Bush Makes Cuts to Rebuilding Wages

President George W. Bush issued an executive order Sept. 8 that would allow contractors to pay substandard wages to construction workers in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast area destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The order followed Congress' approval of more than $62.3 billion to help rebuild the devastated areas, and billions more are likely to be approved. "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," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

The AFL-CIO is urging Congress to reverse Bush's order to remove Davis-Bacon Act protections, and the act's high quality work standards, from federal reconstruction projects. The act requires federal contractors on federally funded construction contracts to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. "Davis-Bacon has long been the law of the land to protect communities from fly-by-night contractors who would drive down community living standards with taxpayer money," said Laborers President Terence M. O'Sullivan.

"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 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reconstruction contracts," said Edward Sullivan, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department.