Facebook data center worker criticizes decision to shut down site over hate messages

EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah (KUTV) — A construction worker at the sprawling new Facebook data center in Eagle Mountain called racist graffiti at the job site the work of a “deranged idiot,“ but also criticized the decision to shut down the project for more than two days in response to the offensive messages.

"A lot of these employees are having rough times,” said the man in an exclusive 2News interview. “Some of them are living in cars on the job site."

He did not want to be identified, but showed credentials to work at the burgeoning facility, noting if workers don’t work, they don’t get paid.

He agreed a message reportedly found on the wall of a portable bathroom, saying “kill ______” is hateful and threatening, but also said Mortenson Construction’s two-plus day project pause punishes more than 1,500 workers.

MORE: Construction halted at Facebook data center site after additional 'hateful' messages found

“To me, shutting down the whole job site for something like this doesn't make sense,” he said.

“How much are you losing?“ 2News asked.

“Probably in the thousand-dollar range,“ he responded.

Instead, at the future center for the tech savvy, he pitched a low tech solution for the loo.

“Have a monitor outside the bathrooms,” he said. “Every time someone leaves the bathroom stall, you go in and see if anybody wrote anything in it."

2News reached out to Mortenson, the Minneapolis-based general contractor, for comment on the shutdown concerns.

“We empathize with a many men and women working on this project whose values are not represented by these incidents, and we understand the challenges that it presents to the workforce,” spokesman Cameron Snyder said. “Work on the project will resume Friday as planned.”

Mortenson has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the writer, or writers of the racist graffiti.

The construction worker who spoke to 2News said there is not a racist culture at the job site, saying he had “never seen a more cohesive group working together.”