Religion and Labor Network of Austin

A project of the Equal Justice Center

Religion and Labor Network

Helps Win Fair Pay and Benefits

for AISD Construction Workers

In the fall of 2004 the Austin Independent School District succeeded in winning passage of a $500 million bond package to build and renovate Austin Schools.  During that election campaign the school board won the endorsement and active support of construction workers and the Austin building trades unions by promising to require contractors to pay the workers who would be doing this work, a prevailing wage schedule that reflects the average wage and benefits paid to local construction workers.

 However, in the spring of 2005, the school board moved to renege on that promise, by declining to include health benefits in its prevailing wage package.  Low-wage construction workers were set to be the hardest hit, because they lack the bargaining power to negotiate any wages or benefits higher than whatever the school board requires of its contractors.

 This move was of course opposed by construction workers and the building trades unions, but by themselves they lacked the political power to persuade the school board to honor its original promise.

 But when the Religion and Labor Network of Austin entered the struggle, they brought with them a host of new community allies to support the workers.  They also transformed the nature of the controversy.  No longer could the school board dismiss the workers pleas as if it were just an appeal from a special interest. 

As the RLNA mobilized delegations of pastors and faith community leaders to meet with the school superintendent and individual school board members, and as RLNA helped pack the school board meetings with more than 100 members of faith congregations and community supporters, the question suddenly was transformed into a moral issue and a broad community concern.

Pastor Karl Gronberg of Gethsemane Lutheran Church calls for an improved prevailing wage standard for construction workers employed by AISD contractors at the school district's headquarters Monday.
photo by John Anderson

After months of persistent gentle persuasion and strong calls for fair treatment for workers, the school board was moved to change direction.  The board adopted a prevailing wage and benefit schedule the included the health benefits they previously had sought to avoid.

Following the final vote, John Fitzpatrick, an AISD board member, summed up the powerful new force that the Religion and Labor Network brings to workplace justice issues, when he remarked, “I want to thank everyone from the labor, religious, and faith communities that came out. You helped me be a better board member by exposing me to some points of view that I hadn’t thought of. And I think we are making a better decision as a result of your advocacy.”

See Austin Chronicle, Prevailing Wage Guessing Game, April 15, 2005