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Building trades urge lawmakers to require prevailing wage for off‑site custom fabrication on public projects
Summary
Union leaders and trades workers testified in support of SB 1370, which would require prevailing wage pay for workers performing off‑site custom fabrication for state or municipal public works projects; proponents said technology has shifted much fabrication off site and leaving those workers uncovered is unfair and harms local economies.
Union leaders, contractors and tradespeople told the Labor and Public Employees Committee that prevailing wage protections should apply to off‑site custom fabrication used on publicly funded projects.
Ed Hawthorne, president of the Connecticut AFL‑CIO, opened remarks supporting SB 1370, calling prevailing wage a tool that ensures local living wages for workers on public projects. "The prevailing wage ensures that workers on public projects are paid fair wages in the local area in their trade," he said.
Joe Toner, executive director of the Connecticut State Building Trades, said modern construction practices increasingly move fabrication from the job site to off‑site shops but that work is performed for a specific public project and should be paid the same prevailing wage as on‑site workers. "What is happening in this industry is 1 third, 30 percent of the materials are getting dropped off at the shop and fabrication is being done at the shop for that same project," Toner said.
Sheet Metal Workers Local 38 President Michael Colombo and representatives from the Plumbers and Pipefitters unions described workers who perform complicated prefabrication using CNC and BIM 3‑D modeling tools in controlled environments and said those employees often receive substantially lower shop rates when the same worker performs the same work on‑site at prevailing wage rates. Michael Colombo gave an example where prevailing wage might be $80 per hour while off‑site workers were paid $30–$40 per hour.
Panelists said this pay disparity undercuts local economies and training pathways. Jay Moore, representing Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 777, provided data he said showed recent bids across counties where union and open‑shop bidders both bid at prevailing wage levels, arguing that prevailing wage requirements do not necessarily increase project costs. Moore said he collected 23 proposed bids (14 union, 9 open shop) as a sample and offered to submit the bid results to the committee clerk.
Supporters said the bill closes an unintended gap: when prevailing wage laws were written, off‑site custom fabrication was rare; modern BIM and prefabrication now move significant portions of work to shops, but statutes do not always cover that work.
Opponents were not present in person at this panel, and the committee did not take a final vote at the hearing. Proponents asked lawmakers to pass SB 1370 to ensure workers who contribute to publicly funded projects receive fair wages and that taxpayer funds support local living standards and apprenticeship training pathways.
