----- Original Message ----- From: "Matthew and Julie Bos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 8:14 AM Subject: Re: Action Alert: Ensure Fair Wages for Hurricane Victims!
> On 10/1/05 6:40 AM, "Robert Seeberger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: >> So......you know absolutely zip about the construction job market, >> right? >> Speaking of rational thought, why don't you learn something about >> the >> subject before you start spouting off. >> Oh wait, conservative.......never mind! > > I might not know anywhere as much as you, but I will award about 50 > to 80K > of electrical work this year, Good enough, you are not completely clueless as I imagined. I apologise for thinking so. But you do need to understand the purpose of the Davis-Bacon Act. The DBA provides security for established local contractors by preventing other contractors from undercutting their government contracts by using unqualified workers. It still happens sometimes, but only if the government does not enforce the law. The DBA keeps qualified workers on government jobs by creating an adverse enviroment for the contractor who seeks to enrich himself by underpaying workers for the value of their work. The DBA sets a value for work, which in turn creates stability in the construction job market. This helps to keep experienced people in the market and acts as a barrier to unqualified workers (positions tend to be held by the experienced). The DBA is a keystone that maintains the middle class. It keeps construction workers from sliding into poverty. You have to understand the competition in the construction industry. There is always pressure to reduce wages, but prices charged by contractors remain the same or increase. You can blame contractor associations for that. > along with subcontracting my house this year. > I work with a lot of contractors. I pride myself with giving them > enough > information to do the job right the first time. There are different types of construction workers, residential, industrial, and commercial. It is helpful to differentiate between them because rates of pay and skills required are in no way the same. I do commercial work. I can do residential and industrial work, but industrial and residential workers are (for the most part) not likely to be able to do work at my level. Sometimes industrial workers are paid higher wages than me, but residential workers never are. It is an industry filled with complexity.<G> > > You have experience, but I don't know in what. You call contractors > scumbags without any explanation. Not all contractors are scumbuckets, but many are. In the non-union arena there are contractors who become wealthy while paying a pittance to the people who made their fortune. > > If you are a union member, how much would it take to get you to > relocate > yourself to NO for a year? In MI they are paying a guy I worked with 19 bucks an hour. (appx) That's not too bad. It is about 5 bucks less than I make, but I could make it on that if need be. My company sent 300 electricians to NO........at the same wage I make. So....if suspending DBA is no biggie for you, then you would be willing to go to your boss and offer to work for 40% of your current wage starting immediately? You know......suck it up for the team? That is my objection. If cutting construction people's wages is such a good idea, why not cut everyone's wages? Surely no one would suggest pissing on construction workers alone. I know a lot of people feel very superior to the kinds of people who built every home and building any of us has ever been in, and think it is just fine to take a great big crap on them because the numbers we are seeing are daunting and the immediate tendency is to become miserly, but in the short term it is wrong and in the long term it is stupid. Each and every one of you......your personal wealth and the wealth of the nation is tied inextricably to the wealth of others, if you want to live in a nation like America has traditionally been. You can see the switch on the wall and the light fixture it serves, but you do not see the wiring or the skills and work that put it there. You like your house and your workplace? Would you prefer that someone less skilled built them? >There still isn't enough electricians in all of LA, MS, and AL to >cover all >the damage done by Katrina. How are you going to get other >tradespeople to >go down there if the prevailing wage is lower than their home market? What Julia seems to be hinting at is the use of illegal alien workers. You can get plenty of them to come to the coast to work. But is that what we really want? You do understand that illegal workers will drive out opportunities for the local workers? >I agree. It doesn't make me wrong or that I don't know what I am >talking >about. On the whole, the Act sounds more politically motivated than >anything >else. Of course there is political motivation, the act would not exist if there were none, nor would any other laws exist without political motivation. The thing is, the law is a good idea.....well, a great idea! Without it, people who do construction work would be poor and their employers would be much much richer. If you and your co-workers were to work for minimum wage, your employer would be much enriched. Now wouldn't that be nice!<G> xponent Goose And Gander Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
