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Resolution
PREVAILING WAGE PROTECTIONS IN
S.2611
WhereaS, there has been a great
deal of misunderstanding, misinformation and
outright distortion concerning the effect of
applying a “prevailing wage level” to admission
of so-called “Guest Workers” pursuant to Title
IV of S. 2611 – Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Act of 2006; and
WhereaS,
Pundits such as Robert Novak and George Will,
not to mention an Op-Ed piece in the May 24,
2006 edition of the Washington Times, have
assailed the above-reference provision because
it supposedly would extend the Davis-Bacon and
Service Contract prevailing wage laws to include
immigrant workers employed on all private-sector
jobs, even those not covered by either federal
statue, and
WhereaS,
the exploitation of workers based upon their
immigration status both violates the fundamental
rights of these immigrants while also having an
adverse impact on U.S. workers; and
WhereaS,
S. 2611 requires prospective employers to attest
and certify that, before hiring a guest worker,
the employer make a good faith effort to recruit
and employ American workers, and
WhereaS,
in order to achieve this objective, S. 2611
requires employers to first offer to pay
American workers not less than “Prevailing Wage
Level” applicable to the job and, if American
workers willing and able to fill the job cannot
be found, then the employer is required to pay
the guest worker not less than the same
“Prevailing Wage Level”; and
WhereaS,
this requirement simply provides realistic
assurance that guest workers are not displacing
American workers at wages less than prevailing
wage in the area of intended employment; and
WhereaS,
the “Prevailing Wage Level” in S. 2611 refers
to the prevailing wage issued by Sectary of
Labor under the Davis-Bacon Act, if the job is
in the construction industry , or under the
Service Contract Act, if the job is in the
service industry; and
WhereaS,
is neither of these prevailing wage rates
applies to the job for which the employer seeks
to hire a guest worker, then the employer must
offer to pay American workers not less than a
prevailing wage rate based on the Occupational
Employment Statistics Survey issued by the
Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics; and
WhereaS,
this is the same procedure that the Department
of Labor used from the 1970s until the beginning
of 2005 to certify employer efforts to recruit
and employ American workers before hiring
temporary nonimmigrant workers under the H-2B
Visa Program; and
WhereaS,
the H-2B Visa Program applies to the same
categories of the workers that the H-2C guest
worker program will apply; and
WhereaS,
the “Prevailing Wage Level” provision in the S.
2611 simply codify the longstanding procedures
used by the Department of Labor until last year
to assure that American workers are not
subjected to unfair wage competition form
temporary foreign workers and that guest workers
are paid a fair wage; and
WhereaS,
there is no better way to protect American
workers’ jobs from unfair wage competition than
by requiring prospective employers of guest
workers to the first offer the jobs to American
workers at a true “Prevailing Wage Levels” and
then require them to pay guest workers not less
than the same “Prevailing Wage Level”,
THEREFORE BE IT
RESOLVED, that LULAC calls upon the
federal government to maintain the language
which will provide a prevailing wage or wage
floor for level pay parity for guest workers and
American workers alike.
Adopted this 1st day of July
2006.
Rosa Rosales
LULAC National President |
