BAC STATEMENT ON ATTACK ON US CAPITOL
[Washington, D.C.], January 7, 2021 - BAC President Tim Driscoll issued the following statement in response to the insurrection and attack against the US Government:
Yesterday, we witnessed an outrageous effort to eradicate the most fundamental tenet of our country’s representative democracy that Government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. That consent is determined through elections where citizens across our country exercise their voice in determining their representatives. The citizens of our country exercised their most essential right in November of 2020 and collectively and decisively determined that Joe Biden would be the 46th President of our nation.
The assault on the US Capitol by rioters yesterday was an effort to extinguish the will of the voters of this country by undermining the lawful election process that has governed our country for more than two hundred years. Those rioters deserve to be and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but it would be shameful if that prosecution did not also extend to those most responsible for inciting these rioters through false and baseless claims.
President Trump has surrendered whatever legitimacy he may have claimed to lead our nation and BAC joins the calls for his resignation and/or removal from office. However, those elected officials and enablers of the President that joined in disseminating conspiratorial falsehoods and challenging the certification of the Electoral College results have also forfeited their right to participate in the governing of our nation, and should resign and face prosecution where possible.
The ultimate failure of these efforts to invalidate the 2020 election and subvert the US Constitution should not be presumed. We must remain vigilant against those that would seek to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power that our democracy demands.
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The International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest continuous union in North America and represents roughly 75,000 skilled masonry-trowel trades craftworkers in the United States and Canada, including bricklayers, tile setters, cement masons, plasterers, stone masons, marble masons, restoration workers, PCC and finishers, and terrazzo and mosaic workers.