Opinion: New York’s Renewable Projects Need Prevailing Wages (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Maritza Silva-Farrell
April 9, 2019

The climate crisis is underway, and it’s clear that we need to take dramatic action to reduce our state’s greenhouse-gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. We need an economy-wide transition to renewable sources of energy, from powering our buildings with renewables like solar and wind to running our public transportation on electric vehicles. There’s no time for debate-according to the UN’s IPCC report, we need to face the climate crisis now, or condemn our planet and the people on it to a dire future, particularly frontline communities who are already experiencing the direct impacts of climate change.

The transition to clean energy will require a massive investment in renewable jobs. We’ll need workers to build and install solar panels and wind turbines, retrofit buildings for energy efficiency and create green public transit systems. As we direct our state’s resources into renewable infrastructure, it’s critical that we invest in the workers who build it.

The Climate and Community Protection Act sets an enforceable mandate to transition New York’s economy off of fossil fuels, and includes provisions for prevailing-wage standards for the workers employed by state-supported projects related to the transition. Researchers show that the Climate and Community Protection Act would create and sustain 150,000 jobs over the first decade of implementation, and these jobs must pay good, family-sustaining wages.

Green-energy projects are a critical part of our state’s economic future. There are already over 156,000 New Yorkers employed in the clean-energy sector. As we invest in solutions to the climate crisis, more and more New Yorkers will find jobs installing solar panels or weatherizing buildings. Including prevailing wage standards in our state’s climate legislation makes the bill not just about the environment, but about economic justice. Workers protecting our communities from the worst impacts of climate change should make a fair day’s pay for their work.

While there are other proposals on the table to address some parts of the climate crisis, none of them take into account the need for good labor standards for the workers who are building the transition.

By attaching prevailing wages to renewable energy projects, we’re investing in the long-term health of our communities and green economic growth. The creation of good union jobs will yield greater economic mobility for workers and their families. With the Climate and Community Protection Act we have an opportunity to do just that and bring more investment into our state. This bill, if passed, is expected to generate $138 billion in cumulative income for New York’s economy. Let’s make sure that the benefits of this investment go to workers and the communities that have been impacted the most by the climate crisis.

Maritza Silva-Farrell is the executive director of ALIGN, the Alliance for a Greater New York

(See Article)

Connections: Discussing the debate over the “prevailing wage”(NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By EVAN DAWSON & MEGAN MACK
4/1/19

Are construction workers paid fairly in New York State? The legislature has been debating the so-called “prevailing wage.” Non-union workers and business leaders have warned that expanding the prevailing wage will cripple businesses that want to expand, while stalling the clean energy industry. Union leaders have joined many Democrats in calling for more wage protections, arguing that the business community always claims the sky is falling when they have to pay people a little bit more.

Our guests debate it:

  • Brian Sampson, president of the New York State chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors
  • Dan Maloney, president of the Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation
  • Dave Young, president of the Rochester Building and Construction Trades Council

(Listen to Discussion)

2019 Budget Fails to Close the “Public Works” Loophole (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Opponents of commonsense reform mislead with false cost figures

For Immediate Release
April 1, 2019

Last night, state leaders reached a budget agreement for fiscal year 2019 which unfortunately fails to include the proper definition of public works. Properly defining public works is a commonsense reform to apply anti-corruption protections and family-supporting prevailing wages to all construction projects which receive public assistance.

To protect taxpayers from wasteful spending and corruption, New York requires competitive and transparent public bidding by contractors on all public works construction projects. Unfortunately, a loophole in state law allows millions of taxpayer dollars to be spent without the anti-corruption and transparency demanded of traditional public work projects. Increasingly, economic development projects across the state fall through this loophole, allowing public money to bypass these safeguards as it goes to private interests. Closing the loophole by properly defining public work to include all projects supported with public money will provide much needed accountability and transparency in government spending.

The measure’s opponents successfully muddied the water by spreading misinformation to suggest it would result in “huge” increases in construction project costs. The truth is that defining public works would reward workers and taxpayers, not the wealthy and irresponsible contractors exploiting our flawed system. As per economists Frank Manzo, Alex Lantsberg, and Kevin Duncan, “the overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed research conducted over the last 15 years forms the consensus view that construction costs are not affected by prevailing wages.” Sixteen other states across the country apply a more comprehensive definition of public work, which apply middle-class prevailing wages. Unsurprisingly, the doomsday scenario of huge cost increases and less development, which opponents claim would befall New York, has not materialized in these other states.

