NEWS: Proclamation by the President: 1931 Davis-Bacon Act Suspended

Most of these contracts have hazmat provisions also, wonder if those will be suspended? I'm sure for the wage portion it is. Those are always the last two pay groups listed in each trade.

If you're ever stopped near a construction site, there's to be a bulletin board with the wages posted for all the workers to see, usually near the contractor's white trailer. That's a DOL requirement.

A laborer in the north will make $19.00 with $8 additional in fringe benefits (unions like that). While in LA prevailing wage may be $9/hr. Do they even get a fringe there? Not likely now with D-B being suspended. Mom, better find a job too. Kids? Well, get used to your new babysitter.

Michael Baker is an engineering firm in Pittsburgh that's looking for a few good engineers and inspectors to go there, about 100 I heard. Sounds like a legion, or dare I say carpetbaggers? Ssorry, thought we were past that...


That's ok, it was a win-win for Halliblurton and the rest of Funnels, Inc. except for their own displaced workers who lost everything. And now will be lucky to get minimum wage if they aren't replaced by even cheaper UNSKILLED labor.

And where have I heard some of this before...

FEMA Outsourced N.O. Disaster Plans To Politcal Cronies/Donors

Wage-cutting
and profit-gouging in the midst of the Katrina disaster

"...In the New Orleans area, for example, the prevailing wage for an electrician is $14.30 and for a construction worker or a truck driver working on a levee it is about $9.

"... the suspension in fact amounts to a gift to the corporations inundating the area to carry out the reconstruction, who are under no obligation to pass the savings along. Under conditions where hundreds of thousands of displaced hurricane survivors—the overwhelming majority of them working class and poor—have lost everything, including their jobs, Bush’s action is particularly despicable. Many of these same people will be potentially affected by the decision as they seek employment in the reconstruction effort."

"Three companies were awarded no-bid contracts by the Army Corps of Engineers to repair breaches in the New Orleans levees—the Shaw Group, Boh Brothers Construction and Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of oil giant Halliburton (the company formerly run by Dick Cheney, the vice president)."

oh, and we have some Faith-based giving too...

"The Bush administration is also hoping to capitalize on the disaster to change laws that bar the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from giving money directly to religious organizations. By allowing FEMA to directly fund religious groups that are assisting Katrina survivors, Congressional Republicans hope to pave the way for their long-standing goal of increasing government funding of religious institutions—at the expense of federal spending on social programs."

same source

Pat Robertson ought to like that?