Legislative Alert!!!!

May 20, 2011

We have been informed that House Bill 3 is going to be sent to either the house transportation committee or the house labor committee to remove the prevailing wage language.

Please call your state representative and tell them not to remove any of the prevailing wage language from House Bill 3

Please let us know who you called and what they told you. If you are not sure who your Representative is, please contact us at (412) 464-2851.

A prevailing wage battle began this week in the PA House of Representatives over a bill that would allow for Public Private Partnerships (P3). A P3 is a construction project under which a government entity and private entity jointly build a road/rail/building, etc. The private entity typically recoups its costs over time in the form of tolls, user fees or the like. House Bill 3 creates the law to allow for these P3 projects. In its present form, the bill specifically requires that prevailing wage be paid on all of these projects.

The bill was expected to be voted on by the full House on Monday (May 2nd), but Representative Darrell Metcalf filed an amendment to strip out the prevailing wage requirement. As a result, no vote occurred and the bill is still on the House Calendar. It now appears that the House Republican Leadership intends to send the bill back to committee where the prevailing wage language would be removed. The bill would then be returned to the floor for consideration by the full House. This is an attempt to avoid a clean vote on the prevailing wage issue.

It is imperative that you contact your State Representative and ask him/her to support prevailing wage as part of House Bill 3. Also make it clear that you want them to oppose any parliamentary or "procedural" votes designed to keep prevailing wage out of the bill.

If we lose this battle, our employers will not be able to compete on these projects. We can also expect a steady diet of anti-prevailing wage bills for the rest of the legislative session. So, please make your contacts as soon as possible as this could all happen as early as next week (May 9th).

Losing this battle WILL mark the beginning of the race to the bottom for wages and benefits in the Construction Industry!