Marchers Protest Plan to Alter Prevailing Wage

Like a scene from labor’s heyday, an estimated 12,000 construction workers, steam fitters, cement masons, ironworkers and other hard hats Wednesday descended on the Capitol to send a collective “no” to plans by Gov. Pete Wilson to lower their wages.

Union leaders called the rally to protest Wilson’s intention to reformulate the so-called prevailing wage rate that determines pay scales for workers on most public projects.

Workers holding aloft their union local banners and placards criticizing Wilson formed a human mass stretching seven blocks to the Capitol’s west steps.

“Stop Wilson’s War on Working People” said several signs as chants of “Pete, come out!” and “Pete, wake up!” rose above the crowd of mostly young and middle-age male demonstrators. Several carried pink-painted Valentine’s Day posters saying “Have a Heart, Pete.”

Capitol groundskeepers said they could recall no bigger gathering since the days of demonstrations against the Vietnam War.

Labor leaders say public projects make up most of the jobs for which their members are hired.

Robert Balgenorth, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, said that if Wilson’s changes go through, pay cuts on such jobs could reach 20%, a figure disputed by Wilson officials.

Balgenorth told reporters a construction worker’s average pay of $28,000 a year stands to drop to $22,500, “hardly a living wage for a working family.”

Wilson is pursuing the new formula administratively, requiring public hearings followed by a ruling from the Wilson-appointed Industrial Welfare Commission. An administration spokesman said the new wage rates could kick in by July.

Administration officials said the change would save taxpayers about $200 million a year. They also said that the lower rates would enable more public schools to afford building repairs.

In addition, they maintained that labor leaders are falsely portraying Wilson’s proposal as ending prevailing wage guidelines.

John Duncan, chief deputy director of the state Department of Industrial Relations, told reporters the administration seeks only “a refinement” of the present formula for setting wages on most non-federal public projects. The most any wage would be reduced, he said, is closer to 5%, and most of the reduction would be felt in rural areas of the state.

Prevailing wages are determined by taking the most common salary level for a particular skill within the area where a project is planned. That amount, usually the high end of union-negotiated rates, is then paid to workers on the government project.

Administration officials say the change that Wilson seeks would retain the prevailing wage system but use a different formula: an average of all wages commonly paid within a craft.

Forty-seven states and the federal government already use the prevailing wage policies sought by Wilson, administration officials said.

But that part of the debate had no place in the rousing rally and march that extended from a couple of blocks east of the Sacramento River, up Capitol Mall to the Capitol steps.

Several Democratic legislators attacked not only the prevailing wage proposal but also administration-backed attempts to prevent raising the $4.25-an-hour minimum wage and to do away with daily overtime pay for work beyond eight hours.

Standing on the edge of the crowd was Wilson press secretary Sean Walsh. He said the rally reflected “special interest groups who continue to feed funds into the Democratic campaign troughs, keeping wages artificially high.”

A recurring theme at the rally was the threat of unskilled workers taking over for trained journeymen amid a backdrop of declining wages and unions forced to cut back on apprenticeship programs that ensure proper training.

Ironworker Doug Martin, 42, of nearby Loomis, said training is essential in his craft. Without it, he said, “you’d have a hard time walking on a four-inch piece of steel 20 stories in the air with the wind blowing.”