No on Question Two

IF you've walked through the Square at all in the past month, you've seen them a dozen times: the blue bumperstickers that proclaim "Question 2/Bad For You." Believe them.

Question Two on the ballot is a binding statewide referendum that proposes to repeal Massachusetts' Prevailing Wage Law. The Prevailing Wage Law requires state and local governments to pay the going rates--usually based on union levels--for any construction and public works projects.

This is a law protecting the workers. If it did not exist, construction companies could submit lower bids on projects by cutting their employees' wages. Construction costs, except for labor, are fixed, so the only way to cut overall costs is to pay lower wages. Repealing the law would create larger profits for contractors but cut the earnings of their employees. It is the public works equivalent to cutting the minimum wage requirement, a return to days when labor had no government protection against abuse from self-interested employers.

Advocates of the referendum try to claim that certain towns cannot afford to pay a state-levied wage rate, but in doing so they distort the actual purpose of the law. The law does not establish a single rate for construction projects but prohibits the state or local government from paying less than is normally paid workers for jobs in that particular area, simply insuring that construction workers get paid a fair rate for their work.

For the state to repeal this law would set back the cause of labor back by 70 years and would profit not taxpayers so much as wealthy contractors. A "No" vote on Question 2 prevents this from happening.