Gulf Coast union leaders called on the Republican governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Texas to persuade President George W. Bush to reverse his executive order allowing contractors to pay substandard wages to construction workers in the areas destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Bush's move cut pay for Gulf Coast workers ? many of whom lost homes and loved ones during the hurricane ? when they need the money most to rebuild their lives and communities, leaders of the Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas state labor federations said in a press conference in Jackson, Miss.

"Days after Katrina destroyed so many lives and families and when people were still rescuing from roof tops in New Orleans, President Bush took time to strike a blow to the working men and women," said Alabama AFL-CIO President Stewart Burkhalter. Bush's executive order "is designed to do nothing more than increase the profits of large corporations with close ties to this administration," he said.

Mississippi AFL-CIO President Robert Shaffer said union leaders aren't trying to push for increased wages. "We're talking about fairness in wages," he said.

"It's saddening that we want to make the victims pay twice. They're told they should get back to work and give up their benefits," said Louis Reine, secretary-treasurer of the Louisiana AFL-CIO.

Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard also participated in the Sept. 29 press conference.

One of Bush's first acts after Hurricane Katrina hit was to issue an executive order Sept. 8 suspending Davis-Bacon Act community prevailing wage requirements for federally funded rebuilding projects in the Gulf states. Local prevailing wages in the affected states average about $9.50 an hour?less than $20,000 a year for skilled, full-time work.

Enacted in 1931, the Davis-Bacon Act also ensures high-quality work standards. In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" permitting him to suspend the law in ravaged areas of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

At least nine times in the past decade, extremists in the Republican party tried unsuccessfully in Congress to repeal or undermine the Davis-Bacon law, leading critics to charge the Bush administration has taken advantage of the hurricane disaster to move an agenda it otherwise could not.

"Employers are all too eager to exploit workers. This is no time to make that easier," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said when Bush issued the executive order. "What a double tragedy it would be to allow the hurricane destruction to depress living standards even further. Taking advantage of a national tragedy to get rid of a protection for workers the corporate backers of the White House have long wanted to remove is nothing less than profiteering."

Reprinted from the national AFL-CIO website, www.aflcio.org