Prevailing wage is union payback

Letters to the editor for Aug. 1, 2013: Prevailing wage; crowded Comic Con; Liberty Station;UCSD a Dem promoter; Bible as a tax code

Prevailing wage will force out small guy

Boy, those City Council members are really two-faced. Punish Filner by not paying his lawyer, then reward Filner’s backers for putting him in office

(“S.D. passes prevailing wage bill,” July 31).

Passing a prevailing wage rule for almost all city projects will be the demise of many small companies that do specialized work for the city. The additional paperwork, insurance, taxes and salary requirements that come with prevailing wage will force small companies to forgo the work. Most of these small companies are local. All to the benefit of big donors to the Democrat party.

As a small contractor, we had to stop doing prevailing wage work because the paperwork was too time consuming. The work would be completed, salaries, taxes and materials paid for, and then months of back and forth between the general contractor or agency because of the complexity of the paperwork, before payments were made. I once worked at the airport for three hours, and it took three months to get the paperwork correct ... for a $700 job.

The city will spend millions to get less construction accomplished, while paying more money to benefit fewer companies ... way to go, San Diego City Council. I am sure socialists around the world are proud of you.

Mitch Weiss

El Cajon

Prevailing wage is all about payback to unions

The U-T was too diplomatic in advising in its July 30 editorial a “No” vote by the City Council on the prevailing wage ordinance.

The sole reason for adopting a prevailing wage criterion on city projects is so labor unions will direct their considerable campaign contributions to the mayor and council members who vote for the prevailing wage. This in essence is the highest union wage in the city. There is no other reason. Every other argument is eyewash.

If San Diego was in a foreign country this would be illegal under the “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” (15 U.S.C. § 78dd-1, et seq.). Unions give campaign donations to council members, and council members give taxpayers’ money to unions, via union workers. That’s it, period, end of story.

Fred Schnaubelt

San Diego

Big labor dominates City Council

Does the 5-4 council vote approving the “prevailing wage” ordinance show continued Filner power as some claim? Hardly. At Tuesday’s meeting, the council rejected his request to cover his legal fees, then it sued him. Does it guarantee higher quality work, thus saving money? Where’s the evidence?

Does the prevailing wage lift people out of poverty? Nope. Construction jobs already pay far above minimum wage; convenience store clerks, restaurant dishwashers and hotel maids are unaffected.

What is does do is raise project costs by about 5 percent, thus guaranteeing fewer projects annually. But most important, it demonstrates for voters that big labor has captured our City Council, just like our school district. Politicians are now officially afraid to buck the unions because the majority are beholden to them to get elected.

William Bradshaw

San Diego


