Lawmakers override veto, will repeal W.Va. prevailing wage

“Foremost, I dispute that West Virginia needs a right-to-work law”.

Despite its relatively non-strict nature, anti-voter ID advocates in West Virginia are speaking out against the bill, arguing it would only serve to suppress voting in a state with already-dismal turnout.

“Today’s vetoes are disappointing, but not entirely surprising”, Armstead said in a Thursday statement.

Vernuccio pointed to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows right-to-work is strengthening unions. “We have to put West Virginians back to work”. Although some Republicans voted “no”, only a simple majority was required to overturn the veto. But where local law allows it, workers in unionized workplaces can be required to pay their union what are known as agency fees, which cover the costs of collective bargaining but not political activities.

“Last year, unions in right-to-work states gained more members than unions in non-right-to-work states, dispelling the myth that worker freedom hurts unions”, Vernuccio said. Studies on right-to-work vary on economic impacts, but they largely agree that union employment drops. Union membership has been steadily declining. One year earlier, 10 people had died in Matewan, West Virginia, in a skirmish over eviction notices served to miners who had joined the union. Mike Caputo, a Marion County Democrat and United Mine Workers of America leader. Republicans say its repeal will save the state money. The wage applies to union and non-union contracts.

Tomblin’s veto message about repealing the prevailing wage for public construction projects says a compromise past year to retool the wage was “all for naught”.

Republicans said the resulting changes didn’t do enough to adjust the rates, while the Tomblin administration believed a good middle ground was found. Others see the laws hitting worker wages with a modest ding.

“[The voter ID bill is] trying to address a problem that doesn’t exist”, said Julie Archer, the project manager at West Virginia Citizen Action Group.

“We will be coming to this body, and it will be bipartisan, with the best solution or a solution that we can offer our employees”, said Nelson, R-Kanawha.