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September 08, 2005
Katrina: A Chance To Screw Workers
These people never stop. I mean, the Republicans--it isn't enough that people in New Orleans and Mississippi have been devastated by Katrina, losing homes, family and friends. Now, these low-lifes in Congress want to take away a chance for workers to make a decent living, particularly in the reconstruction efforts that will be fed by tens of billions of our tax dollars.
Led by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Marilyn Musgrave (CO), 32 other Republicans sent a letter to President Bush yesterday asking that he use emergency powers to suspend Davis-Bacon, which requires that workers on federally-financed projects be paid the prevailing wage.
So, get this: while you and other Americans are taking money out of your pockets to help the Katrina-area people recover, the Republicans want to effectively negate everyone's efforts by forcing a wage cut on people who might actually get jobs--to replace those they lost because of the hurricane--in the reconstruction efforts. Your tax dollars--that would be the $62 billion, at a minimum, that would flow in federal money to the area based on Bush's request yesterday--would be the best way to help workers get on their feet, way beyond the charity, in the form of decent, paying jobs. But, nooooooo....
Question: I wonder whether Halliburton, which will likely put its hands into those reconstruction projects (and Dick Cheney is being sent to the area so he can probably give his former employers a nice heads-up on what will be coming through the pipeline), will be required to do the projects for no profit or, better yet, at a loss...you know, for the public good.
To summon up an old historical rhetorical question: Have they no shame?
September 8, 2005 in Labor | Permalink
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» Sweatshop Katrina Recovery Work from Labor Blog
Tasini has the scoop on Republican asking President Bush to use emergency powers to suspend Davis-Bacon for recovery projects post-Katrina-- meaning publicly funded work could go to sweatshop employers instead of union wage employers as required by fed... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 8, 2005 11:29:03 AM
» Sweatshop Katrina Recovery Work from Labor Blog
Tasini has the scoop on Republican asking President Bush to use emergency powers to suspend Davis-Bacon for recovery projects post-Katrina-- meaning publicly funded work could go to sweatshop employers instead of union wage employers as required by fed... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 8, 2005 11:35:53 AM
» And they lack shame too... from Elbow Deep In The Dye Pot
Katrina: A Chance To Screw Workers Led by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Marilyn Musgrave (CO), 32 other Republicans sent a letter to President Bush yesterday asking that he use emergency powers to suspend Davis-Bacon, which requires [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 8, 2005 11:47:53 AM
» And they lack shame too... from Elbow Deep In The Dye Pot
oh yeah, thats nothing new Katrina: A Chance To Screw Workers Led by Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL), Jeff Flake (AZ) and Marilyn Musgrave (CO), 32 other Republicans sent a letter to President Bush yesterday asking that he use emergency powers [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 8, 2005 11:52:27 AM
Comments
"Decisive government action" is political weasel speak for screw the little guy.
I certainly hope the Democrats don't capitulate (again).
CJ
Posted by: cj | Sep 8, 2005 8:31:58 AM
Will the Democrats capitulate? Um, yes.
In addition to the negation of Davis Bacon, watch also for the Rethugs to declare a neeed to do no-bid contracts. All that gummint red tape just prevents rebuilding, see? Better just to give all that federal money to Republican donors.
Posted by: John Q | Sep 8, 2005 8:50:46 AM
Outside of the construction trades and a handful of labor hacks and politicians, few real people know or understand Davis Bacon. Long before this fight reaches the streets, i would hope those in power in institutionalized labor would begin a quick study and build support for paying prevailing wages in the rebuilding. It is far easier to make the argument having to pay high union wages would be a hardship.
Virtually anyone with an ounce of common sense can see the benefit of putting a decent paycheck in the hands of those who lost everything. Unfortunately i fear this will be another PR battle we lose as the administration will let his carpetbagger friends fly in on their jets and take the work from those who need it the most.
On a related note, if half the stories posted on the net are true about how the police and military have treated people (especially the blacks), there need be some serious exposes done. I have been sickened more than a couple of times. While many will dispel the need to follow up on this, it is essential there be people held accountable for their actions. Wait, that's right, George said they would look into how every agency responded.
Posted by: Bill Pearson | Sep 8, 2005 10:04:07 AM
This move was actually advocated by the Wall Street Journal in an editorial right in the height of the crisis last week. I guess the politicos picked their cues wisely.
Posted by: Chris Kutalik | Sep 8, 2005 12:31:58 PM
Halliburton (dba Brown & Root) did a major portion of the big hurricane Andrew clean-up in Florida a few years ago and really screwed the Army Corps out of millions. The Army Corps put out a report critical of Brown & Root at the time that was reported on a little in Engineering News Report.
