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September 09, 2005
Bush: Anti-Middle Class and Anti-Black
So, yes, the president, responding to a request from a group of Republicans, did move quickly to undercut workers’ wages in Louisiana and Mississippi, and for good measure in areas in Alabama and Florida (beats me how he slipped in those last two states). He invoked emergency powers yesterday to suspend the Davis Bacon Act—effectively a wage cut for tens of thousands of workers in those four states (see his statement below) who might otherwise be paid the area’s prevailing wage on any rebuilding projects funded by federal dollars.
This is an attack on the middle-class, no more misguided then the tax cuts favoring the top one percent of the population. Aside from being anti-union (though this isn’t just a union wage because all workers benefit from prevailing wage laws), this is just stupid economics. Let me get this straight: you’ve got a devastated area, which will need to have people, once they return home, able to spend money to generate economic activity. So, the first thing you do is attack a program that helps blue-collar workers earn a middle-class wage and puts money in peoples' pockets.
So, Mr. President, when you reprise your post 9-11 visionary suggestion and go tell people to get over the crisis by going shopping, where exactly will people get that disposable income from?
You dope.
So, instead of a Davis-Bacon environment (which attracts highly-skilled, highly productive workers), the country will get more Halliburton culture, which emphasizes over-billing the government for services rendered. Hmmm…
Might I add that his order also shows, to quote Kanye West, that Bush doesn’t care about black people: Davis-Bacon has helped maintain high wages for blacks and other minorities who work in the construction sector.
I expected the Democrats, per habit, to be out-to-lunch on this. But, to my surprise, Nancy Pelosi has attacked Bush for the action, as did Rep. George Miller and Sen. Ted Kennedy. Nothing yet from Harry Reid, Senate Democratic leader, nor leading lights like Hillary Clinton (she's likely doing substance-less photo-ops somewhere).
By the way, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about Davis-Bacon and, since many readers might not understand what Davis-Bacon is, I’ve posted a short explanation.
===============================
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
I hereby report that I have exercised my statutory authority under section 6 of the Davis-Bacon Act, 40 U.S.C. 276a-5, to suspend the provisions of sections 276a to 276a-5 of the Davis-Bacon Act in the event of a national emergency. I have found that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a "national emergency" within the meaning of section 6. I have, therefore, suspended the provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act in designated areas in the States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. This action is more fully set out in the enclosed proclamation that I have issued today.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE
September 8, 2005
September 9, 2005 in Economy | Permalink
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Comments
This fight over what workers are worth is the essence of why there should be a body like the AFL-CIO. The fight defines the differences between the right and the left...or at least it should. It's a battle we SHOULD win every time.
Thanks for the link on the explanation of Davis Bacon JT. It was a well written summary and spells it out better than most union publications. I especially like the Q and A format.
I did some further digging and i see the the three sponsors (Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Marilyn Musgrave (CO) ), all come from states having repealed the little Davis Bacon legislation. Interesting to note that Flake (AZ) comes from an area (Phoenix) that has gobs of problems where substandard contractors got bids on school remodeling projects and the shoddy work has resulted in lawsuits and having to spend millions more fixing the crappy jobs done by unskilled craftsman.
It should be noted and reemphasized, each local area under Davis Bacon sets their own prevailing wage. The reality is, those Southern states destroyed by Katrina have some of the poorest median wages in the country, and this effort to lower them further is a real slap in the face.
It's funny, Halliburton and the other Bush croonies have no qualms about bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from Federal projects, but workers who need it first and most are told they are worth less (worthless).
I can hardly wait, i imagine Wal-Mart will be courting George to suspend the federal minimum wage laws, so this poor corporation can get its feet on the ground and its stores reopened.
While on it's face this looks like a construction/building trades issue, it's not. This is THE battle ground between workers and owners; rich and poor; haves and have nots. If the AFL-CIO or the CTW folks do nothing else, they better throw down the gauntlet and declare war on this issue. It is insulting, shameful and yet another attack on workers by an administration who exist solely for his rich friends.
