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Article: Strike down racism-based wage act. (Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, requiring payment of local union wages for federal construction projects, needs to eliminated) (Column)
- Article from:
- Insight on the News
- Article date:
- March 8, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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President Clinton can strike a blow for civil rights and dent the federal budget deficit by attacking the constitutionality of the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act. Requiring federal construction contractors to pay local prevailing (i.e., union) wages, the act was born in an atmosphere of racism and, more specifically, white union fear of competition from blacks willing to work for free market rewards. Davis-Bacon's discriminatory effects on black construction workers, furthermore, persist. The statute seems clearly unconstitutional under the teaching of the Supreme Court in Hunter vs. Underwood (1985), because racial discrimination was a "substantial" or "motivating" factor behind ...