While today’s state budget was a missed opportunity, the New York Foundation for Fair Contracting looks forward to when all taxpayer-funded construction goes to the lowest responsible bidders, not the most politically well-connected contractors. The NYFFC is a non-profit established to level the playing field in public works construction for the benefit of taxpayers, responsible contractors, and workers.

(Read More)

Union workers and day laborers join forces in push for prevailing wage (NY)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By DENIS SLATTERY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
MAR 27, 2019

Albany – An unlikely coalition of activists, union workers and day laborers joined forces Wednesday to call on New York lawmakers to grant raises to construction workers on publicly subsidized projects.

Hundreds of construction workers, decked out in orange and yellow, filled the state Capitol Building, shouting “End corporate welfare, pass public works!”

The workers want so-called prevailing wage rules, requiring all publicly funded construction projects pay at least the average wage paid on all projects completed in that area, to be expanded to all projects that use even a portion of public funds.

Gov. Cuomo and both chambers of the state Legislature have backed the measure, but whether it will be included in the final budget, due by April 1, remains unclear.

“The Legislature has a simple decision to make: do blue-collar workers deserve an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, or do developers deserve to grow their bottom-lines using our tax dollars?” Michael Hellstrom, the assistant business manager of the Mason Tenders District Council of Greater New York said. “This is about ensuring our tax dollars are no longer used to line the pockets of out-of-state contractors who exploit workers and drive wages down. The clock is ticking and construction workers need to know what the Legislature’s decision will be.”

Manuel Castro, the executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment, said the measure would provide protections to both union and non-union workers.

“I think it’s important to show unity on these issues because for a long time we’ve known that contractors, by using a variety of different schemes, like subcontractors or brokers, they look for cheap labor and don’t pay workers a living wage.

Sixteen states have already passed similar legislation.

(Read More)

Building The American Dream (TX)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Lorry Kikta
March 16, 2019

Let’s face it, since 2016; we have been in a period of massive political upheaval. Crazy incidents happen by the day if not the hour. Ordinances and laws that once existed to protect the more vulnerable amongst us have been rescinded. Immigrants are under attack. I don’t know if you recall your elementary school history class, but this country was built by immigrants, and if you want to get technical about it, a lot of these so-called “immigrants” were actually native to North America, which therefore make us Europeans the ones who should be worried, but I digress.

Building The American Dream synthesizes the hardships that immigrants go through to a smaller scale story. The construction workers of Texas, who are largely undocumented or DACA, face all sorts of trouble daily. A lot of the things I’m about to tell you were things I didn’t know before seeing Chelsea Hernandez’ film. If you’re like me, once you watch this film, you will be even more emboldened to do whatever you can to vote out the scourge of soulless corporate-owned politicians in our state and Federal governments.

At the beginning of Building The American Dream, 25-year-old Roendy Granillo died after working while ill at his construction job. He told his foreman that he wasn’t feeling well, but got brushed off. Roendy and the other workers were working in 110-degree Texas heat. When Roendy arrived at the hospital, his temperature was also 110 degrees, and all of his organs failed. Gustavo Granillo, Roendy’s father, says “Si mi hijo tuviera a alguien con ellos que cuidara a sus trabajadores, esto no le habría sucedido.” or “If my son had someone with them who cared for their workers, this wouldn’t have happened to him.”

Half of the construction workforce in Texas are undocumented workers. The powers-that-be want to keep it that way because undocumented workers are easy to exploit. We next meet Claudia and Alex Gionelli, two immigrants who work together as electricians. The two were contracted to do the electric work for an Aldi supermarket. The two of them started out getting paid the wage that was posted; then they started getting paid half that. Then, they weren’t getting paid at all. The contractor told him he would pay them all they were owed and told them to meet him on a specific date. When they arrived in hopes of receiving the payment for a job they had already completed, the contractor had called the police, accusing the two of stealing tools and supplies. Nothing happened, and the Gianelli’s were owed upwards of $11,000. I don’t know about you, but I would be BEYOND livid if something like this happened to me.

