Loss of prevailing wages in Katrina rebuild efforts

In the aftermath of Hurrican Katrina, yet another unfortunate and ill-advised event has occurred: Bush and all our fabulous Hill politicians have decided to suspend the prevailing wage laws on federal jobs related to Katrina rebuild efforts.

Prevailing wage was established by the Davis-Bacon act which is "...U.S. federal legislation which established the requirement for paying "prevailing wages" on public works projects. All federal government construction contracts and most contracts for federally assisted construction over $2,000 must include provisions for paying workers on-site no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits paid on similar projects." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Bacon_Act)

I think this is a terrible precedent for a couple of reasons:

1. It sets a bad precedent for suspending prevailing wages "if things are bad enough"
2. Why would we want to cut workers' wages at a time when those workers need money so desperately? What better way to bolster a devastated economy than pay people a decent amount of money?

Suspending the Davis-Bacon act for the rebuild efforts has ramifications that could echo for a decade. What it means (as far as I can tell) is that contractors proposing jobs related to a Katrina rebuild that has federal money (and that'll be the vast majority of them) are not required to pay the prevailing wage but can pay minimum wage if they want to. This is one of the most shortsighted and profit-driven decisions I've seen in quite a while. Instead of putting money into the hands of those who need it most (the workers), the government has effectively put lots more cash into the pockets of large (and possibly corrupt) contractors.

Yesterday, I received a letter written by three strong unions expressing their disagreement with the decision to suspend Davis-Bacon as I've described. I posted a comment to Moveon.org to try and raise public awareness of the issue, but I wasn't clear in my explanation of prevailing wage or why I think the government's decision is wrong. The letter itself is posted on my website.