A revolting opinion piece has been published in Virginia's News-Leader which suggests suspending the prevailing wage during disaster relief efforts in Missouri.
The opportunism of this idea is so blatant it eclipses laughability and enters an entirely new realm of tastelessness, partisanship and anti-Americanism. Then again, with the most visible of the state's leaders, GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, holding disaster relief over the flame for political positioning, it is not exactly surprising to see other extremists traversing the unrighteous path.
The op-ed, written by a senior research associate at the National Institute for Labor Relations, attacks the prevailing wage as an antiquated policy forced on the country by unions who (it's difficult to quote such filth) "promoted white supremacy as well as union monopoly."
The first of these two egregious claims is easily mocked. The Building Trades unions, whom the author attempts to defile, use as their contractual bible the Project Labor Agreement, a pre-hire agreement which enforces minority hiring requirements, among other community and career-building rules, on all projects. Union involvement in the Civil Rights movement is well-documented. There is no debate about the relationship between progressive politics, social justice and unionism.
As for the humorous "union monopoly" jab, well, a quick look at recent Bureau of Labor Statistics figures can disprove this suggestion: union membership is at an all-time low of seven percent and anybody continuing to make the claim that unions have the ability to create barriers to entry in any sector, in any state, is a delusional hack unable to provide a product and workforce than can compete with the union he or she expresses anger toward.
The author goes on to make the dubious claim that prevailing wage laws "continue to do a lot of damage" to businesses by forcing them, God forbid, to appropriately classify and pay workers. Workers have few protections left in our weighted, anti-worker environment, yet the author seeks exacerbation in lieu of creating efficiencies through utilization of the most skilled professionals the union country has to offer.
Hey! Look over there! It's a tornado! Let's round up some women and children and give 'em candy to rip nails out of plywood with their bare hands!
Strap on your ecto-proof suit if you're interested in reading (or commenting on...) this op-ed slime.