Our Movement, Our Moment: 2022 NABTU Legislative Conference Highlights Victories and Objectives

North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) convened its annual Legislative Conference with a theme of “Our Movement, Our Moment” in Washington, D.C., on April 3. BAC delegates joined thousands of national, state, and local building trades leaders at the three-day event.

The speaker list showed the power of labor right now in American politics, including President Joe Biden, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, GA gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and numerous other members of Congress, labor leaders and champions for working people.

President Biden’s keynote speech drew a close connection between good-paying jobs and infrastructure investment. The United States “can’t compete for the jobs of the 21st century if we don’t fix our infrastructure,” he explained. “Now not only has ‘Infrastructure Week’ finally arrived, it’s an infrastructure decade… It’s about rebuilding our middle class.”

President Biden underscored the significance of mandating project labor agreements on federal construction projects greater than $35 million. He also highlighted his support of unions, and their ability to grow the middle-class. When speaking about the need to pass the PRO Act he said, “the choice to join a union belongs to workers alone,” before directly calling out Amazon, “by the way Amazon, here we come.”

Recognizing the importance of organizing proactively to bring all workers into the fold, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said, “it’s up to us to train the workforce and supply a steady stream of workers, especially women, people of color, veterans and the formerly incarcerated – folks who may not realize the power of a union apprenticeship… We are building a modern, dynamic and inclusive movement to meet the moment.”

BAC HOSTS LEGISLATIVE LUNCHEON

BAC local and ADC officers and representatives from across the country who attended the conference were joined by US Representatives Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) and Joe Morelle (D-NY) at a working luncheon hosted by BAC.

Congresswoman Scanlon said though unionized labor has made progress and achieved success in recent years, we need to continue holding our legislators accountable. “We need to do more to address housing, schools, the VA hospitals and facilities,” Rep. Scanlon said. “In the meantime, we are going to focus on making sure that the Infrastructure Bill is properly implemented, these new jobs are paid with prevailing wages, and workers are safe and healthy on the job.”