Worker fatally falls 14 stories down Kansas City elevator shaft

by: Dave D'Marko

Posted: Aug 3, 2023 / 10:08 PM CDT

Updated: Aug 3, 2023 / 10:09 PM CDT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City police have identified a worker who fell, 14 stories down an elevator shaft, to his death last month as Rudolfo Garcia. But police still haven’t been able to determine how old he was.

That’s because organizations also looking into the death say that’s because he was an immigrant who hadn’t yet obtained legal status to live and work in America.

Kansas City Police and Firefighters were called to the former AT&T building now under renovation July 18 at 1:30 a.m.

“As you start to work after hours and broader third shift scenarios there have to be better safety protocols set in place to protect workers sometimes from the environment,” Manny Abarca, Fair Contracting Alliance executive director, said.

It is a nonprofit organization that works to ensure all employees, irrespective of their immigration status, receive full protection of safety and wage laws.

Organize KC also serves as a voice for Kansas City workers. Its chairman says immigrants lacking permanent legal status are common place on Kansas City construction job sites.

“They are definitely more prone to be taken advantage of and employers like that so they face many challenges,” Roger Lake, Organize KC’s Chairman, said.

OSHA has opened an investigation into a temp agency Garcia was working for, Infinity Resources Enterprises that was performing asbestos abatement work under contract with New Horizons LLC. OSHA also opened an investigation with the building’s owner, D.C. developer, The Bernstein Companies.

According to previous reporting by the Kansas City Business Journal, Bernstein was able to petition a city board to double its tax abatements earlier this year citing increases in interest rates and construction costs.

“And yet they still want these incentives and they still go back and hire cheap labor whether it be undocumented workers or through temp agencies. Temp agencies in the area, they don’t have trained workers,” Lake said.

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Only a New Horizons LLC legal representative returned our calls and emails, saying the company can’t comment during an OSHA investigation. That investigation can take up to 6 months. New Horizons clarified Garcia wasn’t it’s employee, but assigned to the job site by the temp agency whose mailing address on OSHA documents traces back to a room at a former motel in Florida.

Lake says he’s seen how unfortunate incidents involving workers often go.

“They start pointing fingers. It’s never the contractors fault, it’s never the developers fault, it’s never the city’s or the school district’s fault,” he said.

The rally involving organized labor, labor and community advocates hoping for change and safer working conditions is planned from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at 8th and Cherry in downtown Kansas City.

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