Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto preemption bills she believes could affect county workers negatively.
Subcontracted workers like baggage handlers at the airport, workers at the Metrorail, workers at PortMiami, and janitorial staff at county buildings will be affected by at least one of the bills.
“It’s really a disaster for our community,” Levine Cava said.
The mayor sent a letter to the governor urging him to veto two bills about employment regulations and public works projects.
House Bill 433 would strip the ability of counties to set wage standards for private companies they hire for publicly funded work.
Right now, Miami-Dade has a living wage ordinance in place that requires employees on county service contracts to make a living wage.
“We will find it very difficult to find workers for these jobs to maintain the service industry that supports so many of our basic county infrastructure. Our airport, our seaport, our transit system,” Levine Cava said. “These are contracted jobs, there are not our employees. These are services we contract through private businesses and we say through our living wage ordinance you need to pay a little bit more.”
“We just want more competition and savings for taxpayers,” said Rep. Tom Fabricio, a proponent of HB 433.
House Bill 705 would, in part, affect small local businesses that are currently given priority for certain public works bids by opening up bids to contractors or subcontractors from any location.
“The local program is for small businesses that are registered and certified with Miami-Dade County. We create economic benefits by putting our dollars back into the community, while still offering responsible wages,” said Dorothy Brown-Alfaro, the owner of electrical and telecommunications company Jador International Corp.
Brown-Alfaro says if HB 705 is signed, it will no longer be a fair and level playing field.
“They will outbid us because they will come in and pay someone like $10 an hour so they won’t have the same costs that we will,” she said. “And there will be no requirement for them to adhere to the same rules or to pay that.”
Fabricio also said this bill doesn’t preclude a county from taking a bid from a higher bidder.
