House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

The U.S. Department of Labor announced the latest enforcement figures from the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) last week, and the results were extremely positive for rank-and-file workers.  According to a Department press release, "The office's totals for fiscal year 2008 (which ended on Sept. 30, 2008) are 102 convictions and 130 indictments, with restitution of more than $3.2 million."

OLMS is the only government agency dedicated to protecting the rights of dues-paying union members.  Unfortunately, the Democrat-controlled Congress has gone on the attack against OLMS, slashing its funding by some $2 million and questioning its work to protect the rights of workers and aggressively enforce federal labor law.  Thankfully, as these new enforcement figures show, OLMS has not allowed the Democrats' roadblocks to stand in the way of its important work.

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Given all the rhetoric these days on the "middle class squeeze," this recent article in the Washington Post, The Real Economic Scorecard, offers an interesting counterpoint when analyzing the economic report card.  Robert J. Samuelson makes the case that the rising cost of health coverage and our nation's unchecked immigration problem - essentially growing the number of residents below poverty level - are the root of our nation's economic problems.  Take a moment to read this article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090202437.html

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This morning, the Wall Street Journal editorial page takes on congressional Democrats for their thinly-veiled efforts to bolster their special interest union allies by slipping Depression-era Davis-Bacon wage mandates into one piece of legislation after another.  According to the Journal:

What do the farm bill, the cap-and-trade global warming bill, the clean water bill, the housing bailout bill, and the school construction bill all have in common? Not much, except that in each one and countless others the Democratic majority in Congress has inserted "prevailing-wage" requirements that amount to a super-minimum wage.

We're speaking of Davis-Bacon, the 1931 law that originally applied to road building and other federal construction projects and set a floor on wages in part to price black and Mexican workers out of the work. Today, its main impact is to require de facto union wages. Many reputable studies have estimated that Davis-Bacon inflates federal construction costs by anywhere from 5% to 39%. A Heritage Foundation analysis of wage data reports that in many cities the mandated Davis-Bacon wage is twice as high as the market wage. In Nassau-Suffolk in New York, for example, Davis-Bacon requires a minimum wage for brickmasons of $49.67 an hour, though the more common area wage for that work is $25.50.

It's an interesting piece, well worth the read.

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