Posted on 09/15/2005 12:57:49 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
SOME Houstonians who plan on moving to Louisiana and points east to get work in the Katrina rebuilding effort may discover their wages won't be as high as they might have expected.
That's because President Bush signed an executive order last week rescinding the rule that contractors on projects receiving federal money pay the prevailing wage in areas damaged by the hurricane.
"It's so important to have decent wages for these workers," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. Sweeney visited the hurricane relief efforts in Houston and met with union leaders earlier this week.
Without it, he said, contractors will try to get away with paying the least amount they can, the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.
"It's taking the low road," the union leader said.
The rule governing the prevailing wage — the average wage paid to workers in a specific trade in a certain geographic area — is supported by labor unions and other workers' rights organizations because it typically brings wages closer in line to union wages, which usually are higher than nonunion wages. Businesses oppose the prevailing wage because it pushes up costs and limits the number of workers they can hire. Lifting the rule will make the "unprecedented amount of federal assistance" go further and allow more workers to be hired, according to the president's order.
Union leaders angry
Labor union officials were outraged. Sweeney recalled how Bush tried to rescind the prevailing wage scale shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But a group of congressional, labor and business leaders got together to beat back that effort.
But there's not a lot of bipartisan support this time, Sweeney said.
"I think it's a great idea," said Randy Magdaleno, chairman of the Hispanic Contractors Association of Houston, who was pleased with the president's order.
"It's less paperwork," said Magdaleno, who is also president of Frontier Contractors and is thinking of going to Louisiana to bid on some of the work. "People can actually get to work."
Overall, construction wages will probably fall, he said. But on the flip side, contractors will probably hire more people.
In Harris County, the prevailing wage for a journeyman electrician is $22.05 an hour plus $7.93 an hour for benefits, according to the Department of Labor. In Orleans Parish, the prevailing wage for the same job is $22.09 an hour and $6 in benefits.
Longtime goal
Prevailing wages were first imposed during the Depression to prevent an influx of federal money from depressing local wages.
Republicans have wanted to do away with prevailing wages for a long time, said U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.
"They have been trying to eliminate the prevailing wage, and I don't want them to use this disaster as an excuse," Green said. "I'd hope a lot of the people hired from the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama areas would be paid a decent wage to get back on their feet and rebuild their communities."
Green said he is supporting the bill filed earlier this week by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., to reinstate the prevailing wage. But he doubts the bill will even get a hearing from the Republican-dominated House.
The only real hope to undo what the president has done, Green said, is to attach Miller's bill to other legislation.
Health care affected
The effect won't just be less money jingling in the pockets of those who are installing new roofs, running electrical wire or welding pipes together.
Taxpayers will end up footing much of the bill in a roundabout way, according to E. Dale Wortham, president of the Harris County AFL-CIO and a board member of the Harris County Hospital District.
With the requirement suspended for contractors to pay for employee benefits such as health insurance, many of the construction workers will end up at public health facilities when they get sick or injured.
In the end, Wortham believes it will be the contractors who will win.
lm.sixel@chron.com
Will it apply to out of state unlicensed scam artists?
These things seem to crawl out of the slime of every hurricane.
No answer required - it was purely rhetorical. Criminals tend to ignore the law, and people in a hurry for home repairs sometimes don’t check too closely on the company doing the work.
With the amount of work to be done in the affected areas, some folks will end up making more than prevailing wage, others less, depending on the urgency of the rebuilding schedule and the area. The market will prevail.
Bump!
Let's not have any gouging out there. The unions can't be seen as making a profit out of all this.
They should do it for "the Children".
Oh dear! No graft, payoffs, feather bedding etc, etc, for Sweeney's thugs. What a world.
This will be great for Bush's Guest Worker program. Not enough Americans will want those jobs at what the contractors are willing to pay, so bring them in from Mexico.
It the contractors are not willing to pay the wages prevailing in Houston or Dallas, then I assume that the costs for their services that they charge will also be less than what they would charge in Houston and Dallas?
As a constituent of Dollar Bill Jefferson, I can understand his foray into his house...ya see, the Feds earlier had removed some $470K from his freezer in some kind of sting operation...Rep. Jefferson went into his house because he still had some cash in the freezer and ya know how stinky things get when you lose power...
***...."I think it's a great idea," said Randy Magdaleno, chairman of the Hispanic Contractors Association of Houston, who was pleased with the president's order.
"It's less paperwork," said Magdaleno, who is also president of Frontier Contractors and is thinking of going to Louisiana to bid on some of the work. "People can actually get to work." ........***
Oh buhrother. Why hasn't he quit. This is not an eccentric. This is a crook.
Of course! My brother owns a janitorial company. He specializes in post-construction cleanup. So, when a new office building is constructed, he goes in and cleans up prior to the customer moving in. He typically pays his people between $8 and $10 per hour.
When he does a state contract job (school, university, etc) he has to pay prevailing wage---which is upwards of $23 per hour.
Prevailing wage is just another crutch propping up the existence of unions. Without it, taxpayers could build new schools and facilities much cheaper and unions would whither away.
Im sure we heard all the afl-cio leaders stand up and say..." we will do our part by dropping our dues and pay so more people can work to rebuild. You are heard that didn't you? No??? ....hmmm that's strange...
That's a bargin. In NYC the extortion rate (I mean prevailing wage) for electicians is $24.80 per hour plus $14.12 in bennies.
President Fox said..."The reconstruction of that city [New Orleans] and of that region is going to require a lot of labor. And if there is anything Mexicans are good at, it is construction."
Feds Relax Hiring Rules For Storm Vicitims Who Lost Documentation - employers can simply state a potential worker was unable to provide documents because of the hurricane, according to a Homeland Security spokesperson. The policy is being implemented nationwide and subject to review in 45 days. Thread
Migrants working in Biloxi - As Biloxi rises from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, it is doing much of it on the backs of undocumented foreign workers. Some are starting to suggest that their contributions are worth at least a temporary visa. - Thread
Senator Landrieu: I am not going to level criticism at local and state officials. Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day.
Thats because they are union workers, idiot.
To paraphrase Cindy Sheehad, I am against the union, but I support the union workers.
What a pant load.
I fear that illegal's may sweep in for the cheap labor, and provide justification to the libs for their existance in the US.
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