Union Heads Praise Biden Infrastructure Plan
Construction-Ohio Department of Transportation
Union leaders praised President Joe Biden’s 10-year $2 trillion infrastructure plan, released March 31, while Senate Republicans quickly questioned the size and scope of the bill.
“My American Jobs Plan will put hundreds of thousands of people to work – line workers, electricians and laborers – laying thousands of miles of transmission line, building a modern, resilient, and fully clean grid, and capping hundreds of thousands of, literally, orphan oil and gas wells that need to be cleaned up because they’re abandoned,” Biden said.
Biden’s plan also invests in infrastructure that goes beyond traditional roads, bridges, airports, subways and buses to expand broadband to rural areas, and undertake $100 billion for green retrofitting of schools, plus construction of energy-efficient housing and $400 billion for new infrastructure for child care and elder care.
And the jobs it creates would be “paying the same exact rate that a union man or woman would get having dug that well in the first place,” Biden said when he introduced the infrastructure plan at the Carpenters Union Training Center in Pittsburgh.
The plan promotes Project Labor Agreements for federally funded construction, Biden said, without using those specific words.
In praising Biden’s plan, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said it not only includes the PLAs and provisions to put millions of people to work fixing roads, bridges and airports – which Teamsters use – but that it also includes the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
That measure, the most-pro-worker labor law reform since the original National Labor Relations Act, would, among other provisions, outlaw the So-Called “Right-to-Work laws.
“At its core, the American Jobs Plan is not only commitment to investing in our infrastructure, but also investing in the American people,” Hoffa said. “Not since Roosevelt’s New Deal has a president undertaken such a comprehensive plan to help set America back on course. This plan creates good-paying jobs now and in the future while taking real action, through the PRO Act, to level the playing field for middle class workers who have been fighting for their right to join a union free from employer intimidation.”
“President Biden understands we need to go big, and this announcement brings us one step closer to delivering the aggressive changes we need to rebuild our country,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “However, investment alone won’t be enough. We have to make sure that as we rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, we’re creating a new generation of good-paying union jobs. That means changing the rules of our economy, starting by strengthening working people’s freedom to organize by passing the PRO Act.”
Biden’s plan sparked quick opposition from two directions: Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with other GOP legislators and its Chamber of Commerce backers. Both groups criticized the size of the plan and the variety of initiatives included that were deemed not related to infrastructure improvements.
The groups also protested the plan to pay for the bill by raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and by rolling back the 2017 tax cuts pushed by former President Trump.
Other union leaders expressed support for specific aspects of Biden’s plan.
Biden’s plan “has the potential to be the most significant jobs-creating investment ever in our nation. Our nation’s infrastructure needs have been languishing for far too long,” said Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan. “(It) will restore our economy and create hundreds of thousands of good union jobs. The proposal recognizes our infrastructure needs are vast and will only continue to grow without decisive action.
“More than 40 percent of our roadways are in poor or mediocre condition and Americans make 178 million trips daily across structurally deficient bridges,” O’Sullivan added. “There is a water main break every two minutes. Our infrastructure deficiencies are a threat to our economy and our safety.”
Amalgamated Transit Union President John Costa noted Biden proposed $174 billion to upgrade buses and subways, featuring mass electrification of city bus fleets and of 20 percent of school buses.
“Public transit for all will play a critical role in keeping our communities and economies moving as it has throughout this crisis (the coronavirus pandemic),” Costa said.
Biden “aims to create millions of jobs for construction workers across America,” said North America’s Building Trades President Sean McGarvey, who called it a “bold vision that is broad in scope, robust in funding, and meets the infrastructure challenges that have plagued our nation for decades.
“With this level of investment, it will further enable NABTU to train women, communities of color, veterans, and the formerly incarcerated for construction careers through pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship training programs,” McGarvey said.
“This plan is what building back better looks like: 21st-century infrastructure,” said Biden’s Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a Laborers Local 223 member and former Boston Building Trades Council president.
“As a former construction worker, I know a good job can change your life,” Walsh said. “As a former mayor, I know these investments will transform struggling communities and grow local economies.”