With a crucial campaign season looming, a labor union-led coalition is ramping up political pressure on the Cincinnati school board to impose new restrictions on construction contractors looking to help build new schools.
 

Last week, the board voted to delay action until August, but the pressure to require higher wages and better benefits for workers on CPS building projects isn't going away.
 

One group involved, the Baptist Ministers' Conference, threatened to withhold political support from the district's renewal tax levy campaign if they don't take steps to employ more African-American workers. The clergy coalition is typically a reliable organizer for the school campaigns.
 

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, heavily influenced by unions, endorsed a trio of school board challengers who all enthusiastically support the measure, with County Chairman Tim Burke acknowledging the party is concerned about the board's labor record.
 

"This is shaping up to be the big issue of the campaign," said incumbent Melanie Bates, a member of the narrow four-person majority that tabled the proposal, authored by colleague Catherine Ingram.
 

Bates is a prime target of the Democrats seeking to unseat her; Ingram is the only incumbent endorsed by the party.

If approved, the rules would require contractors to pay a "prevailing wage," set by the state, and contribute to health insurance and pension plans for its workers, and prove it.
 

"It's not just them pressuring us, or the political pressure, it's a matter of doing what we said (we'd do)," Ingram said, noting the board's aggressive efforts in 2002 to ensure minority and small-business participation on the construction projects.
 

Members of the coalition say the rules, in addition to a proposed "community benefits agreement" are needed to boost the numbers of local, minority and poor people getting work on the projects.
 

According to CPS, 10.5 percent of its contracts have gone to minority-owned firms. Meanwhile, 18.3 percent of total work hours have gone to minorities and women. Its self-imposed goal is 20 percent in both categories.
 

But supporters of the measure say those numbers mask details, including the ethnicity and residence of the actual workers.
 

"I would challenge you to really look at the numbers, really break it down, and say, 'Has it really worked to the level we think it should?" said Robert Richardson Jr., a labor lawyer and proponent.
 

The prevailing wage rules are common on many government infrastructure projects, but until 2007, Ohio school systems were prohibited from imposing those rules on construction overseen by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.
 

After Gov. Ted Strickland took office, his appointees at the commission dropped the restrictions.
 

Since then, the school board has broached the subject several times, but never voted on the issue until June 22. Even then, Ingram placed the measure on the agenda without others knowing, in an effort to the force the issue.
 

CPS would be the state's fifth district to adopt the prevailing wage rules, joining Dayton, Cleveland, Toledo and Barberton, according to the commission. Columbus and two other districts adopted other restrictions but did not include the wage languages.
 

The board's majority - Eileen Cooper Reed, Bates, Michael Flannery and Susan Cranley - tabled the measure, because they wanted to wait for an administration-convened task force to research the minority hiring issue in more depth, and how implementing the proposed rules would impact minority hiring.
 

That committee met on Tuesday, and is scheduled to meet twice more before Aug. 10, when the issue will come to the board again.
 

But Eve Bolton, an Ingram ally who opposed the delay, accused the CPS construction managers of intentionally stalling.
 

The coalition members say they believe the district is working in good faith, but will insist the matter doesn't languish.

"We want to make sure we have the facts, and that it is not a tactic to delay," Richardson said.
 

Time is of the essence. CPS is about halfway through its $1.07 billion district-wide construction program, and firms continue to submit bids for future school projects. Simply by stalling any possible implementation, the district could minimize its impact.
 

Supporters say the rules ensure higher-quality construction by forcing contractors to compete on efficiency and quality, rather than undercutting each others' wages. Also, the proposed "community benefits agreement" would ensure that the workers are local, they say.
 

"What would you rather have, contractors who compete on their efficiency or the ones who can pay the lowest wages?" said Joe Zimmer, executive secretary of the Greater Cincinnati Construction and Trades Council.
 

Supporters of the measure reject that estimate, pointing to extensive research of other public works projects that show no increase in total cost to taxpayers.
 

Even granting some uncertainty about the precise cost impact, Bates said the new rules would inject uncertainty into the construction project's tenuous budget.