Bush and his CRONIES making sure they are gonna MAKE EVEN MORE MONEY OFF OF KATRINA....it's disgusting.....NOLA construction workers make an average of ONLY $9 PER HOUR ALREADY!!!!!
This is a law that has been on the books FOR DECADES...It works
he's not LIFTING the rules....he's KILLING THEM for his boyz
Bush Lifts Wage Rules for Katrina
Reuters
Friday 09 September 2005
President signs executive order allowing contractors to pay below prevailing wage in affected areas.
Washington - President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.
In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges.
Bush's executive order suspends the requirements of the Davis-Bacon law for designated areas hit by the storm.
Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats.
"The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said.
"President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said.
"I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy.
"One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said.
Reps. Kucinich and Tubbs Jones Call on President to Hire Local Residents
and Pay a Living Wage in Rebuilding Gulf Region
t r u t h o u t | Press Release
Thursday 08 September 2005
88 Members of Congress, including Representatives from Louisiana and Mississippi, send a letter to the President.
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) today sent a letter to President George W. Bush calling on him to sign an Executive Order to require contractors receiving federal hurricane relief funds to hire locally to the greatest extent feasible and pay them a living wage. Kucinich and Tubbs Jones were joined by 88 members of Congress, including Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) and Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS).
"It is not enough to just throw federal dollars at the region," stated Kucinich. "We must also provide the opportunity for the people of the region to rebuild their lives and provide for themselves and their families."
"It is important that the local residents affected by the hurricane benefit from these huge government contracts," stated Tubbs Jones. "We owe the people, who have lost everything, nothing less."
In their letter the Representatives state:
Dear Mr. President,
For the Hurricane-affected regions of Louisiana and Mississippi, the economic devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is on par with effects of the Great Depression. Unemployment is on a huge scale. We ask that you issue an Executive Order requiring all contractor companies receiving federal Hurricane relief dollars to hire local residents of the Hurricane-affected region and pay them a living wage.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, of the 510,000 private-sector workers in the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, "the majority will be off payrolls at least through September, with only a gradual rebound." Another 113,000 in the Gulfport-Biloxi MSA and 54,000 in the Pascagoula MSA face unemployment caused by the Hurricane's devastation of workplaces, transportation routes, public utilities and housing.
The House of Representatives has already appropriated over $60 billion for the region, and will surely appropriate more. But restrictions on the rule governing debate and amendments made it impossible for us to debate an amendment to require contractors receiving federal Hurricane relief dollars to hire locally and pay a living wage.
During the Great Depression, the federal government put millions of unemployed people to work rebuilding the country's infrastructure with federal dollars. The hurricane-demolished region needs a similar emphasis today.
We ask that you issue an Executive Order to require contractors receiving federal Hurricane relief funds to:
1) hire locally to the greatest extent feasible. Specifically, contractors for non-construction projects would be required to meet local hiring goal of 50%, and contractors for construction projects would be required to meet a local hiring goal of 25%.
2) pay each employee a wage of no less than $6.55 per hour if that employee is currently being provided health insurance under a health insurance policy maintained by that employer, or no less than $7.75 per hour if that employee is not currently being provided health insurance under a health insurance policy maintained by that employer.
This is an urgent matter. We ask that you issue this executive order at the same time you sign into law the Hurricane relief funds appropriated by HR 3673. |
