Polish Workers Lawsuit: Undocumented Demolition Workers Underpaid and Denied Union Benefits During Trump Tower Construction (Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons)
Tier 1Settled1980-03-01 to 1999-01-01
Factual Summary
In early 1980, Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization contracted with Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc. to demolish the Bonwit Teller department store at 725 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, clearing the site for the construction of Trump Tower. To meet an accelerated schedule, the contractor employed approximately 150 to 200 undocumented Polish workers, who came to be known informally as the "Polish Brigade."
The workers labored in 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Court testimony established that they received no overtime pay. They were promised approximately $4 to $5 per hour, which was already below the prevailing union wage, but payment was irregular. Court documents record that "for weeks, they were paid nothing." The workers lacked basic safety equipment, including hard hats and gloves, and some slept on the demolition site. No Social Security or other taxes were withheld from their pay, and no records of their employment were maintained.
Kaszycki had signed a contract with Local 79 of the House Wreckers Union. Under that agreement, union benefit and pension contributions were required for covered workers. While some contributions were made for the small number of union workers on the job, no contributions were made to the pension or welfare funds for the Polish workers who performed the bulk of the demolition.
Trump's representative on the demolition project was Thomas Macari. In his 1991 ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Stewart found that Macari "was involved in every aspect of the demolition job" and that Macari "knew the Polish workers were working 'off the books,' that they were doing demolition work, that they were non-union, that they were paid substandard wages with no overtime pay, and that they were paid irregularly if at all." Judge Stewart held that Trump-Equitable Fifth Avenue Company participated in a conspiracy to deprive the union pension and welfare funds of contributions to which they were entitled under ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974).
The original lawsuit was filed in 1983. The named plaintiff was Harry J. Diduck, acting individually and as a participant in the Local 94 Insurance Trust Fund and the Local 95 Pension Fund, on behalf of all similarly situated participants. The defendants included Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc.; William Kaszycki; John Senyshyn; Trump-Equitable Fifth Avenue Company; Donald J. Trump; Donald J. Trump d/b/a the Trump Organization; and The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. The case was formally captioned Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc.
A 16-day bench trial was held in the summer of 1990. Judge Stewart issued his ruling in 1991, finding liability and ordering Trump to pay approximately $325,000 plus interest, attorney fees, and costs. Trump appealed. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the case for further proceedings on certain issues. A second appellate decision followed in 1993. Litigation continued for years. By the late 1990s, estimates of Trump's potential exposure, if the case proceeded to a second trial and he lost, reached approximately $4 million.
The case was settled in 1998 or 1999. The settlement was sealed by court order. In late 2017, in response to a motion filed by Time Inc. and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, U.S. District Court Judge Loretta A. Preska ordered the settlement documents unsealed. The unsealed records revealed that Trump paid a total of $1.375 million to resolve the case. Of that amount, $500,000 went to the union benefit funds and the remainder covered attorney fees and litigation costs. The Polish workers themselves received nothing from the settlement.
The U.S. Department of Labor separately pursued an enforcement action against Kaszycki & Sons arising from the same facts. That action resulted in a judgment of approximately $570,000 against the contractor in 1984.
Primary Sources
1. Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc., 774 F. Supp. 802 (S.D.N.Y. 1991) (Judge Stewart's post-trial ruling on liability): https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/774/802/1425921/
2. Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc., 737 F. Supp. 792 (S.D.N.Y. 1990) (pre-trial rulings): https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/737/792/1446353/
3. Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc., 874 F.2d 912 (2d Cir. 1989) (Second Circuit appellate decision): https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/874/912/382438/
4. Diduck v. Kaszycki & Sons Contractors, Inc., 974 F.2d 270 (2d Cir. 1992) (second appellate decision): https://openjurist.org/974/f2d/270/diduck-v-kaszycki-and-sons-contractors-inc
5. Settlement agreement (unsealed 2017), filed in the Southern District of New York
Corroborating Sources
1. Time: "What Donald Trump Knew About Undocumented Workers at His Signature Tower," August 25, 2016: https://time.com/4465744/donald-trump-undocumented-workers/
2. Time: "Read the Legal Settlement Donald Trump Signed in Dispute Over Undocumented Workers," December 2017: https://time.com/5039109/donald-trump-undocumented-polish-trump-tower-bonwit-teller/
3. NBC News: "Trump Tower Got Its Start With Undocumented Foreign Workers," April 2016: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-says-controversy-over-his-tower-was-trumped-n397821
4. Newsweek: "President Trump Hired Undocumented Immigrants for $4 An Hour for Demolition Project: Court Docs," 2017: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-undocumented-immigrants-tower-demolish-724845
5. PolitiFact: "We Googled 'Trump Polish workers.' Here's what we found," February 26, 2016: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/feb/26/marco-rubio/marco-rubio-says-donald-trump-had-pay-1-million-hi/
6. Outten & Golden LLP (counsel for plaintiffs): "Trump Paid Over $1 Million in Labor Settlement, Documents Reveal": https://www.outtengolden.com/insights/media/news/trump-paid-over-1-million-in-labor-settlement-documents-reveal/
7. Cornell University ILR Catherwood Library: "Trump Paid Over $1 Million in Labor Settlement, Documents Reveal": https://catherwood.library.cornell.edu/wit/trump-paid-over-1-million-in-labor-settlement-documents-reveal/
Counterarguments and Context
Trump appeared as a witness at the 1990 trial and testified that he was unaware of the workers' immigration status. His stated position was: "Nobody has proven to me that they were illegal aliens," and when asked under oath when he learned of the workers' undocumented status, he responded, "I really still don't know that." Trump maintained throughout the litigation that responsibility for labor practices rested with the contractor, Kaszycki & Sons, and not with him personally or his company.
Witness Daniel Sullivan, a former Trump advisor who was present during the demolition period, contradicted Trump's trial testimony. Sullivan told NBC News in 1989 that Trump had acknowledged in June 1980 having "some illegal Polish employees on the job" and stated that Trump's denials were false.
The settlement was reached without any admission of wrongdoing or liability by Trump or the Trump Organization. Trump's legal team characterized the settlement as a practical resolution of a case that had dragged on for nearly two decades, not as a concession that the underlying allegations were true.
The Polish workers themselves were not parties to the civil ERISA action, which was brought on behalf of union benefit funds rather than the workers directly. Their claims for unpaid wages were a separate matter.
Author's Note
This case qualifies as Tier 1 because it resulted in a final, legally binding settlement of a federal court action following a bench trial with published judicial findings. Judge Stewart's 1991 ruling constitutes a judicial finding of liability against Trump-Equitable for participating in a conspiracy to deprive union pension funds of ERISA-mandated contributions. That ruling was later subject to appeal and remand, meaning it did not become a final judgment, but the case was resolved by settlement rather than acquittal or dismissal. The settlement amount of $1.375 million, confirmed by unsealed court documents, is a matter of public record.