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Harbor Yard Amphitheater workers seeking appropriate wages (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Jordan Grice
Published 12:00 am EST,
Sunday, December 16, 2018

Construction workers building Bridgeport’s new concert amphitheater say they are being stiffed on their paychecks, and the Department of Labor agrees with them.

In a letter to the city’s economic development department, state labor officials said the contracting agency of the Harbor Yard Amphitheater – which according to the project contract is developer Howard Saffan – broke the law by not applying prevailing wage requirements when putting the project out to bid.

Saffan did not return several calls for comment.

The prevailing wage statute provides contractors for large-scale projects involving public funding with an assigned wage rate and scheduled payroll.

Bridgeport and developer Howard Saffan are splitting the amphitheater’s $15 million price tag.

That wasn’t the case when construction of the concert venue got started, according to the letter from the DOL, which stated that developers and the city failed to request a prevailing wage pay rate schedule or include it in the bid specifications.

“Looks like a 50-50 relationship; what you just read fits the classic definition of a public works project. Public funds are in place, it’s a public project that will benefit the public,” said Thomas Wydra, director of the Wage and Workplace Standards Division for the state Department of Labor

Both city official and developers should have been aware of the law, Wydra said.

(Read More)

Construction Unions Ally with Striking Teachers to Fight for Prevailing Wage Laws (NC)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY: MIKE ELK
MAY 15, 2018

As North Carolina teachers go out on strike tomorrow, they will be joined by the ranks of the state’s construction unions. Much like teachers, who lack the right to collective bargaining in the state, construction workers employed on North Carolina’s state-funded projects, such as schools, lack the ability to have their wages set by union-endorsed prevailing wage standards.

They say the lack of collective bargaining rights for public employees in North Carolina is symptomatic of how the state also undervalues all workers employed on projects financed on the public’s dime.

“When your public employees are organized, it sets the standard and foundation for everybody else,” says North Carolina IBEW Local 379 President Scott Thrower. “When they are not, the private sector is setting the ground.”

While construction workers in other states enjoy the benefits of prevailing wage standards, construction workers in North Carolina do not. Under prevailing wage standards, contractors are forced to pay the median wage that construction workers are paid in that region as determined by a government survey-the idea being that government-funded projects are supposed to keep wages from falling.

“Prevailing wage levels the playing field,” says Thrower.

Without a prevailing wage, contractors on state-funded projects can simply pay their workers whatever they want.

While unionized electrical contractors in the state, working on federally funded projects that use prevailing wage standards, make a minimum of $25 an hour with retirement and health care benefits, non-union electrical contractors work on state-funded projects that often pay as little as $15-$20 per hour due to the lack of prevailing wage standards on state-funded projects.

Worse, union leaders say the lack of prevailing wage standards negatively affects high road contractors, who use higher training and safety standards.

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Hail the Prevailing Wage!

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

A prevailing wage has come under attack from advocates looking for something cheaper. And it’s shameful!

BY GARY LABARBERA
MARCH 8, 2018 1:54 PM

This is New York. We don’t do “race to the bottom” here.

We don’t invite in bottom-fishers and corner-cutters to build our buildings. And we don’t scapegoat workers.

That’s because we need the best. So we build the best.

As a Commercial Observer reader, the same goes for you, too.

You don’t “race to the bottom” when it comes to staffing up your brokerage, your development company, or your investment firm.

Yet in the world of public-sector construction, prevailing wage laws have again come under attack from advocates of bottom fishing.

But prevailing wage laws are not just good for construction workers and the agencies undertaking public projects. These laws are also good for all New Yorkers.
For more than a century, New York State has maintained an important and progressive social compact: fair wages for fair work. The pay of workers engaged in public projects must align with local prevailing wage and benefit levels. Hard-working New Yorkers thus have access to good-paying jobs and proper protection from unsafe working conditions.
And with the State’s FY 2018 capital budget exceeding $14 billion, it’s critical to shake off faulty assumptions-and recognize that prevailing wage requirements also save taxpayers money.

New data now show how these rules ensure effective cost management on public projects.

…

Gary LaBarbera is the president of the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.

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The Broken Promise

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Report from wvbrokenpromise.com

Legislative leaders pushed through a law to cut local construction workers’ wages dramatically claiming the action would save money and create more jobs.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Republican legislative leaders quickly passed a bill to eliminate the state’s prevailing wage law.

The legislative leadership promised taxpayers would see a savings of 25 to 30 percent on public works projects.

There hasn’t been the promised savings based on examination of the award of bids since July 1 when the law went into effect and during a three-month period in 2015 when the Legislature suspended the prevailing wage law.

(Read More)

AGC of Ohio Chief Debunks Prevailing Wage Detractors

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Submitted by Karen Andryscik on
August 28, 2017 – 8:19am

By Richard J. Hobbs, Executive Vice-President – AGC Columbus

After 36 years at the helm of the Associated General Contractors of Ohio (an organization composed of open shop/nonunion and union commercial contractors throughout the state), I’ve heard many outrageous, false claims about significant savings by removing Ohio’s prevailing-wage law. I respond to the Aug. 19 op-ed by Butch Valentine, Laurelville’s volunteer fire chief, blaming the Ohio wage law for the inability to build a new fire station.

Valentine contended that the law inflates the cost of a new facility by 37.5 to 50 percent. This is an outrageous statement. Construction labor represents on average 22-25 percent of a project cost, depending on complexity. Valentine indicated that the cost of a $800,000 fire station would be increased by $300,000 to $400,000. Either his original architectural plans excluded labor costs or he was counting on volunteer construction labor.

