The Labor Tribune: St. Louis Mayor Jones signs prevailing wage/apprenticeship bill into law

Tim Rowden, The Labor Tribune

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has signed into law a bill updating and clarifying the city’s prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements and adding dedicated staff to enforce the new rules.

Jones signed Board Bill 155 (BB 155) on Feb. 28. Sponsored by Alderman Brett Narayan (Ward 4), it requires Prevailing Wage on city construction projects of $75,000 or more and codifies into law women and minority participation goals, residency requirements, and apprenticeship requirements on all abated, Tax Increment Financing (TIF) projects, or city-funded projects.

On projects of $400,000 or above, the bill sets a uniform goal that a minimum 20 percent of each contractor’s labor hours be performed by those who are enrolled in an apprenticeship program and sets a goal of 25 percent of labor hours be performed by minorities and seven percent of all contract labor hours be performed by women. In addition, the legislation requires employers to provide healthcare coverage that meets the minimum value standard set out in the Affordable Care Act, unless an employee voluntarily opts out of such coverage, at no cost to the employee.

The Prevailing Wage and apprenticeship requirements in the city were last updated in 2020.

“The bill I am signing today updates, clarifies, and strengthens these processes and adds dedicated staff to ensure the implementation of the new bill, allowing us to better support our highly-trained and diverse construction workforce in our city,” Jones said. “This is a big win for every resident in St. Louis, especially workers and those standing with me today.

“I want to thank Alderman Narayan, the St. Louis Development Corporation, MOKAN, members of the Greater St. Louis Building Trades Council, the Carpenters and members of my staff for working together to reach a compromise bill that works for the city, the residents, minority contractors and the building trades,” Jones said.

‘A HUGE WIN FOR WORKERS’
Jake Hummel, president of the Missouri AFL-CIO, also thanked Laborers Local 110 Government Affairs Director Clint McBride, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1 Business Representative John Kahrhoff and Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer (Ward 1) for their individual parts in helping to craft the legislation and get it across the finish line.

“There was a lot of negotiation back and forth, and at the end of the day it ended in a huge win for workers in the city of St. Louis,” Hummel said. “It’s a huge step in the right direction, and goes a long way toward enforcement and making sure that our jobsites look like the neighborhoods we work in.”

‘TRANSFORMATIONAL’
“We have worked long and hard on this bill,” said John Stiffler, executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council. “I’m very proud to represent the St. Louis Building Trades, the 20,000 men and women that work and build our community. This is a historic day for Labor, for the building trades and for the communities we serve. It’s transformational. This will make our construction teams look like the communities and neighborhoods that we serve.

“We worked very hard to get this bill through,” Stiffler said. “I can’t thank Alderman Narayan and Alderwoman Schweitzer enough. They deserve a boatload of credit, along with our community partners. Now we have some guardrails in place for the bad actors that come into town and try to take our members’ work.”

‘HUGE DAY FOR WORKING PEOPLE’
“This is a huge day for working people in the city of St. Louis,” said Alderman Narayan. “With the passage of this bill, we are going to ensure that we are actually policing Prevailing Wage. We’re making sure the people on jobsites have healthcare. This is a huge win for every working person in the city.

“This is something that had been kicked around for quite some time. We were looking at first at getting parity with St. Louis County when it came to protecting Prevailing Wage. We got all the partners at the table and realized that the compromise was going to be a bit different here than St. Louis County. We pushed as hard as we could, and I think we ended up with a solid piece of legislation that is going to protect working people in the city of St. Louis.”

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