Cleveland port hastily ends wage policy it itself touted: Dave Wondolowski questions port board on prevailing wage decision
Dave Wondolowski, Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary/Business Manager.
The following op-ed was written by Dave Wondolowski, Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary/Business Manager. It was first published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Jan. 10. It questions the vote by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority Board of Directors to repeal a policy that required Prevailing Wage be paid on projects financed by the Port Authority.
In November, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority made an anti-worker, anti-Cleveland decision to repeal its Prevailing Wage protections for construction projects it finances. Their decision reverses five years of progress that the Port Authority made towards ensuring developers pay family-sustaining wages with benefits for local construction workers.
In repealing its wage-protection policy, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority Board of Directors has violated its mission to advance the economic interests of Cleveland residents in favor of protecting profit margins for a handful of developers.
The public reason the port has offered for repealing wage protections is that “developers” told staff they couldn’t make projects work with Prevailing Wage. The idea that construction projects can happen only when workers are exploited with low wages is an insult to this community.
The fact is: There’s no direct evidence that the Port of Cleveland was losing millions in fees because of Prevailing Wage. Meanwhile, the port’s own data show that its developer fees have increased over the past 18 months. This data runs counter to their public reasoning for this change in wage protections.
The port’s own strategic plan, issued in the last year, touts the implementation of the Prevailing Wage requirement as a key accomplishment. In the span of less than a year, it went from being a key goal to being repealed.
These facts beg the question: What is exactly happening here? Cleveland residents have every right to demand answers from the Port Authority board and its CEO, Will Friedman. Since 1931, Ohio’s Prevailing Wage law has ensured that large public construction projects don’t drive down local wages and benefits through the outsourcing of jobs to low-road contractors.
The majority of peer-reviewed studies demonstrate that prevailing wage protections do not increase total construction project costs – but they do lower poverty and ensure pay equity, specifically for women and people of color, resulting in more productive workers, safer worksites and a stronger overall regional economy.
These outcomes align with the Cleveland Port Authority’s “sole mission to spur job creation and economic vitality” for the citizens of Cuyahoga County. There is one proven mechanism available to the Port Authority that has a long history of creating economic vitality for working Cleveland families, not just private developers or public entities building port-financed projects: Prevailing-Wage protections which provide health care and retirement benefits for the people who work on these projects.
To add insult to injury, the board and leadership of the Port Authority have launched a disgraceful attempt to misrepresent to the public the positive impact that living-wage standards have on diversity, equity, and inclusion in our regional construction workforce. Their wage-policy change incentivizes developers and contractors to go backwards regarding inequitable pay gaps at a time when we desperately need women and those identifying as minorities in the construction industry!
Prevailing Wage is color-blind and gender-neutral and eliminates discriminatory pay gaps. Data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services show that approximately 80 percent of women, people of color, and veterans enrolled in construction apprenticeships statewide are training in union programs that are supported by prevailing wage. The Port Authority’s repeal is a direct attack on our ability to bring more minorities into apprenticeship programs.
What has changed in the past five years regarding the Port Authority’s goals of seeing construction jobs go to Northeast Ohio contractors and sub-contractors and the local, skilled construction workers they employ? With this new incentive to outsource local jobs and undercut area wages, Cleveland will have the chance to watch in real-time as our labor market is overrun with cheap, unskilled labor from out-of-state construction companies and workers.