Posted by: Bill Pearson | Sep 9, 2005 9:37:15 AM
Is there a bottom in sight any where for Labor/Democrats/Progressives to finally hit?
Events of the past two weeks have exhausted all outrage.
A numb disbelief is all that can be mustered.
And the Bush Gang are going to get away with it.
They are going to skate.
Mike Brown will get fired (what a loss) and all will be forgotten and forgiven.
Posted by: coet | Sep 9, 2005 10:38:24 AM
This does'nt suprise me that they're bringing back slave wages. This proves beyond a doubt that ther're a bunch of racists. These people are'nt Christians they're Conservatives
Posted by: Pat | Sep 9, 2005 5:59:48 PM
There is no bottom in sight for Labor/Democrats/Progressives because Labor/Democrats/Progressives don't stand up and fight in any meaningful way. The "left" (using that term loosely as there is no real left in the US today, just a balkanized patchwork of self-absorbed sectoralist pressure groups) bases its whole outlook and strategy on moral appeals to the elite to "awaken their conscience". There has never been any social movement in history that has achieved anything based simply on guilt-mongering and shame, and yet that is all the left knows how to do.
Politics is about power. It always has been and always will be. Labor unions arose in the first place in society to enable workers who have no power by themselves to find power through collective action. But that only works when the workers are genuinely unified behind a leadership with the will and acumen to use that power and fight for the workers. That simply doesn't exist today. You have to look in the history books to know what a fighting union looks like.
Those in power understand only power. Strength wins their respect; weakness and endless bleating for mercy earns nothing but their contempt. They wouldn't have arisen to the heights of power in a dog-eat-dog world if they didn't embrace such a world view. You'll never shame them. You'll never win their compassion. And so long as you are unwilling to stand up and fight them in a real way, they will keep defeating you.
Even though I'm part of the 90% of the working class that labor has turned its back on, throughout my whole life I've always solidarized with labor and have held out hope that we'll see an awakening of the labor movement, at some point, as the beating heart and backbone of a new progressive workers movement in this country. I'm in my forties, now, and throughout my whole life I've never crossed a picket line (and how many "unionists" can honestly say the same?).
At this point, I'm ready to give up hope, though. The discussions on this blog about how to turn labor around all sound to me like a debate about whether someone on their deathbed should get a band-aid or an aspirin. I get the strong sense that those active within the labor movement have been buried in bureaucratic intra-union politics for so long that they have simply lost touch with reality and have become unredeemable. There is simply no will to stand up and fight for working people in this country.
I agree with Bill Pearson about the need to lay down the gauntlet and fight a war over what is happening. I disagree that it can succeed on a narrow, parochial basis of simply looking after its own. Obviously, that needs to be a part of it, but in addition to fighting to defend wages and workers' rights, labor needs to join with community organizations to fight for a rebuilding effort for all Americans, not just the rich. Demand that rebuilding efforts include expansive efforts to provide affordable housing and decent public schools and public hospitals!
I'm not holding my breath for that, though. I just don't believe in labor anymore, and I think in this urgent hour of need, labor is probably going to let down America just as much as FEMA has. I just don't see any reason to believe in labor anymore. I sure wish the unions would prove me wrong on this. I really wouldn't mind ending up with egg on my face on this one if it meant we would finally see an honest workers movement in this country (and no, I'm not calling for the sort of "movement" that self-absorbed little Marxist or anarchist cults call for -- just an honest, democratic movement that stands up for all working people, rather than the narrow, exclusivist, parochial unions that simply focus on their "turf" and defending the dues base of bureaucrats).
BTW, I found one activist group on the web last night that is taking some initiative in trying to forge an activist network to defend interests of poor and working people in the reconstruction effort. I don't really know anything about this, but at least some are moving to take action while labor just whines, as usual.
Posted by: Mike B | Sep 9, 2005 8:39:50 PM
In response to Jonathan et al - can we please start talking about the working class, and not this nonsense to describe everyone that earns a wage as the middle class. Class is an economic and social phenomenon.
