Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-12
UNION DENOUNCES
FEDERAL BUILDING
CONTRACT SYSTEM
Secretary Gleason Holds IT.
responsible General Contrac-
tors Cut Living Standards.
LETTERS SENT TO HOOVER,
DOAK AND LA TOILETTE
Declares Subcontractors Are Forced
to Shave Prices and Employ
Cheap Labor on Projects.

One branch of organized labor, the
International Union of Bricklayers,
| MaSonS and PlastererS, today struck out
i pointedly at what it terms the vicious"
practice in Government construction
| programs which permits irresponsible"
| general contractors to profit at the ex-
penSe of the public, the Government,
the Subcontractor, union labor and gen.
eral economic conditions through the
| "peddling" of SubcontractS on buildings.
| John j. Gleason, secretary, and
| Thomas Lane, representative of the in
ternational union, charged that this
practice in letting Government con-
tracts is creating a situation that bor-
derS on "profteering" by permitting
| general contractors to gain contract
awards on public buildings by means of
driving subcontractors to shade" their
prices after the general contracts have
been awarded.
Charges House Delay.
In letters to President Hoover, Secre-
tary of Labor Doak and Senator La Fol-
| lette, Mr.. Gleason complains that GER
tain administrative officials have not
| yet taken steps to correct the situation.
about which complaints had been regis
tered by labor leaders last year.
Complaint is further made that some
members of the House are holding up
passage of the bill, recently passed by
the Senate, requiring that general con-
tractors on Government jobs pay the
prevailing" union wage scale current
in any community, to building mechan-
les on various Government projects.
Mr.. Gleason also voiced objection to-
day to the bill as passed by the Senate
and now before the House, because it
carried no penalty clause for violation
of its provisions and, therefore, lacked
teeth"
Creates Gypsy" Bands.
Spokesman for the international
union assert that the Federal construc-
ton program, though designed in part
to relieve unemployment conditions, is
not accomplishing that result to the
extent it should, due to the lack of
regulation of the letting of subcontractS
by general contractors.
This, it is charged, has served rather
to create bands of gypsieS," or cut
rate building mechanics, moving from
place to place over the country to gain
jobs in the employ OF cut-rate general
contractors.
The system complained of is de-
scribed briefly in this way: The al
legged irresponsible general contractors,
described as 10 more than brokers or
agents for SubcontractorS, having no
construction force of their own, submit
bids on Government projects on the
basis Of the lowest bids given them by
subcontractors.
Then, the general contractor win
ming the low bid, shops" around among
the interested subcontractors. and
awards the work to the one willing to
cut his price. This, it is charged, forces
the subcontractor, who is responsible
for his product, to find non-union labor
or unemployed union labor willing to
work at less than prevailing union
wages, and also to cut here and
there on the quality of building ma
terialS employed in the projects.
Cut Living Standards.
This system, the union leaders claim,
is reducing standards of living of the
building mechanics, is causing failure
OF the Government construction pro-
grams designed to relieve local unem-
ployment, is taking all profit out of the
business OF the subcontractorS, is en-
dangering the business stability of the
bonding companies, who give surety
bonds on the work of the irresponsible"
type of general contractors and is kill
ing" the business of responsible" gen.
eral contractors, who are willing to pay
prevailing scales Of local wages in any
community.
To correct this situation, the union
leaders are seeking to have the Treas
ury Department establish a system I'M
der which general contractors would
have to award their subcontract work
to the subcontractor whose bid he uses
in his general contract bid to the Gov
eminent.
Another means of correcting the
present situation, which the labor lead
ers claim is demoralizing the construc-
ton industry, is passage of the Davis
bill, with the addition Of penalty pro-
visions, requiring contractors to pay
on Government projects in a COM
munity the prevailing wage scales of
that community.
Asks Bill Be Pushed.
In his letter to President Hoover,
dated February and made public to-
day, Mr.. Gleason asks that the Presi-
dent use his good Offices to bring about
enactment of necessary legislation to
end the "evil" at the earliest possible
date.
Mr.. Gleason, in his statement, quotes
President Hoover as having called the
attention of the Secretary of the Treas
ury last July 81 to complaints that
contractors engaged in Government
work are employing alien labor and
that they are, in certain cases, trans
porting labor long distances into local
tiles where there is already considera-
BILE unemployment"
Mr.. Hoover also was quoted by Mr..
Gleason as having suggested "the in
cluSion of paragraph in the specifi-
cations OF Government contracts to
remedy this evil"
Mellon View Reported.
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon is
reported to have passed along to the
controller general the complaints that
contractors are taking advantage of the
unemployment situation to cut wages
below the prevailing wage scale or are
transporting cheap labor to jobs to the
detriment of local labor" Secretary
Mellon is quoted further by Mr. Gleason
as having indicated" that this is a
situation that should not be endured"
and that he had stated that:
The Government should be the last
employing agency to expect or counte-
nance the performance of it's construc-
ton contracts at the sacrifice of its
citizens" and that Gin the absence of
any law forbidding the practices above
named, 1t is the desire of the de-
partment, in accordance with the Presi-
dents wishes, to include in its specif1-
cations paragraph which will give the
department the control of the type of
labor employed on its projects and the
wages to be paid such labor"
~