by Bruce Walker
Saginaw County will not enforce the prevailing wage requirements in its purchasing policy, according to a letter signed by an attorney representing the county.
The updated policy is considered a victory for non-union contractors for government projects, as well as for taxpayers who won’t have to foot the bill for higher union labor costs.
Up until last Friday, Saginaw County still enforced prevailing wages for government construction jobs, which forced contractors to bid any job over $50,000 at union-established wages whether the contractor employed union labor or not, forcing the government to pay above market rates for labor.
Michigan voters rescinded its statewide prevailing wage laws in 2018.
The letter, dated Aug. 27, was sent by David M. Gilbert, a principal at Gilbert & Smith, P.C. The letter was in response to a March 4 letter from Kraig Schutter, a Masud Labor Law attorney representing the Association of Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Greater Michigan Chapter.
Schutter’s letter was addressed to Saginaw County Controller Robert Belleman.
“I am in receipt of a copy of a letter you wrote to Robert Belleman dated March 4, 2020,” Gilbert wrote to Schutter. “In that letter you inquired as to whether or not the County would be enforcing its prevailing wage requirements. I have had an opportunity to meet with the County. I am advised that they will not be enforcing the prevailing wage requirements contained in their purchasing policy.”
ABC President and CEO Jimmy Greene has been attempting to persuade Saginaw County to rescind its prevailing wage requirements since at least 2012. In March, Schutter noted in correspondence to Belleman that the county could not enforce its prevailing wage policy because it continued to rely on the state of Michigan to establish regional labor rates. At that time, ABC threatened to sue Saginaw County if it continued to require contractors to pay employees the prevailing wage.
Greene told The Center Square the county’s decision to not enforce its prevailing wage requirement was directly the result of ABC’s threatened lawsuit.
“Saginaw County Commissioners should have removed the prevailing wage mandate two years ago when the state ended the practice, Greene said. “Instead, the policy was grandfathered in its purchasing policy.”
In a prepared statement, Greene also said: “[T]he elimination of the State’s Repeal of Prevailing Wage provided a back stop that served to bring this to a successful closure. Undaunted, the local labor unions have created another attack on free and open competitive bidding; a tax payer benefit; by suggesting yet another ‘union special’ purchasing gimmick. Our hopes are that Saginaw County Commissioners regardless of party affiliations remember that their fiscal responsibility for ALL Saginaw County citizens and reject such prejudiced overtures.”
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
