NABTU’s Sean McGarvey shares vision of boosting middle class with new jobs created by the Infrastructure Act

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Sheri Gassaway
July 10, 2023

North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU) President Sean McGarvey stopped in St. Louis last week to share how the organization is working with local and state building trades leaders, community groups and government officials to help boost the middle-class and create good-paying jobs after passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The event, hosted by the Missouri Works Initiative, Missouri AFL-CIO and St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, was a part of NABTU’s national multi-city road tour to demonstrate how union-trained workers are prepared to meet the moment. The event was held at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 union hall in St. Louis and included a tour of the union’s state-of-the-art training center.

“There’s over 250,000 people in our training programs and we can ramp that up to one million,” Garvey said. “With the investments made by the Biden-Harris Administration and members of Congress, we’re going to start filling those numbers up and growing these training programs through our apprentice-ready programs like BUD and creating pathways to the middle-class for everyone who wants an opportunity.”

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Wage Theft Ordinance Passes

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KC Labor Beacon
Nov. 24, 2021

Another success in our ongoing fight against wage theft! Recently, Kansas City, Mo city council passed its first ever Wage Theft ordinance to hold cheating contractors accountable. Members of organized labor joined Councilman Kevin O’Neill after  the first ever Wage Theft ordinance was passed\. The ordinance will criminalize those contractors who use labor brokers, 1099s, pay cash without certified payrolls and other forms of illegal payments to workers. The new Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Department will enforce prevailing wage, wage theft and city tax evaders by monitoring all worksites that are either contracted with the city or have city incentives tied to their project. In addition, changes were made to the Fairness in Construction Board which will include four new members. The board will include a member from organized labor, one from the Associated General Contractors and two from the community.

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City officials: Getting tax breaks on your project? Pay prevailing wage (MO)

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February 07, 2020

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson has signed an ordinance guaranteeing a prevailing wage for workers on all projects in that receive City of St. Louis incentives.

Krewson says the idea is to avoid developers who get tax breaks and then try to hire workers on the cheap.

“We want to make sure if the city is investing in a project, that the workers are treated fairly and the contractors are treated fairly,” Krewson told KMOX. …

“This is very important to our construction workers on city tax incentivized projects — they’ll be getting a fair wage and benefits on any of these projects,” said Alderwoman Sarah Martin, who sponsored the ordinance.

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Construction wages cut in half by new prevailing wage rules (MO)

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By KTTN News | 08/29/2019

According to Jeff Phillips, Communications and Outreach Manager of the Laborers International Union of North America in St. Joseph, construction workers in many rural Missouri counties are working for less this Labor Day holiday.

Missouri’s new prevailing wage law has cut wages for construction workers in many counties, sometimes by more than half. The new formula that calculates the wage for public works projects was approved by Missouri lawmakers last year and went into effect on July 1st.

One of the counties hardest hit was Grundy County in northwest Missouri. The new prevailing wage for construction laborers on building projects is $19.81 an hour, as compared to $39.56 an hour in 2018. Heavy highway laborers this year will earn $19.81 an hour, down from $40.63. The higher wage often included benefits like health insurance and pensions. The new wage applies to all construction crafts in Grundy County.

“This is not a union problem. It hits everyone who works construction, union, and non-union, across all trades,” said Jason Estes, Business Manager of Laborers Local 579 in St. Joseph. “These pay cuts are hitting many of our rural counties hardest, where construction wages are the best jobs available in these communities. These are the people and places who need these family-wage jobs most.”

The new law calculates the wage based on public works projects with more than 1,000 hours worked, and a project cost of more than $75,000. The wages are broken down into two categories: Building, which includes projects like schools, and state and local government facilities; and Heavy Highway, which includes any local, county, state or federal road or bridge.

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Page wants prevailing wage for county projects (MO)

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October 2, 2019 1:27 pm

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced last week that he will request that the County Council enact an ordinance requiring contractors to pay a prevailing wage on projects where St. Louis County extends tax incentives.

Page said he planned to request the ordinance last Friday, when the council agenda is released.

Prevailing wage refers to the rate of pay contractors must offer employees when doing business with a public agency. Prevailing wages are established by Missouri’s Department of Labor and Industrial Relations for each trade and occupation.

“In St. Louis County, our work force deserves to earn competitive wages for their work,” Page said in a news release. “Requiring contractors to pay a prevailing wage will prevent companies from low-balling proposals at the expense of their workers.”

Although prevailing wage requirements may increase the hourly labor cost of a project, such requirements may actually help keep the total project cost down by promoting better training, work efficiency and productivity and retention of highly skilled workers, according to the release.

Page also contended that prevailing wage policies help boost the local economy by promoting the use of local contractors and residents for projects, which promotes more money earned and spent in the local economy.

