Labor chiefs shake heads at Gulf jobs

With billions of public, private, and insurance dollars pouring into the Gulf Coast, the massive rebuilding effort is expected to attract scores of contractors, carpenters, and electricians from around the country, all eager to find work. But in New England, a key decision by President Bush early in the rebuilding efforts has opened up a sharp division between union and nonunion tradesmen, with several union leaders saying that they will not be able to afford to work in New Orleans while their nonunion counterparts make preparations to go.

In the days after the storm, Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, the law that mandates that companies with government contracts pay their workers a ''prevailing wage" -- generally much higher than the minimum. Unions say the rule is a key protection for wage levels on construction jobs, and they viewed Bush's decision to void it in the storm-torn region as a direct shot at them. As a result, New England union leaders predict that only a handful of local tradesmen will make the trip to the Gulf Coast for work.

''I don't think you'd see any construction workers looking to make eight bucks an hour," said Richard Rogers, executive secretary treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council. ''Why would someone up here who's making a living wage want to go down there and want to make a sub-living wage?"

But the story is much different in New England's nonunion shops, which have long been frustrated in bidding for government contracts in this heavily pro-union region. Some already have volunteered to help and expect to go to the Gulf Coast within months, though they say they will defer to tradesmen from that region to make sure local workers get jobs first.

''There are a lot of firms that are really concerned and are willing to lend a hand," said James Alibrandi, president of Interstate Electrical Services Corp., a nonunion electrical contracting company in Billerica. ''All the support and the sympathy and the willingness to help those folks down there has just been overwhelming."

There will be plenty of work to go around. Some New Orleans contracting companies, worried that out-of-state firms will swoop in to take jobs before they can get back on their feet, have discouraged some of those firms from searching for work in the region. But over time, that is likely to change.

The federal mandate to pay tradesmen a ''prevailing wage" has long been a bone of contention among conservatives sympathetic to business interests, who contend that setting artificially high wages for tradesmen drives up the projects' cost for taxpayers. The prevailing wages vary by region and by trade, and they apply only to government contracts, not private contracts. A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, estimated the government will save up to 38 percent on rebuilding contracts without the wage law, increase competition, and speed relief to residents.

''The federal government wants to get the best price for the taxpayer," he said.

Even before Bush's suspension of the prevailing wage law, New Orleans wages ranked far lower than those in Boston. A typical electrician made $22.09 an hour on government contracts in New Orleans under the prevailing wage law, but $35.40 in Boston, while an ironworker made $18.20 in New Orleans but $29.23 in Boston, according to figures from the federal government.

Boston union officials stressed that they have been active in helping raise money for relief efforts. But when it comes to finding work in the region, they may be able to make better wages by staying in Boston or even moving to California or other higher-paying areas.

''You may see some going down, but unless there's some change in the wage structure, I wouldn't expect the whole lot," said Joseph Dart, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, an umbrella organization of construction trade unions.

Whether New England's organized labor flocks to the Gulf ultimately will depend on whether private companies pay the high wages they seek. Some companies may do that -- if they need the work done badly enough. City Lights Electrical, a Canton firm, has 35 linemen who have traveled to Texas, Louisiana, and Florida to help repair the power lines. Local utility companies, eager to get the power back on, are paying those linemen the same union wages they would earn in Boston.

Thomas Keough, a line superintendent from Randolph who now is working in Texas repairing lines, said he and his fellow linemen are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week. They sleep where they can, spending some nights in a hotel with no running water or power and other nights in their trucks.

Keough, who has been working in the region since last year's hurricanes in Florida, said the hardest part is leaving his wife and three children for weeks at a stretch.

''I'm just doing my job," he said. ''When the paycheck comes in, that eases the pain a little bit. I'd prefer to be home with my family."

So far, several companies, such as Home Depot, that need tradesmen to fix up their stores say they have had no trouble attracting enough people to work. Clean Harbors Inc. of Braintree, which has 250 to 350 workers cleaning up oil spills and doing other work in the Gulf Coast, said it has not significantly raised wages or had trouble hiring in the area. Hilton Hotels paid a premium to attract a corps of workers to fix up its hotels in the days after the storm, but it has settled back into more normal wages since. Still, Patrick Terwilliger, senior vice president of design, construction, and purchasing for the chain, said it expects construction wages to rise over the long term. For unions, that could bode well.

''We haven't seen any immediate spikes [in wages], but we're prepared to see that," Terwilliger said.

Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.