Maine construction industry beset by low wages

Your editorial of July 24 titled “Setting wage rules” commented on Maine Commissioner of Labor Landry’s recent decision regarding the wage determination appeal of the Maine Turnpike Authority and the Associated Constructors of Maine protesting the factual determinations of the Maine Bureau of Labor Standards regarding the wages and fringe benefits prevailing in Maine during September 1999 in the three major categories of construction, namely heavy/bridge, highway and building.

The focus of the appeal is solely on heavy/bridge wages. Highway and building wages and fringe benefits in Maine are so low that there was no realistic basis for an appeal regarding them. The Maine AFL-CIO and the Maine Building Trades Council fought the appeal side by side with Maine’s Bureau of Labor Standards, which has the expertise and performed the surveys which are the basis for the prevailing wage determinations.

Low-wage contractors and the cheapskate Maine Turnpike Authority did everything in their power and threw “everything but the kitchen sink” at the Bureau of Labor Standards’ wage determinations. Your article contains a factual error, namely the statement that the gas pipeline workers were “mostly from out of state. Indeed, over 75 percent of the gas pipeline workers were Maine residents. All of the gas pipeline workers were represented by unions affiliated with the Maine Builing and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO and all of the gas pipeline workers paid Maine taxes.

The real complaint by MTA and the ACM is not the residence of the construction workers on the gas pipeline, but rather that they were represented by unions and deserved and earned by their skills, decent wages and fair fringe benefits including family health insurance. The wage determinations under appeal do not apply to the building or highway categories of the Maine Prevailing Wage Law, where the average hourly wages and benefits are $10.67 and $1.84 (highway) and $12.69 and $2.17 (building). Family health insurance costs alone run between $3 and $4 per hour.

Wages have always been higher in the heavy/bridge construction category than in either the building or highway categories. Maine highway wages are scandalously low and fringe benefits almost non-existent. Although 80 percent of Maine Highway construction costs are paid by the federal government, Maine workers and the Maine economy are paid about one-half the rate of comparable construction workers in Massachusetts, Connecticut and other nearby states. This is to the advantage of low wage/no fringe benefit contractors. But these selfish interests harm the overall general interests of Maine people.

It is costly and counterproductive for the state of Maine, through its Department of Transportation and the MTA to provide family health care benefits for their employees, but to have the overwhelming majority of their construction contracts with employers who do not provide family health insurance. These practices transfer the costs of family health insurance to Maine taxpayers and on to fair employers which provide family health insurance for their employees.

The ACM and MTA “threw the kitchen sink” at the Bureau of Labor Standards’ decisions. First, they claimed that “bridges” were not bridges, which false claim was denied by the Hearing Officer and the Commissioner of Labor. Second, they claimed that the gas pipeline construction wages should be excluded from heavy/bridge determinations. This claim was also rejected by the Hearing Officer and the Commissioner of Labor. Lastly, they raised the issue that there should be two or three or indeed four Maines, rather than one Maine, so tat disfavored areas of Maine should, under Maine government policy, continue to have even lower wages and lower and even lesser fringe benefits than other parts of Maine.

Inexplicably, Commissioner Landry succumbed to the ACM-MTA’s siren song regarding the four Maines issue. That matter will be appealed to the Maine courts where an impartial judicial decision is expected.

The reasons the Maine Bureau of Labor Standards found that heavy/bridge construction wages in Maine should be set on a statewide basis are straightforward:

The Labor/Management Advisory Board (union and non-union) recommended that a statewide wage determination should be applied.

Statewide wages, rather than four area wages, were easier to administer both for the Bureau of Labor Standards, but for Maine’s 1,800 construction employers.

All Mainers who pay the same taxes and are subject to the same laws, and should have an opportunity on public construction projects for the same wages and fringe benefits.

The four regions or areas consist of arbitrary boundaries. For example, MTA has let one substantial construction contract not only to a New Hampshire contractor, but to New Hampshire contractor employing New Hampshire workers.

Clear and undisputed evidence established the existence of one construction labor market throughout Maine for the heavy/bridge construction category.

The last question in your editorial, “The remaining question might be how Maine can attract more of those $40 per hour pipeline jobs?” Initially you should understand that the $40 per hour applies to a relatively small percentage of very highly skilled specialized workers. Secondly, the $40 includes wages and fringe benefits. Thirdly, the average wage determination for all crafts for the heavy/bridge construction category was $16.94 per hour wages and $5.33 per hour fringe benefit.

$22 per hour might seem “excessive” for skilled construction workers to pencil pushers or money manipulators rather than skilled construction crafts persons. Considering the seasonality and sporadic nature of construction work, $22 per hour or approximately $34,000 a year in wages for the top skills among craft construction workers, is not contrary to the interests of the state of Maine, but rather exactly what Maine needs to improve its economy.

Think about it. Better wages and fringe benefits, particularly when paid for by out of state owners and the federal government are in Maine’s best interests both for our construction workers and for all of our people, except low wage/no fringe benefits selfish contractors and their too friendly public officials.

The MTA’s executive director admitted on cross-examination that even with higher wages and fringe benefits, the bids to date for the Maine Turnpike widening were below Maine Turnpike Authority’s estimates.

Patrick N. McTeague of McTeague, Higbee, Case, Cohen, Whitney & Toker, P.A. in Topsham is counsel for the Maine Building Trades Council.