Ham Lake Prevailing Wage Goes Down
On Tuesday, September 8th, the Ham Lake City Council debated the issue of prevailing wage. Local 49 member, and Ham Lake resident, Jason George presented the issue to the council in August, and asked them to have a discussion about adopting an official prevailing wage ordinance in Ham Lake.
The discussion quickly turned into an advertisement of the non-union contractor’s position on prevailing wage. One city council member simply read talking points from the anti-prevailing wage groups. He disguised them in the form of a study, which he claimed was non-partisan because it was from a college professor. College professors are as non-partisan as our Congress seems to be these days. Jason specifically asked the council not to look at partisan studies from either side, he told them if you googled prevailing wage you would find 10 studies against, and 10 studies for it.
Instead Jason pointed the council to the study done by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). The OLA is a government agency that is charged with providing non-partisan information to the legislature and the public. They are also responsible for investigating any misdoings of the legislature. They are respected by both sides of the aisle and have an excellent reputation. The OLA looked at prevailing wage and found that there was no statistically significant evidence that prevailing wage laws increase construction costs. They found that prevailing wage laws increase workers wages, both union and non-union workers, and that they had a positive impact on the level of training workers receive.
The Ham Lake City Council chose to ignore all of this. They also chose to ignore the 40 members of the community that were in attendance to support prevailing wage, and the 8 letters they received from contractors that work in the area that also support the prevailing wage.
Instead, they chose to side with political ideology that is vehemently opposed to prevailing wage. They turned a workers issue, into a political issue. The only person to stand with workers that night was the Mayor of Ham Lake Paul Meunier. He pleaded with his colleagues to do the right thing for area workers, and asked them to simply move the proposal forward for an official vote. They refused, and when he asked for their support, there was silence.
The City Council of Ham Lake turned their back on the hard working construction workers that build their buildings and fix their roads. When they are up for election, we will have our chance to turn our back to them. The ballot is the great equalizer, shame on us if we don’t participate and fight to elect people that will support our jobs and our families.