In 2006, as part of a comprehensive community benefits campaign, the Campaign for Responsible Development achieved a commitment from the developer of the old Gates Rubber Factory to pay prevailing wages to construction workers who would build the project’s infrastructure.  Some Denver City Council members were surprised that the prevailing wage was not already a requirement, and in their public debate surrounding the project several council members suggested Denver develop a more consistent policy on prevailing wage for TIF projects.

In the Spring of 2006 FRESC organized the Prevailing Wage Committee.  Rank-and-file construction workers from several different crafts came together and organized to get postcards signed in support of an ordinance that would have required payment of the prevailing wage on all TIF projects. 

In September of 2006 the Prevailing Wage Committee and community allies from 9to5 National Association of Working Women and ACORN delivered more than 700 postcards calling for the prevailing wage on TIF projects to the Mayor and Denver City Council.

Shortly after the postcard delivery, the Administration and Denver's Urban Renewal Authority (DURA), the agency that administers TIF, announced their opposition to a prevailing wage policy for TIF projects.

The Committee continued to organize.  In January of 2007, the committee held a forum with five Denver City Council members who had expressed support for good jobs.  As a result of the forum, with support from the Committee, the Council began to craft a proposal that would call for prevailing wage to be considered on all TIF projects from the beginning, and would apply the prevailing wage standard to as many projects as possible.

On June 4th, more than 100 workers converged at the Denver City Council meeting to ask that the prevailing wage proposal be scheduled for a vote.

On the eve of the vote, DURA successfully sought a delay in order to establish an advisory committee to examine the prevailing wage issue in more detail.  The advisory committee was convened in July of 2007 and Carmen Rhodes, FRESC Executive Director, was appointed to represent the Prevailing Wage Committee.

As of November 2007 the advisory committee is working on a prevailing wage proposal to advance to the DURA Board of Directors.