From The Ironworker Magazine, June 2024 edition –

Republican, Democrat, or anything in between — ironworkers are a diverse group with a wide array of opinions. That’s why our union is committed to working with elected officials from all sides to prioritize working people.

Our union gets involved in politics for two reasons: to secure work and to protect workers’ rights on the job. We rely on elected officials who have proven their pro-ironworker ways by voting for issues impacting our work, day in and day out. We evaluate votes on policies that spur investments to rebuild and replace the roads, bridges, ports, rail and waterways to keep the nation moving, improve wages, oppose anti-worker schemes like right to work, and protect ironworker pensions.

In the spirit of bipartisanship, our political department and union leaders will work with anyone who stands with us on key issues that support ironworkers. And while we intend to continue this practice, in 2024, only one candidate for president of the United States has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to creating good union jobs and improving the standards to protect workers’ rights.

Since taking office, President Joe Biden has prioritized union labor with his words, actions and policies.

Here are some of the pro-union highlights of the Biden presidency:

Investing in America

• Signed the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the single largest investment in infra- structure since the Eisenhower administration. More than $400 billion has been allocated to fund upwards of 40,000 infrastructure projects across the United States.
• Invested in rural communities to improve access to clean drinking water, reliable electricity and high-speed Internet.
• Unleashed a manufacturing and clean energy boom spurring over $600 billion in private sector investments since taking office.
• Invested over $250 billion to improve transportation from better roads and bridges, to improved airports, to more reliable public transit and rail service.
• Announced $40 billion in funding to states and territories to build affordable, reliable high-speed internet infrastructure.
• Signed the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen U.S. supply chains, drive American competitiveness in the global tech economy, and create good jobs in construction, research and development, and production.
• Signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the world’s most significant investment in clean energy ever. The IRA created more than 210,000 new clean energy jobs in 2023 alone, spurring hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment in wind, hydrogen, electric vehicles, and more.
• Signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law, which included long-term funding to fix troubled multi-employer pension plans and ensure ironworkers have their retirements earned. Iron Workers Local 17 and Local 751 pension plans have already benefitted from this program, while more locals are applying for ARPA aid, keeping ironworker pensions safe for years to come.

The Most Pro-Union President in History

• Signed an executive order requiring project labor agreements on federally owned construction, which recently went into effect and has already more than doubled the number of PLAs the building trades unions have negotiated with the federal government at one time.
• Stood up for unions, collective bargaining and the dignity of work as the most pro-union president in history. Since taking office, President Biden has visited more union halls and training centers than any sitting president before him.
• Became the first sitting U.S. president in history to walk a picket line with striking workers when the United Auto Workers struck the Big Three auto companies.
• Empowered federal agencies to take an official stance supporting working people and collective bargaining. The White House’s Taskforce on Worker Organizing and the Department of Labor’s Good Jobs Initiative are designed to offer suggestions and set administrative policies that make it easier for people to form and join unions.

And that’s just action from the White House. We’ve seen support from other branches of the Biden administration, too. In 2023, the Department of Labor updated Davis- Bacon wage standards for the first time in more than 40 years, ensuring workers on federally funded construction projects are paid wages that allow them to live in the communities they work. The Department of Transportation established over 300 project labor agreements on nearly $10 billion of federal highway projects and the Department of Energy now requires applicants to include a community benefits agreement when seeking funding through certain grant programs.

Ironworkers, including many of you reading this, have spent decades advocating for dozens of these policies, some of which are truly life- changing. We have a lot on the line and November’s election very well could be the most important election of our lifetimes. If we lose this election, we are in very real danger of losing everything on this list and more. Stay tuned for more information on how to get involved with Iron Workers’ efforts to reelect President Biden and pro-worker candidates down the ballot and across the nation.