Despite continued dysfunction in Albany, the New York State Senate did manage to act in the interest of Working New Yorkers recently.  

Earlier this month the Senate passed a bill that would require public utility companies to pay prevailing wage for cleaners, security guards, doormen and other service workers.  The vote fell almost completely along party lines, with one Republican breaking ranks and voting for the measure.

Handymen, janitors, groundskeepers, cooks and other workers providing basic services for the utility companies would be subject to Prevailing Wage, which is an hourly rate set by the State Department of Labor on a county-by-county basis for individual service occupations.

The measure has yet to pass the state Assembly and opponents of the bill are sounding the alarm, largely by claiming that the burden of paying workers a decent wage will necessitate increases in rates for consumers.

Once again, National Grid is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of New Yorkers, by suggesting the multi-billion dollar public utility cannot avoid keeping its contracted cleaners in poverty without raising rates is as financially preposterous as it is reprehensible to New York taxpayers.

National Grid raked in $1.87 billion in profits last year, and it would cost them pennies on the dollar to keep the workers who keep its facilities safe and clean out of poverty.  Instead, workers contracted at public utilities are earning poverty wages, at as little as $7.75 upstate. 

Prevailing Rates for public service workers in Western New York are not very high, for many of the industries the set rate is not even what CEJ would consider a Living Wage.

However, this legislation is a step in the right direction and an important response to the poverty crisis we're facing locally - a crisis that is the result of having too many jobs that pay too little. 

When low-wage workers, like those contracted to work at public utilities, are unable to support themselves and their families on their wages, they often turn to public programs for food, health care and housing - and taxpayers are forced to foot the bill. 

The Senate has voted to close the loophole that lets public utilities keep workers in poverty and pass on the costs of the food, Health Care and housing they need to support their families onto New York taxpayers.   

The Assembly and Governor Paterson should stand up to these fear-mongering companies, and do the same. 

Allison Duwe/Executive Director
Coalition for Economic Justice/Buffalo, New York