And it is about the renewal of the US labour movement too. So this isn't semantics either - language matters. Let's not blindly adopt a term, because those who do so are doing a disservice to the unorganised, including the dissinterested, and those who ahve or are close to giving up on organised labour.
I do have a question though. I am new to this country, and have always been a union member. However, attemts to join a union here have so far been met with the response - OK - but you have to be in a workplace with a collective agreement. Is that right??
If so - then the organised labour movement is missing out on a potential mass movement.
Can someone please clarify?
Posted by: Roy Jones | Sep 10, 2005 8:42:10 PM
Every labor union in the country, regardless of affiliation (AFL-CIO or CTW), every so called DEMOCRAT needs to raise hell over this. In public, IN the media, on the blogs.
I won't hang by my shoelaces waiting. I have seen not one mention of this anywhere except for here.
Astonishing.
Posted by: Jan | Sep 11, 2005 11:57:46 PM
Leave it to the Bush-Cheney Corp. to find a way to hold the victims of Katrina underwater. Some papers are beginning to report on Davis-Bacon action. These is an excellent article in the Hartford Courant by Dan Haar at http://www.courant.com/business/hc-haar0911.artsep11,0,3429673.column?coll=hc-utility-home. He points out how Bush publicly quotes from the Book of Matthew in urging people to donate to the victims and the same day smacks the victims upside the head with actions from the Book of George.
Posted by: Robin O. Hunter | Sep 12, 2005 2:17:33 AM
The only news coverage relating to the repeal of Davis-
Bacon, that I'm aware of, was on Lou Dobbs show on CNN. In addition, for the next 45 days companies can hire workers--below prevailing wage rates--who are not required to prove their U.S. citizenship.
I'm amazed that Bush continues to carry out his obviously anti-worker, anti-union agenda unchallenged.
John Foster
GCC/IBT Local 4C
Posted by: John Foster | Sep 14, 2005 10:06:19 AM
John: in fairness to the mainstream media, CNN, NYTimes, Washington Post did cover the repeal, of the ones I quickly scanned. But, it has quickly died away.
Posted by: Tasini | Sep 14, 2005 10:42:11 AM
John Foster is 100% correct. The rebuilding of New Orleans is about to become just one of those jobs "that Americans won't do."
Posted by: D Flinchum | Sep 14, 2005 5:48:50 PM
Bush: Anti-Middle Class and Anti-Black
So, yes, the president, responding to a request from a group of Republicans, did move quickly to undercut workers’ wages in Louisiana and Mississippi, and for good measure in areas in Alabama and Florida (beats me how he slipped in those last two states). He invoked emergency powers yesterday to suspend the Davis Bacon Act—effectively a wage cut for tens of thousands of workers in those four states who might otherwise be paid the area’s prevailing wage on any rebuilding projects funded by federal dollars.
Republicans say let's bringing back slave wages ther're a bunch of racists. They are a bunch of Christians whom hide behind a Conservative's skirt. They are just a bunch of mama's boys in a man's world. As El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, once said this is a case of the “chickens coming home to roost.” I shall add, coming home to roost with federal dollars lining thier pockets. That is all that seems to matter to these "axis of evil" Christians. In the end they are the "axis of evil" coming home to roost. By the way where are the weapons of mass destruction??? I might add that al-Qaeda says good-bye to Department of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as of yesterday. bye/bye to one of the three "axis of evil" which are as follows
George W. Bush
Richard B. Cheney
Donald Rumsfeld
these are the TRUE "axis of evil" these three clowns have only added problems which appears to feed on the others, making the stakes higher and requiring clown one Bush and his advisers clown two and three to make stupid calculations. The deteriorating situation in Iraq has undermined U.S. diplomatic credibility and limited the administration's military options, making the U.S. a rogue country. A bully which has come home to roost.
Posted by: Joslyn Steve Moses | Nov 9, 2006 1:03:33 PM
Up to this time most white people have been exempt from George Bush's assault but now it has finally filtered down to them. The best and quickest soulution is for the working class, black and white to march on DC, and not leave till we have a federal workers union.
WC
Posted by: Gary Goers | Feb 3, 2007 6:54:59 PM