The Texas Workforce Commission is taking steps to help prevent future wage theft and also to get payments for people who were stiffed by their greedy employers. Meanwhile, in lieu of what happened to Roendy, the Workers Defense Project is lobbying the city council of Dallas to enforce a paid rest break for construction workers. Ten minutes for every four hours worked. This is not that big of a deal if you think about it, but in Texas, things are very different than other places. Two lovely city councilmen who I would love to give a piece of my mind said the following words in response to a request for this rule.

Councilman Callahan says “I appreciate all the passion that went behind this, but again it’s just another piece of paper, a poster, another requirement and all for a “feel-good,” mind you. ‘Hey man, we got that done! Check! Let’s come up with a new work rule next year, won’t that be fun?’ And you think you gotta boon here now, Mayor, we could really have a boon if we just streamlined that, but quit telling business “No.” Quit telling them “no.” Let the Federal Government be the arbiter when it comes to rules and regulations.” In other words, pass the buck because we don’t want to scare off the people who donate to our campaigns? Yeah, cool, buddy.

(Read More)

Report: Wage Theft Rampant In Houston (TX)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

There’s a variety of ways that wage theft happens. Sometimes employers will refuse to pay outright, but others refuse to pay overtime or misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

Eric Stone
POSTED ON MARCH 28, 2019, 11:22 AM

Last August, Harris County prosecutors filed charges against a homeowner who allegedly refused to pay a house painter. The district attorney’s office charged the homeowner with theft of service.

As the county’s first-ever wage theft case, it was big news. But, it was just one case. In fact, hundreds of Houstonians didn’t get paid for their hard work last year, according to community organization Faith and Justice Worker Center. The organization collected 488 claims of wage theft and other labor violations from across the Houston area between February 2018 and February 2019.

“In this initial report, we wanted to publish the total number of wage theft claims that we received over the last year, which amounts to $1.2 million dollars,” said Silvia Chicas, the Information Manager at the Faith and Justice Worker Center.

She said there’s a variety of ways that wage theft happens. Sometimes employers will refuse to pay outright, but some cases are more nuanced. Some refuse to pay overtime or misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

“Employers who are out to break the law have very creative means by which to steal from working people,” Chicas said.

…

Undocumented immigrants are especially at risk for wage theft. Chicas said she’s familiar with this tactic.

“We’ve even had reports of legal permanent residents and citizens just because the employer suspected that they might be undocumented, they issued a threat and said, ‘We’re going to call ICE on you,'” she said.

Bringing the cases to court

Valerie Turner, with the Consumer Fraud section of the Harris County District Attorney’s office, said her office works on going after wage theft violators.

“We’re here to step-in in situations where disenfranchised individuals would otherwise not have any ability to seek assistance,” Turner said in a phone interview.

The DA’s office worked with the Faith and Justice Worker Center on the case against the homeowner who wouldn’t pay his painter in 2018.

“They kind of synthesized the information, passed it on to us, and then we sort of blessed [it] off – ‘Okay, this is a situation where we would definitely consider charges,'” said Turner.

County prosecutors’ new approach to wage theft rests on Texas’ theft of service law – the same law that says you can’t dine and dash or refuse to pay a hotel bill.

(Read More)

unnamed

L&I fines 99 Tunnel subcontractor for failing to pay prevailing wage (WA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Glacier Northwest ordered to provide $370,000 in back pay

By Brandon Macz
2/28/19 12:12 pm

Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries has hit Glacier Northwest with more than $74,000 in civil penalties for reportedly failing to pay workers a prevailing wage for their work disposing of dirt during construction of Seattle’s new State Route 99 Tunnel.

Seattle Tunnel Partners tapped Glacier Northwest as a subcontractor for the project for an estimated $28 million, according to an L&I news release, and tasked the company with disposing of dirt and other materials excavated by the Bertha tunnel-boring machine.

“This was the only project that the Glacier Northwest disposal site was accepting dirt from, so L&I was able to identify the specific workers and hours worked,” the news release states. “Because the tunnel is a public works project, those workers are entitled to prevailing wages, which they did not get.”

The L&I investigation was prompted by a June 2016 complaint, and the labor department reports 46 Glacier Northwest employees were collectively deprived of $370,666 in prevailing wages for spreading around 2.2 million tons of dirt at the former Mats Mats Quarry near Port Ludlow.

Glacier Northwest and STP are appealing the decision by L&I to fine the subcontractor $74,133 and order those workers receive back wages.

The 46 operating engineers were owed a journey level rate of $48.49 per hour, time-and-a-half for overtime and hours worked on Saturdays, and double-time for hours worked on Sundays, according to L&I’s Notice of Violation issued last December.

