A trade union filed a lawsuit against Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and several local construction companies claiming that workers employed on the city’s Erie Street Market project were not making prevailing wages as required by law.
Looks like the taxpayers will be paying twice for the work.
Way to go Carty
What I'm wondering about is "Who is going to pay for the lawsuit if Carty looses? Perhaps he will create another type of fee on top of the taxes we are already paying to pay for the suit.
Shouldn't the title be 'Mayor and several constructions companies being sued again for work done on Erie Street Mkt?' I thought the mayor got sued by the unions once already for the work done last time. Maybe this is over the work to make the deck ADA compliant.
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Yes...sue because your union shop didn't get the job. God forbid the union can't make its dues. People wonder why companies avoid the area like the plague.
Why would someone want the prevailing wage anyway? Minimum wage is way better!
Sometimes it's about what's right for the workers. If they were entitled to the prevailing wage, then they should get it.
Let the market decide what the value of things are, we all know things are what freaking over-valued there anyway. My house that I have...its about 10 years old now, 3 bed, 2 full bath, 2 car garage, quarter acre lot...I can get the exact same thing new right now here for $100-120K. Toledo? Quick look at Realtor.com shows it'll go for no less than $190K. No city income tax. Property taxes that are lower than Lucas County. Sales tax that is about the same as up there. My salary? Comparable to the national average.
IOW what is the point of prevailing wage when it isn't the heart of the issue. The overall costs to live in an area that is the buckle of the rust belt far exceed than what the area can pay out and should pay out. If someone is willing to do the job at a more economical price than so be it. Not saying this in an anti-union way, but if another company/employee feels they can get by making this - then so be it. The employee can quit if it is so much below the union poverty line...but chances are, they aren't going to find anything better.
If Carty had not had this work done in a sneaky way this wouldn't be a an issue. If Carty hadn't dismantled the City's Affirmative Action - Contract Compliance Department, this would not be an issue. If Carty hadn't lied about this project, this wouldn't be an issue.
Actually if carty didn't buy the ESM in the first place it wouldn't have hapened. It wouldn't have been considered a public work, so prevailing wages wouldn't have been a concern. See ORC 4115.
So the building trades were perfectly within their right to sue to help get these workers whats's due them. (regardless of union affiliation). So if you want to blame anyone this is definatly Carty's fault, plain and simple.