FAIRMONT — One of U.S. Rep. David McKinley’s goals is to get more people in the workplace in West Virginia.

McKinley, R-W.Va., met with members from Teamsters and the NCWV Building Trades on Wednesday at the Marion County Public Library to discuss union and labor issues.

McKinley began the discussion by asking those in attendance how to get more people back to work.

“The reality is that seven years ago we had the fifth-best employment rate in the nation,” he said, adding that now West Virginia is in the last spot.

McKinley said around 63 percent of people in West Virginia are not participating in the workforce. Typically, he said the nation is around 45 to 46 percent.

He invited those in attendance to give suggestions on how to get people energized again and improve those statistics.

One of the first issues mentioned at the roundtable discussion was the drug-abuse problem in West Virginia.

“I think one of the things you probably have to look at are what other circumstances are affecting their lives that have nothing to do (with) work,” said Natalie Stone from NCWV Building Trades.

She said she thinks drug-abuse numbers in the state have to be considered when looking at getting more people into the workplace.

McKinley said part of the problem deals with the nation’s recent thoughts about legalizing marijuana.

“As a nation, we seem to be sending some strange signals to our friends and family with drugs by legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington. They are trying to legalize it in Washington, D.C., and even Alaska. And every one of the drug roundtables we have, they will acknowledge it and say it is a gateway drug,” he said.

McKinley also brought up prevailing wage, a term used to describe the effort to provide organized labor a fair chance to bid on government contracts.

State lawmakers passed a bill during the 2015 regular legislative session to change the way prevailing wage is calculated.

Now, state-funded projects with less than a $500,000 threshold would no longer be required to pay prevailing wage rates, according to a new law.

McKinley said right now they are trying to make sure the playing field is level so everyone pays the same amount.

However, some people are concerned that they won’t survive with the new requirement.

At the roundtable, those in attendance voiced their concerns about how this new prevailing wage would affect local families and the economy.

McKinley also talked about the “serious” United Mine Workers of America pension problem. He said since there are fewer union mine operators, there are 120,000 retired miners with only three or four companies paying in the pension fund.

“It’s hemorrhaging drastically, and if we don’t get it fixed within the next year or two years, the pension plan will probably go into the federal pension guarantee fund, which will bankrupt it,” he said.

McKinley said they are trying to use the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) fund. He said this fund gets about $500 million a year in revenue, and over the past 10 or 15 years they have only spent half the money. He said they have around $250 million left every year.

“What we’re trying to do with Bob Murray, as much as a lot of people despise him, he’s using his clout to take that access money to funnel it into the UMW pension fund,” McKinley said, referring to the CEO of coal-mining company Murray Energy.

McKinley said he has been the lead sponsor for a couple years. He said they came very close last year to getting it to pass, and they are going to try and do it again this year and find support.

Email Shawnee Moran at smoran@timeswv.com or follow her on Twitter @smoranTWV.

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