The range for owed compensation is from nearly $90 to $30,572. Ten engineers are owed at least $20,000 in back pay, according to the Notice of Violation.

(See Article)

Evers would eliminate ‘swap’ mandate for federal transportation money (WI)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By: Nate Beck March 8, 2019

Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed budget would undo a bill passed during the Legislature’s lame-duck session that would concentrate federal money into fewer highway projects to curtail prevailing-wage requirements and other federal regulations.

The provision tucked into Evers’ biennial budget request would waive a requirement passed during the Legislature’s December extraordinary session calling for federal money to make up 70 percent of the funding of large highway projects, or highway rehabilitation jobs worth less than $10 million. Packing federal money into fewer projects has long been a goal for some GOP lawmakers, who argue that doing that will save money by decreasing the number of projects that fall under federal Davis Bacon prevailing-wage requirements and other rules.

“It is frustrating that Gov. Evers wants to repeal a pro-taxpayer reform in order to pay back the special interests who championed his election,” said Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg. “Allowing the DOT to spread federal funds across numerous projects only increases the number of projects subject to costly federal mandates. If Gov. Evers wants to win support for increased transportation taxes, proposals like this that reduce efficiencies are not a good way to make that case.”

Evers’ budget, which Republicans derided as a liberal wish list, would undo many of the laws that the GOP-controlled legislature passed in a lame-duck session just before he took over as Governor in early January. The budget would also reinstate a number of policies eliminated during the Walker administration, repeal the state’s right-to-work law and bring back prevailing wage on state projects.

(Read More)

Evers takes aim at right-to-work law, seeks prevailing-wage protections (WI)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Michael Carroll
3-7-2019

Gov. Tony Evers has called for the repeal of Wisconsin’s right-to-work law and the restoration of prevailing-wage guarantees in public-works projects, despite critics’ concerns that those proposals could become a drag on the state’s economy.

The governor’s February budget blueprint supports the elimination of the state’s right-to-work statute, which restricts private employers from entering into agreements that compel union membership as a condition of employment or mandating the payment of dues to a labor union.

Evers also supports the restoration of the prevailing wage on state and local public-works projects to ensure that workers are not underpaid in comparison to employees performing similar tasks in the region.

…

Restoring the prevailing wage would be helpful to both the construction industry and the employees who work in it, according to Emspak. Allowing companies with public-works contracts to pay their workers less than their counterparts in a region means those firms are undercutting the competition by cutting labor costs, which in turn drives down wages and working conditions, he said.

Having the prevailing wage in place means the construction companies would be in a better position to focus on providing high-quality, skilled work at a competitive cost, according to Emspak.

Labor union officials generally support Evers’ proposals. Stephanie Bloomingdale, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said Evers’ budget blueprint strikes the right note for workers and the state’s economy.

“The repeal of right to work is a step towards a healthier middle class with strong union rights,” Bloomingdale said in a prepared statement. “Restoring prevailing wage and the right to a project labor agreement will grow our economy with family-supporting jobs while ensuring tour construction projects are completed safely on time and on budget.”

(Read More)

Gov. Wolf signs executive order to create Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center (PA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY KEVIN RANDOLPH  |   FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Gov. Tom Wolf signed Tuesday an executive order to create the Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center, which will work to expand collaboration between government and the private sector to address the skills gap and worker shortages.

“Our economy is transitioning and it’s a race to keep up,” Wolf said. “We either strengthen workforce development or we risk falling behind. We must be bold and ambitious and break from the status quo.”

The command center will make recommendations to improve coordination of workforce and economic development programs across state agencies and identify barriers that may prevent people from working or prevent businesses from hiring skilled workers.

The command center will also review the recommendations of the Auditor General and implement those it believes will deliver the best results. It will also monitor implementation and progress of the workforce and education proposals outlined in the governor’s Statewide Workforce, Education and Accountability Program (SWEAP) proposal.

Wolf appointed three leaders from the private sector and three cabinet secretaries to lead the command center. They include Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry; Tony Bartolomeo, co-chair of Team Pennsylvania; Rick Bloomingdale, president of the AFL-CIO; Acting Secretary Kathy Boockvar, Department of State; Secretary Dennis Davin, Department of Community and Economic Development; and Secretary Jerry Oleksiak, Department of Labor & Industry.

(Read More)