LISBON Union approves of inmates' work

A union official was concerned that the work value was more than $60,000.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County officials won't have to worry about a giant, inflatable rat appearing amid the Christmas decorations in the village square outside the courthouse.
The rat makes frequent appearances in the area as a prop at union demonstrations to air labor gripes.
Bringing the varmint to Lisbon was an option available to union officials if they had decided they were dissatisfied with conditions under which county jail inmates were working at the courthouse, explained Don Crane, president of Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council, a Youngstown-based labor organization.
There will be no such demonstrations, though, Crane said Monday.
He said he toured the courthouse late last week with Commissioner Jim Hoppel, who showed him the work inmates were doing at the building. Crane said he was satisfied with what he saw.
The tour was prompted by concern Crane previously had expressed that the value of inmates' labor might be more than $60,000.
The figure is significant, Crane has said, because projects valued at more than that must pay laborers what's known as prevailing wage, which is about $20 an hour.
Below wage window
The inmates are working for nothing, unless it is in nonmonetary rewards like a few hours out of the lockup or the coffee and cookie hand-outs from county employees.
"It definitely falls well below the prevailing wage window," Crane said.
"If everything stays the way it is now, there's no need to pursue any action," such as getting an attorney involved or staging a demonstration featuring the inflatable rat, he added.
If the value of the prisoners' labor was outstripping the $60,000 limit, union officials would propose that the jobs be hired out to nonprisoners, Crane has said.
Hoppel has defended the prisoner labor, which consists primarily of cleaning the courthouse halls and restrooms, and, more recently, undertaking simple remodeling tasks such as basic wiring and carpentry.
County officials say inmates assigned skilled work are qualified to do it. Having nonviolent, misdemeanant prisoners work helps to offset the more than $2 million annually the county spends on housing prisoners, Hoppel has said.
leigh@vindy.com