Newark Mayor Cory Booker, surrounded by 32BJ New Jersey District members, signs prevailing wage legislation into law. The law will raise wages and provide benefits to workers who clean city buildings. |
By Jeffery C. Mays
Published: May 17, 2007
Newark became the first municipality in the state to enact prevailing wage legislation yesterday when Mayor Cory Booker signed a bill requiring contractors to pay building workers the current prevailing wage of $14.92 per hour, plus $3.01 an hour in benefits.
Surrounded by union members from Service Employees International Union 32BJ, Booker signed legislation that was unanimously approved by the city council last month.
"Newark should be setting a standard for employing working people," Booker said after signing the legislation in his City Hall office. Council members Carlos Gonzalez and Anibal Ramos sponsored the prevailing wage legislation.
The new wages and benefits are a 150 percent increase from the $7.15 per hour that contractors are currently paying workers to clean city buildings. Workers also get no health benefits and no paid time off despite the fact that Newark has awarded $4.57 million worth of cleaning contracts over the last two years. The changes cover all city-owned or leased buildings.
In order to win the cleaning contracts, which the city has to put out for a public bid, contractors pay minimum wages to workers. Under state law, Newark has to accept the lowest responsible bidder.
There will be a cost to Newark, which is facing at least a $150 million budget deficit next year. In three years, the changes could cost the city approximately $1 million, according to projections.
Booker said the benefits of the law are worth the money.
"It's unacceptable that people put in a full year's work and not be able to raise a family on their earnings," Booker said.
Kevin Brown, the New Jersey district chairman for Service Employees International Union 32BJ, said the fact that the state's largest city has passed prevailing wage legislation will provide momentum to pass similar legislation in Essex, Hudson and Mercer counties and Jersey City.
"It took some time, but once people understood the issue, we were all set," said Brown.
Although the legislation has now become law, many City Hall building workers were fearful of speaking on the record.
Maritza Palacios, who cleans Newark Penn Station, said that when the prevailing wage law was passed on a state level, it improved her life. Before the law, and when she had no health insurance, Palacios had to go to Harlem Hospital in New York City to receive cancer treatments.
"I'm more at ease and at peace because I can pay my expenses," Palacios, an Ecuadorian immigrant, said through a Spanish language translator. "I can help my family. Before, I was unable to do that."
Printer Friendly version |
