Tools:
Unions + Prevailing Wages
Because unions create wealth, it’s essential to grow work sectors that are protected in their right to organize. Prevailing wage laws set a minimum wage for publicly funded projects. The strength of unions in each locality often controls the prevailing wage. Additionally, federally funded projects also require a prevailing wage.
However, the standards still often fall short of creating jobs that afford workers adequate housing or healthcare, and there are currently 28 Right to Work states in the country, which reflect fewer and weaker unions, and often lower wages in those states overall.
Landscape Architects can better understand if their projects pay local living wages that afford housing through tools like the MIT Living Wage calculator and advocate for prevailing wages through support of unions.
Case Study
The BlueGreen Alliance has joined the labor movement with environmentalists to form a more diverse movement that advocates, educates, and lobbies for shared policy goals that create and maintain quality jobs and build a clean, thriving, and equitable economy in the face of climate change.
In one prominent example in the news in 2022, miners connected to the BlueGreen Alliance became the likeliest interest group to reach Senator Joe Manchin regarding his opposition to the Build Back Better bill.
Joe Manchin has demonstrated political loyalty to both mine owners and mine workers as a representative of West Virginia.
Weisman, Jonathan. “Manchin’s Choice on Build Back Better: Mine Workers or Mine Owners.” The New York Times, 10 Jan. 2022.