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Building Trades Move Legislative Agenda Forward
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Over 3,000 delegates descended on Washington DC for the 48th Annual National Legislative Conference of the Building & Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. The atmosphere at this conference was markedly different than conferences in years past. A sea change has occurred in Washington, thanks to the joint efforts of Building Trades members across the country to elect a new worker friendly Congress last November.
“Gone are the days when a majority of the members of Congress are hostile the agenda of workers,” said Robert Smith, Political Director for the Painters and Allied Trades. “Finally we have a majority in Congress that will fight for the rights of workers to organize a union, for fair wages, healthcare and retirement benefits, and fight against cheating contractors who misclassify employees as independent contractors.”
‘Seize the Opportunity, Meet the Challenge’
This year’s conference outlined the opportunities and challenges the Building and Construction Trades face in the upcoming year and opportunities presented by a worker friendly Congress and a nationwide construction boom.
“This offers us unprecedented opportunities to increase out market share, strengthen the unionized construction industry, and expand union membership at the same time, “said Edward Sullivan, President of the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.
With opportunity come challenges: the challenge to work with the new Congress to advance the legislative agenda of the Building Trades craft unions and the challenge to work with union contractors and employers to ensure an adequate and predictable supply of skilled labor so that union projects can continue to be completed on-time and on budget.
David Beckler, Senior Vice President, Labor Relations for the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bob Hoover, Vice President for Aker Kvaerner Songer, Inc both echoed these themes and challenged the union crafts to continue to build their ranks and focus on attracting a new generation of skilled craftspeople into careers in the union construction industry.
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Legislative Priorities
Good jobs, healthcare, pensions, infrastructure funding and workers’ rights are a top the legislative agenda for the Building Trades. Sullivan stressed the importance of workers with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to achieve this goal.
“While having a worker-friendly Congress will make it easier to control the agenda,” said Sullivan, “the Building Trades will need support from both parties to pass legislation and enact laws that are specific to our needs.” Sullivan noted the passage of the Pension Protection Act last year, a five year effort by labor and management to protect existing pension programs that could not have been passed without bipartisan support.
This year has seen two legislative victories for workers. The House passed the Water Quality Financing Act, a $14 billion infrastructure bill that will create tens of thousands of construction jobs and restores prevailing wage protections to a Federal infrastructure program. According to Sullivan, Davis-Bacon opponents have held up this bill for 11 years.
“This important legislation not only creates critical infrastructure jobs” said Sullivan, “but also reapplies and reserves Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections for all workers on these projects.” The House also passed the Employee Free Choice Act which protects the rights of workers to form unions and collectively bargain for wages and benefits.
The Building Trades craft unions are not stop there. Sullivan vowed that the Building Trades Department and affiliates will continue to keep pressure on elected officials for their legislative priorities.
Capitol Hill
On the second day of the conference, over 1,000 building and construction trades members converged on Capitol Hill today for a rally in support of American workers.
Members of the United States Congress from both parties including Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH); along with Representatives George Miller (D-CA), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), James Oberstar (D-MN), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), expressed their support for the building trades and a congressional legislative agenda that supports working American families. Afterwards, delegations from Building Trades Councils across the country met with the Senators and Representatives to move the agenda of working families forward.
Trades Meet with Representatives
The Building Trades met with a number of both democratic and republican representatives from the Southern California delegation and discussed a wide variety of topics. In their meetings, representatives from the LA/OC Building Trades emphasized the need to act on the misclassification of workers as independent contractors in our industry. Also high on the list for discussion with representatives were climate change and comprehensive immigrant reform.
The final day of the conference ended with a Presidential Candidates Forum. Seven of the Democratic Presidential Candidates accepted the in BCTC’s invitation to speak at the conference. Delegates heard from Former US Senator John Edwards (NC), New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, US Senator Hillary Clinton (NY), US Representative Dennis Kucinich (OH), US Senator Christopher Dodd (CT), US Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. (DE) and US Senator Barack Obama (IL).
Edwards spoke on a familiar theme of that of the “two Americas.” “Those “two America’s are still there and they are alive and breathing in the United States of America” he said. “We have such work to do to bridge the gap between the “two Americas…We know that somewhere in this country today there is a brothers or sister walking a picket line, trying to stand up for decent wages, decent healthcare…It doesn’t have to be that way.”
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Both Obama and Clinton drew contrasts between themselves and George Bush. Clinton emphasized that the majority of Americans have been overlooked by the current administrations.
“America’s middle class have become the invisible Americans—our President has looked right through them,” she said. “If you’re a worker who can’t organize for better wages and safer working condition, you’re invisible. If you’re a soldier at Walter Reed, struggling to get treatment from the country you served, you’re invisible. If you’re a mother without healthcare for yourself and your children…a family that can’t get by on the minimum wage, you’re invisible too. But you’re not invisible to us. You’re not invisible to the labor movement. You’re not invisible to me. And when we take back the White House in 2008 you will no longer be invisible to the President of the United States.”
Obama stressed the differences between his philosophy for American and that of the Bush Administration The guiding philosophy of the Bush administration is “everyone for themselves,” he said, while the philosophy we are our brother’s (or sister’s) keeper, was more in line the true values of America. “Its an easy idea what’s been peddled in America the last six years—it says we are going to look after ourselves and not worry about anyone else. There’s always been a problem with that idea—it doesn’t work. The history of America has been premised on the idea that we are all in this together” he said.
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