Editor's note: The most important law on Michigan's books that protects the wages of construction workers is the Michigan Prevailing Wage Act of 1966. And once again, the law is under attack in the state legislature. This time, opponents are tying it to the proposed repeal of various "living wage" ordinances enacted by communities in the state. On state-funded construction projects, the prevailing wage law provides a standard for how much contractors pay workers.

It is the height of hypocrisy and due to blatant greed that the Michigan legislature is addressing the prevailing wage-repeal issue again.

The legislature recently gave itself a whopping 30 percent increase in their salaries. Most public employees in Michigan were lucky to receive a 3 percent increase in their compensation. It is hard to understand why the legislators with outstanding pensions and health insurance want to deny construction workers pensions and health insurance.

Gov. Engler talks about the needs for skilled workers. The Michigan building trades unions, through their apprenticeship programs, are doing more to develop skilled training than the governor's office. It must be stressed that most apprenticeship training and union programs that improve skills of members do not cost the taxpayer one cent.

It is therefore surprising that Republican legislators who are interested in downsizing government expenditures would not be supportive of prevailing wage, which underwrites the union contractor's training initiatives.

Let me use one union as an example of what one union is doing to prepare skilled workers. They have 30,000 apprentices and their goal this year is to enroll 50,000. The Plumbers and Pipe Fitters International Union and the Mechanical Contractors Association support 340 training centers in the U.S. - without the expenditure of one tax dollar.

Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 190 is building a state-of-the-art training center on the campus of Washtenaw Community College, again without the use of tax dollars.

When you drive to Muskegon on I-96 at Exit 16 you can see on your right a brand-new training facility built by Local 174. The prevailing wage helps finance these training facilities.

It is difficult for me to understand the actions of the legislature. I know I am naïve. I was lead to believe that the citizens elected legislators to promote the general welfare, not to give themselves outrageous salary increases not realized by any public workers around the state.

It is obvious that the legislature does not understand that the bulk of their constituents are employees, not rich fat cats. I want to remind them that the kind of society we shall have in the United States will be shaped primarily by how a nation of employees are managed.

We need to remember that the most valuable piece of property a nation of employees has is their jobs. It is imperative therefore that lawmakers make an effort - a good-faith effort - to promote social stability.

Destroying the prevailing wage in Michigan would be a grave injustice. It would weaken the social stability of our society. In my view the legislators who are promoting the destruction of prevailing wage have betrayed our state.

Shame on you!