Federal Wage Protection Law Reinstated for Workers in Gulf Coast
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 11/15/2005
The Bush administration has reinstated the Davis-Bacon wage protection law it had suspended following Hurricane Katrina, a policy reversal that was welcomed by civil rights and labor groups, Democrats, and key moderate Republicans."It was fundamentally wrong for the Bush administration to hit workers when they were down by slashing wages...Workers deserve prevailing wage protections which guarantee a living wage, especially for work done with America's tax dollars," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a statement. "Reinstating community wage standards will bring stability to the contracting process, so that all contractors--in state and out of state--will have to compete on factors other than how low they can cut wages for their workforce."
The Davis-Bacon law guarantees construction workers on federal contracts the prevailing wage of the area in which they work. The administration argued that the waiver, which took effect September 8, would speed recovery efforts and save the government money.
Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, criticized the waiver in an October TomPaine.com op-ed. "Just when the people in the Gulf coast needed it [Davis-Bacon] most, Bush gave the green light to construction companies to pay lower-than-average wages to workers on federally funded projects in the areas devastated by Katrina," Hickey wrote
The reversal came after Rep. George Miller, D. Ca., rallied the support of House Republicans for a bill to overturn the suspension.
Campaign for America's Future was instrumental in mobilizing citizens to pressure their representatives to sign-on to Miller's legislation. The organization estimated that for every action alert sent to their members, more than 20,000 activists from all over the country took action by sending messages to Congress urging them to support reinstating Davis-Bacon.
Supporters of the suspension argued that the Act would exacerbate the cost of the reconstruction, "It's the kind of thing that shows they're turning their backs on things that Ronald Reagan and those who built this party care deeply about," Rep. Tom Feeney, R. Fl., said.
However, many critics of the suspension said that it only compounded the tragedy for the victims of the hurricane who wouldn't be able to make a living wage. They argued that the law was implemented to ensure that corporations that receive huge federal contracts won't use tax dollars to exploit workers.
According to Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, "90 percent of the contracts awarded have gone to out-of-state contractors." She has introduced legislation that would require more contracts with small businesses in the affected areas.
Many groups are still pushing for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to reinstate its requirement of affirmative action plans on federal contracts, to ensure equal opportunity for minorities and women. Mark Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League said in an address at Georgetown University Law Center, "With reconstruction and rebuilding, there will be many, many, many new jobs created in the region - and it is our duty to ensure that they go to those from the Gulf region."
According to a Washington Post article, White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that the waiver had always been considered temporary and that it ended because "it outlived its usefulness." The reinstatement took effect on November 8.
