AP: In next strike against unions, GOP states go after wage laws

Carlos Osorio

In this June 10, 2015, photo, construction crews look over the renovation of the Student Center at Wayne State University in Detroit. Expanding the Republican Party’s battle with organized labor, several GOP-dominated legislatures in the Midwest are moving to scrap labor laws that help unions win contracts on public works projects, an important source of construction jobs. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)


http://www.omaha.com/news/nation/in-next-strike-against-unions-gop-states-go-after-wage/article_907cb846-8a98-53fc-898c-7306f93453dd.html

POSTED: TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2015 12:25 AM | UPDATED: 12:45 AM, TUE JUN 16, 2015.
Associated Press |

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Expanding their battle with organized labor, Republican lawmakers in the Midwest are moving to scrap labor laws that help unions win a healthy share of the jobs on public works projects and bolster trade union membership.

Conservative legislators are targeting "prevailing wage" statutes, now on the books in 31 states, that require paying the local wage and benefit rate — usually union scale — on government construction projects such as building schools, fire stations and local roads.

They say the wage laws inflate costs and make it harder for nonunion contractors to compete by making lower bids.

The Indiana Legislature repealed the state's 80-year-old prevailing wage law last month, becoming the first legislature to do so in 27 years. Similar proposals are now before lawmakers in Michigan and Wisconsin. Those three GOP-led states dealt a financial blow to labor in recent years by passing right-to-work laws that bar unions from collecting fees from non-members.

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