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9
February 2017
 |
The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
Last
month, President Donald Trump hosted the chiefs of several building trades
unions at the White House in a meeting notable for how friendly it was given that they had endorsed Hillary
Clinton in the campaign. The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
In a
particularly glowing statement after the meeting, Terry O'Sullivan, president
of the Laborers' International Union of North America, said Trump "has shown that he respects
laborers who build our great nation, and that they will be abandoned no
more." That was in response to the administration's effort to restart two controversial pipeline
projects.
But
the recent hiring at the Department of Labor of Geoffrey Burr, the
former chief lobbyist of the construction industry's trade group, has worker
advocates alarmed.
It
also highlights the dilemma of the building trades unions, the segment of
organized labor that has been most friendly to
Trump: They largely support his agenda on infrastructure and trade even as he
is assembling a Department of Labor team that is hostile to unions and
cherished wage standards on government contracts. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
"What
does it mean that we are putting people in charge of the Department of Labor,
which is meant to be the strongest advocate for workers within the
administration, who built their careers around advocating dismantling
protections for workers?" asked Karla Walter, director of the American
Worker Project at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
Burr,
now a member of the Trump beachhead team at the Department of Labor, spent
seven years as the vice president for government affairs at the Associated Builders and
Contractors.
The
group is a fierce opponent of the law that gives workers on government
construction contracts the right to be paid in line with local prevailing wages
— a rate determined by the Department of Labor. The idea of the Depression-era
law, called the Davis-Bacon Act, is to protect workers from being undercut by
lower-paid, less-skilled workers from other areas of the country. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
Republicans
and companies have argued the
law inflates government spending and other costs. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa,
introduced a bill last month to repeal it. Unions champion the
law on the grounds that it protects good
jobs and incentivizes higher productivity.
Disclosure
records show that in 2015 Burr and his colleagues lobbied the House on a bill to repeal
Davis-Bacon as well as on an amendment to "prohibit use of funds to
implement, administer, or enforce the prevailing wage requirements under what
is commonly known as the Davis-Bacon Act." The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Burr
and his colleagues also lobbied the
Department of Labor itself on Davis-Bacon-related surveys that set prevailing wage levels for
jobs in different regions of the country.
As a
member of the Trump beachhead team, Burr is now engaged on Davis-Bacon matters
at the department, according to a staffer familiar with his work.
A
Department of Labor spokeswoman declined to elaborate on Burr's role and the
future of Davis-Bacon. "It would be premature to speculate any policy
decisions till the secretary is confirmed," Jillian Rogers said. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
(There
is still no hearing
date for Trump's nominee
to run the department, Andrew Puzder, who recently revealed he hired an
undocumented household employee. Burr is in line to be Puzder's chief of staff,
Politico reported Tuesday.)
Another
member of the Department of Labor beachhead team, Nathan Mehrens, has
publicly blasted Davis-Bacon. Mehrens previously was
president of the group Americans for Limited Government. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
Ross
Eisenbrey of the Economic Policy Institute, who has testified in support of the law before Congress,
says Burr's hiring is unsettling because the Department of Labor has some
discretion in the setting of prevailing wages. The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
"They
have latitude about what they survey and how often they survey," Eisenbrey
said. "It wouldn't take a genius to identify areas and work hard to get
nonunion employers to answer the survey, and that could lower the prevailing
wage."
The
Department of Labor is also tasked with enforcement: Contractors that violate
the law can be barred from getting future contracts. Bloomberg BNA reported in December that some management-side
lawyers are already expecting the Trump Labor Department to ease up on enforcement. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
The unions who met the president last month do not seem eager to pick a
public fight with the Trump administration. Spokespeople for North America's Building Trades
Unions and the United Association of Plumbers
and Fitters declined to
comment on Burr's hiring at the department. The Laborers' International Union
of North America and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters did not respond to
requests for comment. The Total Investment
& Insurance Solutions
It's
not clear where the president himself stands on Davis-Bacon. One union leader told The New York Times after the meeting last
month that the issue had been raised with Trump, but that the president had
avoided taking a position.The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
