Date: 1998-04-21
Speaker: BILL GROSS (republican)
Chamber: H

Employment Standards Division. U.S. Department of Labor. Washington. DC. DEAR MR. GROSS: On behalf of the Mechaniical Electrical Sheet Metal Alliance. a coalition of more than 12.000 construction contracting corporations in the specialty sector of the construction industry. I want to propose a number of administrative Improvements to the DavisBacon Act. We believe these administrative initiatives. if implemented. would significantly Improve the quality. accuracy and timeliness of the prevailing wage determination process. The Mechanical Electrical Sheet Metal Alliance is a coalition of members of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA). the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association (SMACNA). It represents more than 12.000 construction contracting firms nationwide which exclusively employ more than 540.000 union trades people with stateoftheart technical abilities. Alliance contractors hold a growing market share of more than 60 percent of the nations nonresidential construction activity. Alliance contractors annually train over 90.000 apprentice and Journey persons upgrade training at a cost exceeding $175 million. These union contractor firms and their local association chapters sponsor- over 1.000 local training programs staffed by approximately 5.600 Instructions utilizing equipment and facilities owned by the training programs valued at more than $500 million. The Alliance fully supports Employment Standards Administration (ESA) efforts to improve the wage determination process and the quality. accuracy. and timeliness of the wage rates. We support efforts to find new ways to administer the process with greater efficiency so that the resources saved can be used on increased compliance measures. Mechanical Contractors Association of America. Inc.. National Electrical Contractors Association. Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning COntractors National Association. Inc. One example of business and labor. business and working families who are not afraid to work together. and as a result of working together under a government regulation. a government regulation which. by the way. was constructed by Republicans. Herbert Hoover. Bacon. Davis. all Republicans. It made sense then. it makes Sense now. Republicans. call off your war on DavisBacon. Do not make war on DavisBacon. It does not make sense. It is out of step with reality. It is out of step with the present situation where we have unprecedented prosperity. and we should be seeking ways to spread that prosperity. Republicans. call off your war against the minimum wage increase. Let us go forward and get behind the more. the most reasonable bill. I really think we should increase the minimum wage to the level of the livable wage. In New York. we have a provision now for all people who contract with the city of New York. They must pay a livable wage. which is above the minimum wage. We ought to go for that. but the realities of the situation are that the President and Senator KENNEDY in the Senate and Mr. BONIOR. minority leader here. they all agree that we can take. and it is doable now. more modest steps at 50 cents an hour in two steps overthe next 2 years. So 50 cents an hour increase on January 1. 1999. is proposed. and another 50 cents an hour increase on January 1. 2000. That means that in the year 2000 -workers will be earning $6.15 an hour. In this indispensable Nation where the Dow Jones average is at 9000 and philanthropists are making billiondollar contributions now. why can we not at least without too much discussion or further delay and more fighting by the Republican majority go on to increase the minimum wage by a dollar over a 2year period? Three polls taken in January of 1998 show that the American people overwhelmingly support an increase in the minimum wage. The Washington Post. Los Angeles Times and Peter Hart research poll showed -support for raising the minimum wage ranging from 76 to 78. percent. Seyentyeight percent of the American people want an increase in the minimum wage. It is political. you cannot lose. Republican majority. Join us for a minimum wage increase. The last increase in the minimum wage has not cost jobs. According to a new study released by economists David Card and Alan Krueger. employ"ment in the fast food industry in eastern Pennsylvania actually went up by 11 percent after the 1996 minimum wage increase. The Economic Policy Institute recently released a study entitled. "The Sky Hasnt Fallen." which determined that employment was not adversely affected by the last increase. They had a study. Pennsylvania did not have a State minimum wage higher than the Federal minimum wage. New Jersey had a minimum wage already. a State minimum wage higher than the Federal minimum wage. When the Federal minimum wage went up. New Jersey was not affected because it was already above that level. But Pennsylvania. the industries in Pennsylvania had to raise their minimum wage. They studied the fast food industry in Pennsylvania and the fast food industry in New Jersey. and they found that Pennsylvania industry did not suffer any loss of profits at all compared to the New Jersey situation where they already were there. It was equal. There was no difference. Pennsylvania did not suffer as a result of having its fast food workers begin to earn more pay via the minimum wage. Consider the fact that today a single mother with two children working full time at a minimum wage job earns $10.700 a year. That is $2.600 below the poverty line as defined by the Federal Government. An increase of $1 an hour only partially restores some of the lost buying power of this person. On and on it goes. There are studies that show that the minimum wage does not hurt the economy even in times of normal economic growth. In a time like this when our GPI. the other measures of prosperity. Dow Jones average. leaping forward. surely we can at least spread the wealth. by increasing the minimum wage. There are many other labor issues. which I mentioned before that should be considered as we call upon the Republicans to end what I call now a microguerilla warfare. They are chipping away behind the scenes. Remember in January of 1997. we passed a bill on this floor which took away cash overtime. Fortunately. it has not gone any further. The other House has not considered it. But it is out there. This .Congress passed it. It is still alive in this session. We took away the overtime and replaced it with comp time. That war on workers may hurt most of all. and people cannot get cash. I remember.I offered on this floor an amendment which said. okay. if you want to compromise. let us offer your compromise where people who are in the highest strata earning salaries. and they want more time to spend with their kids instead of more money. let them. Those who earn a certain amount of money above the minimum wage level. I think the figure was something like $11.000. everybody who earned less than $11.000 a year should be exempt from that requirement that they take their overtime in comp time instead of cash because they need the cash. Can you consider people making $11$12.000. how much they need the cash? That exemption made so much sense. but it was not permitted. It was voted down on the floor and we passed the bill anyhow. It is out there somewhere. The guerilla tactics means that one day as the session approaches the end. we may have the Republican majority offering that again here on the floor. I close by saying that that is just one of the many microattacks. that is one of the many ambushes we have to fear. The bigger attack is still proposition 226 in California. That is what is similar to the Paycheck Protection Act here. California has the Paycheck Protection Act out there in a proposition. California has done a lot of damage with propositions lately. And the referendum proposition 226 will require unions to get annual approval of individual members before they can use any dues money for political purposes. If approved. the California proposal will become law in July and will greatly limit labors role in Novembers pivotal gubernatorial election. Here is the political process directly being affected. If that proposition passes. labor gets crippled. Backers of the California initiative said they plan to spend at least $10 million. Polls show that 70 percent of the voters support the proposal. A lot of people are misguided and think this is democracy. They think we should have more democracy. unions should be more democratic. I say this is the kind of democracy that we choke on. this is the kind of democracy designed to destroy and kill organizations. Similar proposals have been introduced in 30 other States and are actively being pushed by conservative and business groups. Supporters say these groups expect to spend $20 million outside of California this year. This is the threat. This is the guerilla attack now coming up through the States. They will not win here this year. But if they can generate enough momentum through the States. we will have in the nottoodistant future a bill which gags working families. The voice of the working family would be shut out of the dialogue and the debate. America would no longer be an open society. It would be an endangered society.