising had failed to pay proper prevailing wages on the private development. The settlement covered 181 workers and barred the company from public contracts for three years.

Concrete Rising was also the subcontractor on the Journal Square and Cottage Street projects, where GP Concrete Construction, based in Elizabeth, served as the direct employer and labor broker.

Wages at those sites halted in August 2024. Supervisors told crews that GP Concrete did not have the money, but assured them checks were coming. Laborers continued working into October on those assurances.

Concrete Rising had stopped paying GP Concrete months earlier, according to the complaint. GP Concrete passed the squeeze downward, telling workers that checks would come even as the money upstream had dried up. By September 2024, workers had filed wage claims with state labor regulators. Investigators spent more than a year on the case before calculating $716,000 in unpaid wages. Talks with both companies opened in November 2025, fifteen months after the wages stopped.

Then GP Concrete filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February 2026. The case, docketed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey as No. 2:26-bk-11639, meant the company's assets would be liquidated to pay creditors. Under 11 U.S.C. § 507, wage claims earn priority only if earned within 180 days of filing. These workers' final wages were 16 months old at time of filing, well outside the window. They therefore held nonpriority claims, general unsecured creditor status that places them at the back of the payment line. The estate offered no practical path to recover their unpaid wages.

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development settled with Concrete Rising in June 2026 for $250,000 — about one-third of the agency's $716,000 calculation — with payments stretching across nine months beginning on September 15. The LIUNA complaint contends that the deal does not bar workers from recovering the balance in court.

The shortfall has also become a budget problem for Jersey City. Mayor James Solomon and council members have drawn a direct line between wage theft and the city's budget strain. Unreported payroll means uncollected municipal revenue at a moment when the city is squeezing every dollar. 

Solomon stood beside union leaders at an August 12 event and put it plainly: "Our message is simple: If you build in Jersey City, you have to build the right way. You have to build to support working families, not exploit working families," the mayor declared. Solomon vowed to tighten payroll-tax enforcement.

Hudson County Executive Craig Guy joined the announcement and praised LIUNA for accepting what he called an "unprecedented challenge." 

"In Hudson County, we proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the hardworking men and women that build our communities," Guy said. "Let this litigation serve as a clear warning to unscrupulous players in the construction industry: we will never tolerate the exploitation of vulnerable workers or the theft of hard-earned wages."

Jersey City Councilwoman Eleana Little (D, Ward E) delivered a sharper message. "Wage theft is a crime. These workers deserve to be paid every dollar they are owed." 

"Developers have to take responsibility for what happens on their job sites. If you want to build in Jersey City, you must respect the workers who make it possible," Little added.

Councilman At-Large Rolando Lavarro connected the $716,000 shortfall to the city's budget crisis. "You cannot owe nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in unpaid wages and associated payroll taxes and expect the Jersey City government to continue greenlighting new projects," he said. "We just had a budgetary reckoning that forced everyone to make painful decisions about our shared priorities, and, at minimum, we must ensure that development helps fund critical infrastructure, like our city schools, rather than simply lining the pockets of billionaire developers."

Kushner Companies and Namdar Group developed One Journal Square and 35 Cottage Street, respectively. Neither appears as a defendant in the complaint; the suit targets the contracting chain, not the companies that commissioned the buildings. Both declined to respond to NorthJersey.com's requests for comment. 

Katz Banks Kumin partner Hugh Baran serves as lead counsel for LIUNA. He called the case "straightforward," adding that a win would test whether the up-the-chain statute has real force when direct employers fold. 

"This is hard work; this is demanding work. But it didn't matter to GP Concrete, Concrete Rising LLC and AJD Construction," he said at the August 12 announcement, according to NorthJersey.com. "Without up-the-chain liability, workers can do everything right, prove that they earn the wages, and still be left with no recourse against their employer of record."

Neither AJD Construction nor Concrete Rising responded to comment requests. Docket HUD-L-003298-26 sits at Hudson County Superior Court. A favorable ruling would give unions a template for the next time a labor broker folds.

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Sources

• Baran, Hugh, Partner, Katz Banks Kumin, remarks at LIUNA press conference (August 12, 2026)

• Guy, Craig, Hudson County Executive, remarks at LIUNA press conference (August 12, 2026)

• Hudson County Superior Court, Docket No. HUD-L-003298-26, Complaint (August 11, 2026)

• Hudson County View, John Heinis, "LIUNA suing for over $2M in unpaid wages for work on Namdar & Kushner projects" (August 12, 2026)

• InsiderNJ, "LIUNA Announces Landmark Lawsuit Seeking More Than $2 Million in Stolen Wages and Damages" (August 12, 2026)

• Jackson Lewis, "New Jersey Wage Theft Law Increases Employer Liability for Wage and Hour Violations" (August 7, 2019)

• Lavarro, Rolando, Jersey City Councilman, At-Large, statement (August 12, 2026)

• Little, Eleana, Jersey City Councilwoman, Ward E, statement (August 12, 2026)

• New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, "Concrete Rising LLC Settles Wage Theft Case for $402,397.28" (April 30, 2024)

• New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, stop-work orders at 25 Cottage Street, 35 Cottage Street, and 10 Journal Square (December 15, 2025)

• New Jersey Legislature, N.J.S.A. 34:11-67.1, Wage Theft Act up-the-chain liability provision, as amended by P.L.2023, c.210

• NorthJersey.com, Ricardo Kaulessar, "Union sues contractors, says $2M owed workers at Jersey City buildings" (August 12, 2026)

• Solomon, James, Jersey City Mayor, remarks at LIUNA press conference (August 12, 2026)

• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, Case No. 2:26-bk-11639, GP Concrete Construction LLC Chapter 7 filing (February 13, 2026)