Posted by: John Williams | Sep 8, 2005 2:46:34 PM
I've been lurking on this blog for a couple of weeks, now, and just had to speak up. You are right, Bill, about the horrible treatment by police! This is horrible and labor should be taking the lead and speaking up on this.
I urge everyone to read the account by EMS workers from SEIU Local 790 who were attending a conference in New Orleans when Katrina hit.
This goes beyond negligence or incompetence. The people of New Orleans were not just victims of a natural disaster. They were -- and continue to be -- the victims of a venal, one-sided class war raging in the US, and these EMS workers (who should be heroes in any decent society) were forced to confront this in all its naked ugliness.
So what is labor going to do about this? This should be the clarion call for labor to stop just focusing on itself and wailing about the lack of "friendly" Democrats, and reach out in a concrete way to unorganized workers, the poor, and community organizations to try to forge a broad-based political alliance to mount a bold, aggressive offensive against this deep-seated neo-confederate elitist, classist, racist bullshit that is destroying this country.
Please, labor, step up to the plate on this one. There is a gaping void in political leadership in this country. Labor has the organized strength to start to change things of it would shake off its myopic focus and take up the cause of all working americans -- including the 90% of us outside of labor's ranks -- and show some boldness for a change. America needs you now!
If labor doesn't do it, who will?
Posted by: Mike B | Sep 8, 2005 6:06:05 PM
More shameful use of the disaster from today's Wall Street Journal. (Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood And Plot the Future, By CHRISTOPHER COOPER)
The article notes that a group of New Orleans business people are meeting in Dallas today to map out the city's future:
"The power elite of New Orleans -- whether they are still in the city or have moved temporarily to enclaves such as Destin, Fla., and Vail, Colo. -- insist the remade city won't simply restore the old order. New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.
The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."
Not every white business leader or prominent family supports that view. Some black leaders and their allies in New Orleans fear that it boils down to preventing large numbers of blacks from returning to the city and eliminating the African-American voting majority. Rep. William Jefferson, a sharecropper's son who was educated at Harvard and is currently serving his eighth term in Congress, points out that the evacuees from New Orleans already have been spread out across many states far from their old home and won't be able to afford to return. "This is an example of poor people forced to make choices because they don't have the money to do otherwise," Mr. Jefferson says.
Calvin Fayard, a wealthy white plaintiffs' lawyer who lives near Mr. O'Dwyer, says the mass evacuation could turn a Democratic stronghold into a Republican one. Mr. Fayard, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser, says tampering with the city's demographics means tampering with its unique culture and shouldn't be done. "People can't survive a year temporarily -- they'll go somewhere, get a job and never come back," he says."
Posted by: Ken Jacobs | Sep 8, 2005 7:04:50 PM
"New Orleans before the flood was burdened by a teeming underclass, substandard schools and a high crime rate. The city has few corporate headquarters.So aside from the fact that the people of New Orleans have already suffered needlessly at the hands of the rich and heartless, while they are in the process of recovery - the rich and heartless plan on stealing out from under them the only thing left? And we're surprised why?The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically," he says. "I'm not just speaking for myself here. The way we've been living is not going to happen again, or we're out."
Posted by: siggy | Sep 8, 2005 7:43:21 PM
This looks like a done deal now--bring on the Katrina profiteering. Note the Presidential proclamation below:
Proclamation by the President: To Suspend Subchapter IV of Chapter 31 of Title 40, United States Code, Within a Limited Geographic Area in Response to the National Emergency Caused by Hurricane Katrina
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
1. Section 3142(a) of title 40, United States Code, provides that "every contract in excess of $2,000, to which the Federal Government or the District of Columbia is a party, for construction, alteration, or repair, including painting and decorating, of public buildings and public works of the Government or the District of Columbia that are located in a State or the District of Columbia and which requires or involves the employment of mechanics or laborers shall contain a provision stating the minimum wages to be paid various classes or laborers and mechanics."
2. Section 3142(b) of title 40, United States Code, provides that such "minimum wages shall be based on the wages the Secretary of Labor determines to be prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the civil subdivision of the State in which the work is to be performed . . ."
3. Under various other related acts, the payment of wages is made dependent upon determinations by the Secretary of Labor under section 3142 of title 40, United States Code.
4. Section 3147 of title 40, United States Code, provides that "[t]he President may suspend the provisions of this subchapter during a national emergency."
