Houston ISD Kills Agreement with Unions

HISD BOARD WORKSHOP TURNS INTO FIRING SQUAD AIMED AT UNIONS

Houston ISD Board President Lawrence Marshall invited the Harris County AFL-CIO Council to present information at a Board of Education workshop on Prevailing Wages and the 2007 Bond Agreement Partnership reached in October. The Agreement, that was signed off on by the Administration, called for the use of current U.S. Department of Labor Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wages, Apprenticeship training for HISD graduates to build the new schools, wage enforcement and funding for the Career and Technical Education Programs of the District. The workshop (August 20) was called to explain the agreement to the Board for placement on the agenda. AFL-CIO representative Richard Shaw made the presentation.

Agreement good for the District and the Students

When the Unions arrived, they found that they were facing a firing squad of industry representatives set to attack the agreement and the Unions. Shaw began by laying out the Agreement and why HISD endorsed it at a news conference. Emphasis was made on the Apprenticeship wages in the agreement and enforcement of the wages so that workers would not be cheated. He pointed out that this was not a union-non union issue at all but about good wages, keeping students in school and job training. Shaw recounted the documented shoddy and dangerous electrical installation work performed in 4 recently opened schools where children and staff were put in danger with serious wiring and grounding issues. He recounted a report from Lantrip Elementary where the water fountain was shocking students shortly after it opened. Shaw also pointed out how the undocumented workers who were installing the electrical work were unlicensed and were being cheated out of the Districts low $15.17 per hour wage only receiving $9-11 per hour. Finally, he urged the District to adopt current Prevailing Wages (like the County, the City, METRO and others have done) since their wages are 11 years out of date. He pointed out how such wages attract quality workers and quality construction and also train Apprentices that could be recruited from the neighborhoods. He recounted how the Unions helped win passage of the agreement and how the District benefited from the reputation of the AFL-CIO as an honest broker when it comes to job training and good wages for construction workers. All was going pretty good as the 9 Board members listened intently until industry representatives began.

Industry lines up to protect itself

Leading off the industry speakers was Ber Pieper, representing the HISD Bond Oversight Committee and the Associated General Contractors. His testimony recounted how great Brown and Root is and how the District did not need Prevailing Wages and that the wages were just fine for the workers represented. He also touted the quality of the construction and that there were many undocumented immigrant workers living in HISD who benefited from these low wages. Jerry Nevlud, of the Associated General Contractors was up next. He said that his contractors (most of them non-union) did not prefer to pay prevailing wages and that, in summary, the District was doing just fine with its low wages since school construction was different from other construction. The third representative, Ousley Lacy from the National Association of Minority Contractors admitted that they did not believe in Prevailing Wages and that they would not pay them. None of these industry representatives addressed Apprenticeship training and/or why it was preferable to employ undocumented immigrants (and cheat them too) over HISD graduates who would like high skill and high paying construction jobs. Other speakers included the District’s Business Development person and Finance Department who presented a skewed analysis of the cost of paying workers Prevailing Wage when they could use their outdated and their underpaid wages.

District effectively cancels Agreement

Finally, Richard Lindsay spoke. He said that he had made a mistake in signing the agreement (he had done so at the direction of Dr. Saavedra, who is the outgoing Superintendent) and that he was sorry. He then apologized to the Board for doing so. He said that he would not recommend the Agreement to the Board today. Several Board members responded that he was forgiven and that everyone makes a mistake sometime. It then turned into a virtual love fest for Richard Lindsay and the Bond program. Dr. Abe Saavedra, who negotiated the Agreement, sat silent and lame like a duck.

General tone was degrading toward Unions and members

Overall, the general tone of industry and some of the Board members was degrading and insulting towards Unions and their members. In effect, they spit in their faces after they and the District used Labor to lend credibility to their Bond referendum when very few other community organizations would.

This prompted one Board member, Carol Galloway, from the otherwise silent Board members, to note that Union members were people too and she then apologized to the Unions for the District’s behavior in reneging on the agreement and for the tone of the meeting. Ms. Galloway was not on the Board when the Agreement was reached but had warned the Unions that the District would not honor the agreement. Unfortunately, Ms. Galloway was right.
Board Workshop Results and Conclusions of the Harris County AFL-CIO Council

• The Agreement is dead and the losers are the students and the community.
• HISD will continue to train no one in spending $1 billion dollars to build its schools. Without the HISD construction work, there will not be enough Apprenticeship program slots for HISD graduates.
• HISD will continue to get shoddy and dangerous construction work since they have no controls in place to monitor construction and the construction industry will not monitor itself.
• Construction industry leaders continue to ‘wring their hands’ about the shortage of construction workers but still do not want to train anyone and do not want to pay good wages.
• It is apparent that the Associated General Contractors will not be part of the solution to train workers in much-needed highly skilled and high paid construction occupations. They will continue to enable shoddy and dangerous construction work in the HISD and promote low wages.
• The National Association of Minority Contractors is now on record that they will not pay Prevailing Wages. This too is very disturbing since they are bidding for work on the METRO rail that requires the payment of such.
• The Unions of the AFL-CIO will monitor all construction and report problems directly to the Board and the Community. They will make sure that the immigrant workers are making the correct HISD wage and they will hold contractors, general contractors, architects and the HISD administration responsible for electrical and plumbing licensing, quality work and safe school construction.
• They will hold the Board directly responsible for any and all problems found. They will ask the community to do the same just as they did in selling the 2007 Bond referendum to very skeptical voters.