Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
COLUMBUS, OH – Today, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) spoke at the Ohio State Building & Construction Trades Council’s (OSBCTC) Quadrennial Convention in Columbus. Brown spoke about the bipartisan infrastructure plan, which includes his Bridge Investment Act, and the potential job opportunities it would create for Building Trades workers. He also discussed the importance of the multi-employer pensions fix he secured in the American Rescue Plan, and his efforts to pass the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
“Today, we have more momentum behind the labor movement than I’ve seen in decades. We have to use that energy, and channel into passing transformative infrastructure investments that are going to put your members to work on projects all over this state,” said Sen. Brown. “If we want to invest in and rebuild this country, we have to include the labor movement. You built this country, you built our middle class.”
Brown secured a version of his Butch Lewis Act, legislation named in honor of Butch Lewis, the former retired head of Teamsters Local 100 in southwest Ohio, in the American Rescue Plan. This legislation secured retirement benefits for workers and retirees – including some Ohio Building Trades members – in endangered pension plans for 30 years, with no cuts to benefits. Brown worked for years alongside Rita Lewis, Butch’s widow, who continued her late husband’s fight for the retirement security these workers earned over a lifetime of hard work.
Brown fought to include the Bridge Investment Act in the larger bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Bridge Investment Act will ensure Ohioans are safer, will create and support jobs in communities, and will make local economies more competitive.
Brown’s Bridge Investment Act will:
- Provide $12.5 billion in funding to repair and replace nationally and regionally significant bridges, like the Brent Spence Bridge in Ohio.
- Require construction to be done with American materials, ensuring Ohio tax dollars support Ohio jobs, with the strongest-ever Buy America standards.
- Accelerate aid to Ohio’s 3,200 bridges that need repairs. The 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card for America’s Infrastructure found there are at least 46,154 bridges in the U.S. that are ‘structurally deficient’ and 231,000 still need repair and preservation work.
Earlier this year, Brown introduced the PRO Act, comprehensive labor legislation to protect workers’ right to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces. Unions are critical to increasing wages and addressing growing income inequality—with studies showing that union members earn on average 19 percent more than those with similar education, occupation, and experience in a non-union workplace. The PRO Act would reverse years of attacks on unions and restore fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal laws that protect workers’ right to join a union and bargain for higher wages and better benefits.
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