Bush Uses Katrina as Excuse to Remove Wage Protections

  With the federal government poised to spend more than $50 billion to rebuild areas destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the AFL-CIO is calling on Congress to reverse President George W. Bush’s Sept. 8 executive order that would allow contractors to pay wages below the prevailing wage typically paid to construction workers.

  The average prevailing wage in the affected areas in the gulf coast states is $9.00 per hour. The accompanying chart shows some of the prevailing wage levels for specific trades in the New Orleans area. “Employers are all too eager to exploit workers.   This is no time to make that easier,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says. “What a double tragedy it would be to allow the destruction of Hurricane Katrina to depress living standards even further. Taking advantage of a national tragedy to get rid of a protection for workers the corporate backers of the White House have long wanted to remove is nothing less than profiteering.”

  Bush’s order repeals the high-quality work standards set by Davis-Bacon, which covers taxpayer-financed reconstruction in the areas affected by Katrina. The Davis-Bacon Act, enacted in 1931, requires federal contractors on federally-funded construction contracts to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused “a national emergency” that permits him to take such action in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

  “Suspending Davis-Bacon protections for financially distressed workers in the Gulf states amounts to legalized looting of these workers who will be cleaning up toxic sites and struggling to rebuild their communities, while favored contractors rake in huge profits from FEMA reconstruction contracts,” says Edward Sullivan, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department.

  Congressional Republicans and their Big Business allies have made several attempts to ban prevailing wages on federal contracts, but strong opposition from unions and Democratic lawmakers has kept the law intact.

  Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) have introduced a bill to reverse President Bush’s Executive Order. Harkin will offer the bill as an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations bill expected for Katrina relief.

  Besides suspending Davis-Bacon, the Bush administration has awarded no-bid contracts for relief and recovery to companies, like Halliburton, with strong ties to the administration and the Republican party. Bush has also deferred affirmative action requirements for contractors and weakened preferences for small and minority-owned businesses.