Opinion: Responsible Contractor Ordinance is a crucial first step forward for workers

On Tuesday, the Centre County Board of Commissioners approved a Responsible Contractor Ordinance after hearing over two hours of testimony, with a majority speaking in support.

Over the past 10 years, Centre County has made enormous progress. County government has made great strides in modernizing its operations since 2015 and 2019, and completed a crucial salary study last year. Many of our municipalities have set high standards for inclusiveness and environmental responsibility: key measures of the strength of our communities.

In all the progress, though, there’s been one glaring absence: progress on workers’ rights.

In the past five years, we’ve watched too many employers violate employee rights to stop them from unionizing. We’ve gained notoriety as the epicenter of the largest prevailing wage theft case in United States history. We’ve seen five worker deaths, making us among the most dangerous counties for workers in Pennsylvania.

There should be no doubt that there’s a problem. Anyone that has read the newspaper or watched the local news has seen it reported: allegations of union busting at The Meadows, struggles faced by both union and non-union Penn State employees, reports of the over $20 million dollars in stolen wages recovered for 1,267 Glenn O. Hawbaker employees, and far too many worker deaths.

The problem can be seen in how many people in our communities struggle to get by: in how many people need to work second or third jobs just to make ends meet, who struggle to find secure and affordable housing, who deal with lack of insurance or underinsurance, and who worry about what they’ll do if they get an unexpected medical bill.

A lot of what working families need has to come from Harrisburg, where an over decadelong anti-worker majority halted progress on crucial goals like raising the minimum wage. But there has been tangible work to do locally, and too often, that work has gone undone.

That changed Tuesday.

Not only did the Commissioners vote 2-1 in favor of passing a Responsible Contractor Ordinance, but the community turned out in support. Speakers ranged from professors to retirees, non-union construction workers to members of Building Trades unions, and community members simply there to share their support for enhanced worker protections. Some of those speakers didn’t have a personal connection to the construction trades, but they drove to Willowbank to fight for their neighbors, and for workers they don’t know.

Something changed in our community. Centre County residents, and their elected officials, took a hard look at the state of workers’ rights in our county, and decided that there’s work to do.

The Responsible Contractor Ordinance is limited, despite the grandiose and misleading claims of a minority of detractors. It won’t have an impact beyond large county capital projects, which make up a tiny fraction of the construction work in Centre County. No individual policy can fix every problem, and progress comes in stages.

But the ordinance’s passage, aside from protecting taxpayers, sends an important message: that when you’re working on a Centre County job site, your rights matter.

There’s more work to do, both for construction workers and workers across Centre County. Employees in our crucial service industry have too often been taken advantage of, too many workers want the benefits of a union but face the threat of illegal employer retaliation, too many workers lack access to sick leave, and too many student workers are uncertain of or unable to assert their rights on the job.

Some of the issues facing workers will be addressed through advocacy and through organizing, and some will be addressed through policy. That work is waiting — and for the first time, our community is taking it up.