Davis Vetoes Bill Curbing Government Contractors

Any hopes of reviving the Buy American movement that swept the nation in the 1940s died Wednesday when Gov. Gray Davis struck down legislation that would have stopped state and local governments from hiring contractors who used foreign-made materials.

While the motives behind the labor-supported measure were laudable, Davis said, the potential costs could be astronomical, in some cases increasing the price tag on public works projects in California by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Construction costs for new public schools alone, he said, could jump by as much as $77 million.

“As written, this bill would automatically trigger reciprocal preferences against California in 35 out of 50 states, thus negating any benefit,” he wrote in a veto message.

The veto was a disappointment for organized labor, one of the governor’s staunchest supporters and biggest campaign contributors. The legislation would have affected contracts of $50,000 or more financed by state or local government.

The measure (AB 214) by Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) had been the brainchild of Dick Zampa, president of the District Council of Ironworkers. Zampa became incensed when he saw Chinese characters stenciled in yellow chalk on the side of heavy steel beams that were being used on a bridge retrofitting project in the Bay Area.

He said the beams should have been American steel, an industry that has been hard-hit by foreign competitors who can utilize low-cost labor.

“We wanted the work to stay here, in the United States,” Zampa said Wednesday. “We wanted it to benefit the taxpayers in California. Naturally I’m extremely disappointed, but at least we got a lot of people thinking and talking about the issue.”

To mollify labor, Davis accompanied his veto with an executive order requiring all government agencies, including the California Department of Transportation, to set the highest standards possible for materials used in state projects. Bolts supplied by the same Chinese company that manufactured the steel beams were recently rejected by Caltrans because they failed strength tests.

Labor was not the only big Davis support group to face a veto Wednesday. The California Applicants’ Attorneys Assn., another key campaign contributor, lost a decade-long fight to increase benefits for injured workers.

Davis said he was vetoing the bill (SB 320) by Sen. Hilda Solis (D-La Puente) to raise worker compensation rates because it violated the course of moderation that he had hoped to set for his administration.

He said the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Board had estimated that the bill would have cost the state more than $2 billion by the time it was fully implemented in 2005.

“While I recognize that some benefits for injured workers have fallen behind the cost of living in recent years,” his veto message said, “[this measure] increases benefits far beyond what I believe California employers can absorb without negatively impacting the economy.”

He attempted to save face with the applicants’ attorneys by offering to support a more moderate increase in the future.

But the peace offering did little to soothe the angry lawyers.

“The veto is an insult to working families,” said Robert I. Vines, the association’s president. “Injured workers can’t afford to take care of their families on the level of benefits this state pays. A benefit increase is long overdue.”

Vines said California has not had an across-the-board increase in worker compensation benefits in 17 years. He said California ranks 49th out of 50 states in the level of benefits that it pays to most injured workers.

“What’s the loss of an eye worth, the loss of a foot or a thumb?” he asked. “Why is the loss of an eye on the job in California compensated at one-seventh what it would be if it happened to a worker in Pennsylvania?”

Workers did win one major victory in the governor’s office, however: Davis signed legislation (AB 633) by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) affecting garment workers.

The measure helps guarantee that California garment workers are paid when their employers go out of business. The measure is particularly significant in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where there are about 160,000 garment workers.

It attempts to address a long-standing problem in the industry caused by the companies that go out of business and fail to pay outstanding wages to their workers. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that garment workers nationwide are owed $73 million in back wages.

In other action, Davis signed legislation Wednesday requiring farm labor vehicles to be equipped with safety belts and intensifying California Highway Patrol enforcement in agricultural regions.

The two bills by Assembly Democrats Dean Florez of Shafter and Sarah Reyes of Fresno was introduced after 13 tomato workers were killed Aug. 9 when the van in which they were riding crashed in the San Joaquin Valley.

The van, operated by an unlicensed driver who had an arrest record for drunken driving, was not equipped with seat belts in the passenger compartment. Current law exempts farm labor vans and most buses from the state’s seat belt requirement.

Under the Florez bill (AB 1165), which becomes law immediately, every new farm labor vehicle certified by the CHP must be fitted with passenger safety belts, starting Friday. Those already certified will have until May 1 to comply with the new seat belt mandate.

The bill also earmarked $1.75 million for the CHP to hire at least 10 officers, whose primary assignment will be to enforce the seat belt law and related farm worker safety rules in the San Joaquin Valley and other agricultural areas.

The Reyes bill (AB 555) increased the fines for violating farm labor vehicle inspection requirements. It also extended the liability for inspection violations from drivers to include owners of the vehicles and farm labor contractors.

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Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this report.