By The PA. AFL-CIO

– The Harrisburg Patriot News ran an extensive Front-Page Article (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/10/house_leadership_striving_towa.html) in their Sunday edition over the weekend, reporting on the current status of the transportation funding bill, and on Republican efforts to tie any new funding to changes in the Commonwealth’s Prevailing Wage Act.

It is extremely unlikely that changes to the prevailing wage law would result in any savings for taxpayers, and would instead simply shift money away from workers and into larger profits for the contractors. This begs the question: what is really motivating the legislators who are pushing for these changes to prevailing wage? And why do they want to reduce middle class wages?

“You wouldn’t support lowering the minimum wage to $5 an hour to try to bring back manufacturing jobs from China. It’s the same kind of thing here;” Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale was quoted as saying. “The question is, what kind of quality of life do we want?”

In the spring, the State Senate passed a $2.5 billion transportation funding bill, with no strings attached, by an overwhelming final vote of 45 to 5. Since then, the State House has attempted to tie a vote on the measure first to privatization of the State Wine & Spirits stores, and now to changes in the prevailing wage.

Go To: http://act.aflcio.org/c/236/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7321 To E-Mail Your State Legislator, And Tell Them:

– Transportation funding is too important to be used as a political football
– The ideological attacks on Prevailing Wage are misguided and hypocritical
– You want them to oppose ANY changes to the Prevailing Wage law

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=2960