He went on to cite inaccurate claims as factual. His referred to the Legislative Service Commission study of 2002 that was thoroughly debunked by Ohio State University Professor Herbert Weisberg, and by a 2017 study from researchers at Bowling Green State, Kent State and Colorado State universities. It found that “LSC had no valid basis” to its claimed cost savings. Valentine further asserted that prevailing-wage projects had less competition. Wrong again. The 2017 study found that projects covered by prevailing wages had more competition, and that more of those contracts went to Ohio construction companies, not out-of-state firms.

Valentine also suggested that Indiana has seen significant savings by repealing its prevailing-wage law. Once again, false. The Indiana Republican assistant House majority leader candidly admitted this year that his state hasn’t “seen a dime of savings out of it,” and that claims of huge savings from repeal, like Valentine’s, were just “rhetoric.”

(Read More)

Prevailing wage: Good for workers, good for business (CT)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

AUGUST 28, 2017
KIMBERLY GLASSMAN

Gov. Malloy and the legislature are considering deep cuts to municipal aid in order to rectify an over $3 billion budget deficit. Connecticut’s Conference of Municipalities (CCM) is rightfully concerned, and looking for other means to keep municipal budgets balanced. One of its main proposals is to raise the thresholds as to when our state’s prevailing wage law is triggered on public construction projects.

Connecticut’s current prevailing wage thresholds are $400,000 for new construction and $100,000 for renovations. If a project falls below that threshold, then workers only have to be paid the minimum wage. When CCM proposes an increase to the thresholds, they’re proposing that more construction workers be paid the minimum wage rather than the family sustaining prevailing wage.

The truth is CCM’s proposal will make Connecticut less competitive. Our neighboring states, Massachusetts and New York, have a zero threshold on prevailing wage, meaning that the wage protection is triggered on dollar one on public works projects. Rhode Island’s prevailing wage threshold is $1,000, which is less than the federal threshold of $2,000. And New Jersey’s threshold is $15,444. We don’t want to lose skilled workers to our surrounding states.

Opponents to prevailing wage perpetuate a misconception that the wage protection somehow only benefits union workers or union companies. But that is not true. Non-union contractors also perform work on publicly funded projects. And all construction workers, regardless of union affiliation, benefit from the prevailing wage law. Prevailing wage rates are based on surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor of what local contractors actually pay workers on public works projects in the state.

(Read More)

National Poll: Most Voters Support Prevailing Wage on Public Infrastructure Projects

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By SMART CITIES PREVAIL

“While voters may have disagreed on many issues this past November, they agree that prevailing wage laws should be preserved by a wide margin,” said pollster Brian Stryker. “Only 21% of voters want to eliminate prevailing wage laws-even after hearing a commonly referenced argument for doing so. And support for prevailing wage extends to large majorities of Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Trump voters.”

Construction is America’s fourth largest industry, and directly supports more than 6.6 million jobs. About a quarter of annual construction output, or $363 billion, is spent on government owned construction projects-including roads, bridges, schools, transit systems, water projects and municipal buildings.

Prevailing Wages are determined by surveys of existing market wage and benefit rates for skilled craft workers-such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians, ironworkers, cement masons, heavy equipment operators and others-in more than 3,000 communities across America. The Davis Bacon Act requires prevailing wage on most federally funded construction projects while about thirty states have laws requiring prevailing wages on state or locally funded projects.

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(See Poll Summary)

Cleveland-area contractor sentenced to prison for paying workers criminally low wages (OH)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Eric Heisigon January 17, 2017 at 2:54 PM, updated January 17, 2017 at 5:47 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Cleveland-area contractor who paid his employees criminally low wages while working on projects for the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority was sentenced Tuesday to 21 months in federal prison.

Marcus Butler, who operated of L & B Electric of Northeast Ohio, lied on forms between 2011 and 2013 and said he paid his employees $126,514.80 more than he actually had when doing subcontracting work at three CMHA properties.

The work was part of a federally-funded project, as the CMHA receives money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under federal law, employers working on federal projects are supposed to pay their workers a certain rate, known as a “prevailing wage.”

Butler, 32, of Bedford was indicted in 2015. He pleaded guilty in September to 61 counts of making false statements.

(Read More)

Prevailing wage law good for Wisconsin

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Steve Lyons, Wisconsin Contractor Coalition
9 a.m. CDT April 25, 2015

 

Currently there is an effort to repeal or substantially minimize Wisconsin’s prevailing wage law. This would hurt Wisconsin businesses, its skilled labor force and our economy.

Wisconsin’s prevailing wage regulations require that construction workers on public works be paid a specified combined wage and benefit package, broken down by trade and location. The rates are set based on the wages and benefits paid on projects similar to public works in the local area.

This public procurement regulation has recently raised two questions: Should the government interfere with the “free market?” Should construction on public works have a special minimum wage regulation?

Government is the single largest purchaser of local construction services. In 2012, in Wisconsin, 20 percent of all construction purchases were public works.

(Read More)

Study Perfectly Illustrates Why Arguments Against Prevailing Wage are Illogical and Absurd

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

March 2015 – As in many states across the country, there is a vigorous debate underway right now in our neighboring state of Nevada over whether construction workers on public projects deserve to be paid the wage that prevails and is paid to the vast majority of construction workers in a state, whether it be on private or public projects (the prevailing wage).

As in those other states, Nevada Democrats are fighting to protect workers’ wages, while Republicans are crusading to slash them. These Republicans, who ran as “middle of the road” Republicans, wooed and appealed to the values of union working people, who failed to recognize them for the threat they were. These Republican politicians won the votes of too many unionized workers, including Building Trades workers, and took over Nevada’s government.

But they were wolves in sheep’s clothing, and once in power, reverted to their true nature, taking a terrible toll on the working families that helped elect them.

(Read More)

(PDF Copy of Study)