Set Prevailing Wages in the Renewable Sector
Creating Worker Power with Government Contracting and Spending Policy
This is the fifth in an 11-part series on labor policy for the Green New Deal. As a trade union lawyer and climate activist, I believe we need to have a bold plan for climate action coupled with rewriting the rules governing our economy. In the spirit of Bernie’s Green New Deal policy (although written independently and before its release), this series proposes specific policy solutions to advance worker power alongside environmental stewardship.
(4) to achieve the Green New Deal goals and mobilization, a Green New Deal will require the following goals and projects— . . .
(G) ensuring that the Green New Deal mobilization creates high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages, hires local workers, offers training and advancement opportunities, and guarantees wage and benefit parity for workers affected by the transition[.][1]
Make Fossil Fuel Wages the Prevailing Wages in the Renewable Sector
Prevailing wage laws are standard requirements in much government contracting.[2] They require contractors to pay their workers a standard, equitable rate for all such projects, based on the wage rates in the local community. After outcries over government contracting reducing local wage rates and impoverishing workers and communities, Congress, and many state governments passed these laws to ensure that government contracting is high-road employment and pays at least as much as comparable jobs in the area.
So, with renewables and the Green New Deal, we will have significant government investment in clean energy and technology, but most of those jobs are so new that workers have not organized unions and created industry standards. In contrast, fossil fuel industries are more unionized and generally pay better.
The GND should marry the best of both worlds: it should incorporate a prevailing wage law that requires that GND jobs pay at least as much as comparable jobs in the fossil-fuel industry. For instance, workers welding wind turbines should be paid no less than workers welding pipeline. Residential solar installers should be paid no less than electricians and laborers wiring and installing electrical machinery at fossil fuel facilities. Residential and commercial retrofitters should be paid no less than the workers doing similar jobs on fossil fuel sites.
Here’s how it would work: the Department of Labor would survey businesses and organized labor to prepare state-wide or regional prevailing wage numbers for general types of work in the fossil fuel industry. Then on each government-supported project, whether supported through direct expenditures or tax subsidies, the prevailing wage to be paid would be the greater of the prevailing wage for comparable work in the fossil-fuel industry or the prevailing wage already applicable to the project under other prevailing wages laws such as the Davis-Bacon Act.
By adopting this prevailing wage law, the GND can remove one of the major tradeoffs between green jobs and fossil fuel jobs, by ensuring that workers in the green economy make at least as much as workers in the fossil-fuel economy.
If you have thoughts on this subject, I’d love to hear them. Hit me up on Twitter or email.
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[1] H.Res. 109, § 4(G).
[2] In the federal government, the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act are two of the main statutes. See generally U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Government Contracts, https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/govtcontracts (last visited June 24, 2019). Many states have similar laws. See generally U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Dollar Threshold for Contract Coverage, https://www.dol.gov/whd/state/dollar.htm (last visited June 24, 2019).