5. Several areas of the Nation have been recently devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The devastation from the hurricane has resulted in the largest amount of property damage from a natural disaster in the history of the Nation. An enormous but undetermined number of lives have been lost, and hundreds of thousands of homes and business establishments either destroyed or severely damaged. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have lost their jobs and their livelihood. An unprecedented amount of Federal assistance will be needed to restore the communities that have been ravaged by the hurricane. Accordingly, I find that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a "national emergency" within the meaning of section 3147 of title 40, United States Code.
(a) Hurricane Katrina has resulted in unprecedented property damage.
(b) The wage rates imposed by section 3142 of title 40, United States Code, increase the cost to the Federal Government of providing Federal assistance to these areas.
(c) Suspension of the subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code, 40 U.S.C. 3141-3148, and the operation of related acts to the extent they depend upon the Secretary of Labor's determinations under section 3142 of title 40, United States Code, will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do by this proclamation suspend, as to all contracts entered into on or after the date of this proclamation and until otherwise provided, the provisions of subchapter IV of chapter 31 of title 40, United States Code, 40 U.S.C. 3141-3148, and the provisions of all other acts providing for the payment of wages, which provisions are dependent upon determinations by the Secretary of Labor under section 3142 of title 40, United States Code, as they apply to contracts to be performed in the following jurisdictions: the counties of Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Mobile, Sumter, and Washington in the State of Alabama; the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe in the State of Florida; the parishes of Acadia, Allen, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Calcasieu, Caldwell, Cameron, Catahoula, Claiborne, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Iberia, Iberville, Jackson, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, La Salle, Lafayette, Lafourche, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Orleans, Ouachita, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Tensas, Terrebonne, Union, Vermilion, Vernon, Washington, Webster, West Baton Rouge, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn in the State of Louisiana; and the counties of Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Claiborne, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Franklin, George, Greene, Grenada, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Itawamba, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Lafayette, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leake, Lee, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pearl River, Perry, Pike Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Smith, Stone, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Tunica, Union, Walthall, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wilkinson, Winston, Yalobusha, Yazoo in the State of Mississippi.
Posted by: Chris Kutalik | Sep 9, 2005 2:35:42 PM
So where can I verify this information at? I have been searching the web, and all I've found is mention of this blog on a few other blogs.... If I can verify the information, I'll post it on my blog...
Posted by: Voy Dude | Sep 9, 2005 8:09:25 PM
The proclamation is a matter of public record see whitehouse.goc. Seems like the story is starting to break.
washingtonpost.com
Bush Suspends Pay Act In Areas Hit by Storm
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 9, 2005; D03
President Bush yesterday suspended application of the federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The action infuriated labor leaders and their Democratic supporters in Congress, who said it will lower wages and make it harder for union contractors to win bids.
The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931 during the Great Depression, sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages. Many Republicans have opposed Davis-Bacon, charging that it amounts to a taxpayer subsidy to unions.
In a letter to Congress, Bush said he has the power to suspend the law because of the national emergency caused by the hurricane: "I have found that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency.' "
Bush wrote that his decision is justified because Davis-Bacon increases construction costs, and suspension "will result in greater assistance to these devastated communities and will permit the employment of thousands of additional individuals."
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney denounced the Bush announcement as "outrageous."
"Employers are all too eager to exploit workers," he said. "This is no time to make that easier. What a double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further."
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, accused Bush of "using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities."
Miller said: "In New Orleans, where a quarter of the city was poor, the prevailing wage for construction labor is about $9 per hour, according to the Department of Labor. In effect, President Bush is saying that people should be paid less than $9 an hour to rebuild their communities."
Posted by: Chris Kutalik | Sep 10, 2005 9:46:13 AM
The Unions need to make a decision, whether to support better wages or to support (which they did) the Immigration Freedom Ride and importing more cheap labor. Below are the talking points from the Freedom Ride web site. Im not sure the membership would be thrilled with either. More illegal immigration or the points listed below. But them most unions in the US originated via funding from the groups listed below.
==============================
Supports expanded rights and civil liberties protections for illegal immigrants.
Seeks the dissolution of U.S. borders.
Is supported by the ACLU and the Communist Party USA.
Opposes the War in Iraq and the Patriot Act
Posted by: mrbill | Sep 11, 2005 12:15:16 AM
One of the Gang of 35 is my congressman, Scott Garrett (5th Dist., NJ). Not only did he lobby Bush to pay Katrina workers less than prevailing wage, he was one of only 11 congressmen to vote against the $52 billion aid package for Katrina disaster victims. Garrett, one of the most radical conservatives in Congress, snuck into office in 2002 in a moderate-Republican district. Let's hope 5th District voters see the light and frog-march him out of D.C. next year.
Posted by: janet | Sep 12, 2005 2:06:56 PM
