Mr. Michael E. Sprayberry, P.E.
State Administrator for Maintenance Contracting
Florida Department of Transportation
Dear Mr. Sprayberry,
Thank you for your response to our email of August 26th.
We trust you are the individual responsible for negotiating, letting and
managing the movable bridge Contractual Services Agreements with ICA and ISS in
Districts 1&7 and again please ask you for copies of the completed
Agreements in force between yourselves and the above parties in the above districts.
We would also appreciate an update on the current stage of negotiations, the
expected date for signing the new Agreements and the vendors under
consideration.
May we also ask that, while assigning all operation and
management responsibilities and not retaining authority to direct employment or
sub-contractor employment policies, your
department does not overlook blatant exploitation nor ignore profiteering when
brought to your attention. We
remain confident that equity is a fundamental principle embraced by our
government, one that cannot be dismissed by the adroit crafting of contractual
clauses and will remain the touchstone prevailing throughout our discussions
and your negotiations.
Thank you for your concern and voicing your opinion on the McNamara-O’Hara
Service Contract Act (SCA). We are bridge tenders not lawyers and are certainly
not qualified to argue the appropriateness of the SCA in this instance. We do
have reasonable confidence in the verbal opinion received from the Employment
Standards Administration’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD). This obviously bears
further scrutiny.
Your Contractual Service Agreement contains your right to
audit (3H) and we ask you to use that right to uncover the details of the wage
theft we suffer under our employment by ISS. Please discover and disclose the
poisonous pie chart of misappropriation that has us living on the edge, while
enriching middlemen empowered and emboldened by a lack of accountability. This is the untenable situation we ask
you to prevent in the future, both your department and we operators will
benefit from the next Agreement
specifying:
1). All contract
employees to be retained under a “for cause” (not the current
silence-instilling “at will”) relationship. This simple protection solves the
previously disclosed conflict of interest. It opens the floodgates of direct
reporting to your inspectors yielding a clearer picture of bridge condition
with suggestions for safer, more efficient operations.
2). Operators to be
indemnified against personal liability stemming from actions, errors or
omissions incurred while performing our job. ICA indemnifies you, why not us?
3). Operators to be
paid “no less than prevailing local wages and benefits” stopping the temptation
for contractors and their sub-contractors to exploit us. While not formally
enforceable, it’s the spirit of the Davis-Bacon Act we ask you to respect.
Your audit will prove the need for adding these protections
to your next Agreement. They are in your power and best interest to give. They
are demanded by fair play. We thank you for your consideration and look forward
to your positive response.
The Organizing Committee
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