“These prevailing wage requirements, coupled with the county’s minority- and women-owned business enterprises policies, will help promote economic development and protect the interests of working families in St. Louis County,” said Page in the release.

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Missouri releases first prevailing wage rates following 2018 overhaul (MO)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Alisha Shurr
July 3, 2019

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Following a sweeping overhaul of the prevailing wage system last year, Missouri has set the first rates under the alterations.

On Wednesday, the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR) announced the prevailing wage rates for FY 2020 and are now in effect for use on all Missouri public works construction projects.

During the 2018 regular session, the Missouri General Assembly gave its stamp of approval to HB 1729, championed by GOP Rep. Jeffrey Justus, after hours of debate and compromise.

The compromised language was not a total repeal, as was originally proposed, but instead laid out more specific criteria for the calculations used to decide the prevailing wage.

One provision states if there are less than 1,000 reportable hours for an occupation in that locality, the public works contracting minimum wage would be equal to 120 percent of the average hourly wage in a particular locality.

The reason for this, according to supporters, was heavily populated areas, such as St. Louis County or Jackson County, were dictating the wages in nearby rural areas. The intent of the provision was to make the wages more reflective of their respective localities.

The changes do not impact projects worth less than $75,000.

Under the prevailing wage in effect, a carpenter in Jefferson County would earn $54.69 an hour while a carpenter in Macon County, where less than 1,000 hours were reported, would earn $18.78 an hour.

The Annual Wage Order contains prevailing wage rates for each occupational title in each county and the city of St. Louis. The prevailing wage is the minimum rate that must be paid to workers on public works construction projects in Missouri, such as bridges, roads, schools, and government buildings.

Additionally, the Division of Labor Standards provided the General Wage Order to the Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission that lists the prevailing wage rates for construction projects by the Missouri Department of Transportation.

DOLIR’s Division of Labor Standards is responsible for gathering wage information from public and private commercial construction projects statewide on an ongoing basis from contractors. The wage information is used to determine wage rates for each of the 20 different occupational titles for every Missouri county and the city of St. Louis.

Annual Wage Order No. 26 is now in effect and is available at labor.mo.gov/prevailing-wage. Public works contractors and public bodies are advised to contact the Division of Labor Standards for additional questions or information via email at prevailingwage@labor.mo.gov or by phone at 573-751-3403.

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Man defrauds feds $346M through sham construction firms (MO)

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Author – Kim Slowey
Published – June 6, 2019

Dive Brief:
-The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri announced June 3 that a Kansas contractor has pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government by bidding on and accepting payment for construction contracts set aside for small businesses and for service-disabled veterans and minorities. Through two sham companies, Olathe, Kansas, contractor Matthew McPherson and his co-conspirators received a total of $346 million through more than 200 federal set-aside contracts.

-Prosecutors said McPherson set up the first sham company, Zieson Construction Co., in July 2009 with African-American and service-disabled veteran Stephon Ziegler, who served as a figurehead while McPherson and others actually ran and profited from the ill-gotten projects. Then, in 2014, McPherson and a Zieson employee created another company, Simcon Corp., to bid on work intended for small businesses after Zieson grew too big to do so. Zieson and Simcon shared office space, equipment and other resources.

-McPherson faces up to five years in prison with no possibility of parole, and would have to forfeit more than $5.5 million in fraud proceeds. Ziegler pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.

Dive Insight:

Even though Ziegler was qualified to enter into those federal set-aside contracts, he didn’t run the day-to-day operations of Zieson nor did he wield significant control over deciding which projects to bid on or what subcontractors and material suppliers to use, which is also a condition of doing work with the federal government as a minority, service-disabled or certified small business. This same goes for contracts set aside for women-owned businesses.

And whether it’s due to a shortage of qualified firms or just plain greed, contractors continue to get caught trying to fake their way through the set-aside requirements of publicly funded work.

Nichter Construction Inc of New York, for instance, pleaded guilty in February to making false statements about minority participation on the $350,000 renovation of a Buffalo, New York, psychiatric facility. Nichter hired all non-minority subcontractors for the project, even though it carried a 13% minority requirement. Instead, Nichter engaged a minority contractor to falsely assert that it had performed work on the project. Nichter faces a maximum fine of $10,000.

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Savings from prevailing wage law changes uncertain (MO)

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Date: July 22, 2018
Author: Philip Joens

Jefferson City and Cole County officials said any savings they incur from a partial repeal to the state’s prevailing wage law likely will be negligible.

Gov. Mike Parson signed House Bill 1729 on July 13, rolling back several provisions of the state’s long-standing prevailing wage law. The changes will take effect Aug. 28.

Most notably, the bill eliminates prevailing wage requirements for projects costing more than $75,000.

Jefferson City Public Works Director Matt Morasch and Cole County Public Works Director Larry Benz said most city and county construction projects cost more than that threshold.

