Outside the grading scale: Pre-Office Conduct
Trump Tower Demolition: Undocumented Polish Workers, a Federal Liability Ruling and a $1.375 Million Settlement
Under pressure to start Trump Tower, Trump used a crew of about 200 undocumented Polish workers, paid less than half the union wage, to demolish the Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue in 1980. Union members sued. In a ruling released in April 1991, Judge Charles E. Stewart of the federal court in Manhattan found that Trump, a group of his associates and a union official conspired to avoid paying pension and welfare-fund contributions. In 1998 Trump settled the class action (Hardy v. Kaszycki) for $1.375 million, $500,000 of it to a union benefits fund; the documents were unsealed in November 2017.