Prevailing wage rules dropped for school construction contracts

It"s no secret that John Kasich is not a fan of public unions.

As a candidate, he would note that he grew up in a blue-collar household. But he also made no bones about his desire to overhaul the 1983 law that gave public employees in Ohio the right to bargain collectively, seek arbitration and, for non safety forces, to strike.

And he also pledged to eliminate rules that required payment of prevailing wages on public contracts.

"I've never been for prevailing wage because it drives up the cost, " he told The Columbus Dispatch in an interview in September 2010.

The prevailing wage issue is one that separated Kasich from then-Gov. Ted Strickland. It was Strickland who instituted the rule that prevailing wages be paid on state funded contracts after his election in 2006.

In February, the Ohio School Facilities Commission, which oversees school construction,  stripped school districts of the authority to require contractors to pay union-scale wages or to require the use of union workers through project labor agreements.

Tim Keen, the commission"s chairman and Kasich"s budget director, said the change will reduce construction costs.  

"This returns us to the environment that the commission operated in for 10 years, from its inception until 2007.” Keen said.

Based on that commission"s action, we move the Kasich-O- Meter for this promise to In the Works.