Many city projects, like Jefferson City’s plans to resurface about 60 roads between 2018-20, cost at least $1 million, Morasch said.

“At the city, we do very few that are under $75,000,” Morasch said.

Benz said even simple projects like curb replacements can cost about $100,000. He estimated fewer than 10 percent of Cole County projects cost less than $75,000.

“It may affect some of the smaller (projects),” Benz said, “(like) drop inlets, but most of the time we do that work ourselves.”

Missouri’s prevailing wage law dates back to 1959, and is similar to the federal Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which requires workers be paid minimum wages on federal construction projects.

Under existing law, the state compares the number of hours worked in each county at the collectively bargained rate and the rate non-union contractors pay. The rate with the most hours worked each year prevails and becomes the prevailing wage for each skill set and occupation in each county.

Under the new law, at least 1,000 hours of work in a given county and job category must be reported to the state for the previous year for the prevailing wage rate to apply. If that does not happen, a contracting minimum wage defined as 120 percent of a county’s average wage will be paid to construction workers.

HB 1729 also exempts all public works projects costing less than $10,000 from competitive bid requirements. This provision and the $75,000 threshold appear to attempt to distinguish between construction projects and maintenance projects.

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Missouri voters just blocked the right-to-work law Republicans passed to weaken labor unions (MO)

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By: Alexia Fernández Campbell
August 7, 2018

It’s the first time voters have overturned right-to-work laws through a ballot referendum in recent years.

Missouri voters made history on Tuesday, blocking the state’s Republican lawmakers from enacting right-to-work laws to cripple labor unions. The state’s primary voters rejected Proposition A, which would have made it illegal for unions to charge fees to workers they represent who don’t want to pay them, by a two-to-one margin when the vote was called by Decision Desk around 10 pm Eastern.

Missouri was on track to become the 28th state to enact such a law. Last year, the state’s then-governor, Republican Eric Greitens, signed the right-to-work bill, saying that it would encourage businesses to move to the state. Missouri would have followed Michigan, Wisconsin, and other Rust Belt states that have passed similar anti-union measures in recent years under pressure from business groups.

But workers and union leaders in Missouri put up a fight. They gathered about 300,000 signatures – more than double the number needed – to freeze the law and put it on the ballot for voters to decide. On Tuesday, voters rejected the bill.

Tuesday’s election marks the first time voters have overturned a right-to-work law through a ballot referendum since Ohio did something similar in 2011. No other state has even tried to in recent years. It’s also a major victory for the US labor movement at a time when Republican leaders, big businesses, and the courts have doubled down on their attempts to weaken the influence of labor unions and the workers they represent. And after the US Supreme Court’s June ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, which mandated right-to-work rules for all government unions, Missouri’s vote is a sign that unions are far from dead. They might even see a revival.

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A Missouri ‘right-to-work’ law is more likely to harm black workers, who are more likely to be covered by a union contract than other workers (MO)

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Fact Sheet * By Valerie Wilson and Julia Wolfe * May 15, 2018

The phrase “right-to-work” (RTW) refers to laws that prohibit unions from collecting any fees from nonunion members in a bargaining unit despite the fact that these nonmembers are covered by-and thus would still receive the benefits of-the union contract. These benefits include the right to have the union provide costly legal representation should a worker in the bargaining unit find it necessary to file a grievance against his or her employer. Contrary to how the phrase sounds, RTW laws actually restrict the rights of workers by cutting the financial support going to unions, thus limiting the ability of unions to help workers bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Currently, 28 states, predominantly in the Midwest, South, and Southwest, have right-to-work laws in place. Later this year, voters in Missouri will decide whether to adopt a new RTW law approved by the state’s general assembly last year.

This fact sheet illustrates the disproportionate impact that a Missouri RTW law could have on African American workers, by highlighting the group’s strong representation among unionized workers in Missouri. This analysis is based on union membership data available from the Current Population Survey (conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) for 2010-2017, the period since the end of the Great Recession

In national studies that control for other factors than can influence wages statewide, including the cost of living, wages are still at least 3 percent lower in RTW states than in non-RTW states. While Missouri workers of every race will likely see the negative impacts of an RTW law, black Missourians would be disproportionately harmed by this right-to-work law. That is because black workers are more likely to be covered by a union contract (“unionized”) than other workers. As shown in Figure A, in Missouri, 13.9 percent of all black workers are unionized, compared with 10.3 percent of all white workers, and 9.3 percent of all Hispanic workers. Within the private sector alone, 10.5 percent of black workers, 8.0 percent of white workers, and 9.0 percent of Hispanic workers are covered by a union contract. Black Missourians’ participation in private-sector unions is slightly higher than participation by black workers in the private sector nationwide (9.4 percent)

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