Labor Caucus Legislative Report 2015

8/9/2019 Labor Caucus Legislative Report 2015

1/16

Labor Caucus

Legislative Report

Fran Brennan, Legislative Director


2/16

Federal Legislation

! Trade and Fast Track

! New trade deals like the

Trans-Pacific Partnership

(TPP) are being negotiated in

the same failed NAFTAmodel. The negotiations are

focused on padding

corporate profits not

increasing worker’s

paychecks. Before any trade

deal comes to a vote, theadministration will ask

Congress to pass “Fast

Track” legislation.


3/16

What is “Fast Track”?

“Fast Track” is a policy that gives the executive branch the opportunity to negotiate—out of publicview—as many trade agreements as it can during a given time period.

! then send them to Congress, which may then only vote yes or no on the agreement

! Congress may not amend the agreement or its “implementing bill,” nor may it send the

agreement back to the executive branch with instructions for improvement.

! “Fast Track” is dangerous because it forces Congress to make a take-it-or-leave-it decision on a29 chapter, 1,000 page agreement no matter how bad it is for wages, jobs, small business andthe environment.

! Instead of exercising its constitutional authority to review and amend a trade deal, Congress is

unable to improve any section that hurts working people.

A fast track bill was introduced last year but it never came to a vote thanks, in part, to

strong opposition from the AFL-CIO. Nearly two-thirds of American voters oppose

granting the President fast track authority. They believe it gives too much power to one

person.


4/16

Why is “Fast Track” badfor working families?

! No trade deal, no matter how bad, has

ever been defeated under “Fast Track”

procedures.

! Once negotiators have the “Fast

Track” ticket in their hands, they know

they are free to agree to provisions

that will:

! send our jobs overseas

! reduce the bargaining power of our

workers

! jeopardize our important

environmental health and safety

regulations

! and give global corporations even

more influence over our economy


5/16

State Legislation

! January 20, 2015:

The State Senate introduced

SB-0001, 0002, and 0003

! January 15, 2015:

The State House introducedHB-4001, 4002, and 4003

! The bills introduced intend to

eliminate Prevailing Wage in

our state


6/16

Prevailing wage facts

! Prevailing Wage laws and policies have been

enacted at the:

! Federal level (Davis-Bacon)

! State level

! Michigan municipality level

! The goal of the Prevailing Wage is to

protect local contractors and construction

workers from non-local contractors (often

from out of state) who bring in lower-cost

workers to give them a competitive

advantage when bidding on public works

projects

! States with Prevailing Wage laws have a

lower percentage of public construction

projects done by out-of-state contractors

! This keeps construction funds local and

helps bolster Michigan’s tax base


7/16

Prevailing wage facts

! The goal of the Prevailing Wage is to protect local contractors and construction workers from non-local contractors (often from out of state) who bring in lower-cost, unskilled workers to give them acompetitive advantage when bidding on public work projects.

! States with Prevailing Wage laws have a lower percentage of public construction projects done byout-of-state contractors. This keeps construction funds local and helps bolster Michigan’s tax base.

! While proponents of repealing Michigan’s Prevailing Wage Act claim that doing so would reducepublic construction costs by $250 million, there is no statistically significant di#erence in thefinal construction cost between projects done with Prevailing Wage and those done

without.

! The best demonstration that estimates showing construction costs savings are FALSE is the factthat Michigan repealed the Prevailing Wage for over two years in the 1990’s. There were no

statistically significant differences in construction costs during that period.

! States with Prevailing Wage laws have a higher rate of apprenticeship training and a better

trained construction workforce. Prevailing Wage projects also have a lower rate of

workplace injury.


8/16

! The Michigan Prevailing Wage Act of 1965 was based on thefederal Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which was named for the twoRepublican lawmakers who were its sponsors.

! At the time, the clear intent of the law was to ensure that local laborwas performed by local workers, not by a low-wage workforcebrought in to undercut area wage standards.

! Michigan’s Prevailing Wage law was established under thesame principles:

! To prevent unskilled, unqualified workers from undercutting anarea’s wage standard

! To maintain quality workmanship on state-sponsored

construction projects and to assure the strength of local

economies by keeping local tax dollars re-circulating in the

economy.


9/16

The case of Kansas

! Michigan’s Prevailing Wage Act is designed to ensure that workers who build our

public works projects are paid a fair and decent wage so they can provide for their

families.

! Michigan policymakers should not make the same mistake Kansas did in 1987.

!

11 years after the Kansas repeal, University of Utah economist Peter Philips academic studyproved that Kansas taxpayers did not see the savings they were promised by those whopushed to repeal the Prevailing Wage. Among Philips’ findings:

! Wages and benefits dropped for working families after Kansas’ Prevailing Wage law wasrepealed whether or not they belonged to a labor union

! Workplace safety worsened following the Prevailing Wage repeal, as worker injuriesincreased 19 percent.

! Kansas’ Prevailing Wage repeal drastically cut the size of the skilled workforce,particularly among minorities; apprenticeship training fell by 38 percent, and minorityapprenticeship training plummeted by 54 percent.


10/16

Paid sick days

! Senate Bill 0101 ! House Bill 4167


11/16

! The Center for Economic and Policy Research,more than 40 million Americans work in jobs where they

have no access to paid sick days.

! In addition to the potential loss of wages and jobs forworking families, the lack of paid sick days forces

many people to go to work when they are contagiousand get co-workers and customers sick anddecreases productivity for workers who show upunable to perform to their normal level of ability.

! More and more cities and states are recognizing therealities of the damage having a workforce withoutpaid sick leave does to workers and to the economy.


12/16

! When economic and financial realities necessitate thatsick and contagious people go to work, everyone

loses:

! The customer

! The employee

! And the employer

!

Workers feeling under-the-weather are estimated tocost employer’s nearly $160 billion per year . No oneshould have to go to work sick: We need to enactPaid Sick Day Legislation!


13/16

Deregulating occupational licensure

! “there remain certain occupations that were not deregulated in 2014and Michigan remains at a competitive disadvantage with neighboringstates. Further efforts to deregulate licensed professions isnecessary.” - House Republican Action Plan

! House Bill 4040

! The bill would amend the Electrical Administrative Act to addexemptions from the requirement to have an electrical contractor'slicense for certain electrical work. The Act makes exemptions forcertain agencies and utilities with regard to installing, altering, orrepairing electrical equipment, or wiring, in certain circumstances.


14/16

Pro-Michigan working families legislation

! Paid Sick Day Leave

! Pay Equity

! Corporate Accountability/Transparency

! Tax Break for Child Care

! Tax Break for Student Loan Re-payments

! Tax Break for Unemployment Benefits

! Veteran Services

! Workers Compensation Law, addressthe “virtual wage” section

! Charter School Accountability

! Outsourcing

! Fair Share

! Protecting the Certificate of NeedPolicy

! K-12 Education Accountability

! School Outsourcing Accountability

! Pres. Obama’s Free CommunityCollege Plan


15/16

–AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka Oct. 26, 1995

“Today, we say that when you pick a fight withany of us, you pick a fight with all of us! And

that when you push us, we will push back!”

Please check out our website for more information: www.miaflcio.org Also, you may email me at [email protected], or call me on my cell phone at 734-330-5225


16/16

Next steps

Please talk to your federal elected o$cials

about why “Fast Track” harms our working

families and why they should oppose

considering it!

And please get in touch with your statelawmakers and let them know they should

support prevailing wages and paid sick days.

Labor Caucus Legislative Report 2015

Documents

Transcript of Labor Caucus Legislative Report 2015