Issues – LIUNA Elects

workplace safety

infrastructure investment

prevailing wages

project labor agreements

apprenticeship programs

health care

retirement security

Workplace Safety

LIUNA backs up our commitment to safety through training, education, and our nationally recognized safety and health fund.

Safety just isn’t prioritized for non-union construction projects. In New York, for example, about 87% of all construction fatalities were on non-union worksites. In what other profession would we be okay with an average of six workplace deaths per month? Could you imagine the outcry if we were losing six teachers or six nurses every month?

Aside from keeping us safe on the job, safety regulation also levels the playing field against non-union contractors. Non-union contractors often cut safety corners by paying low-skilled, unsafe workers. This allows them to low bid projects in their attempt to beat out union contractors who prioritize safety.

The federal, state, and local governments must do more to raise safety standards and hold irresponsible contractors accountable.

By electing candidates who support union construction and construction safety laws we can protect our jobs while we protect our safety.

Infrastructure Investment

Across our region, we deal with old, unsafe infrastructure every day – with highways unable to handle traffic, airport congestion, routine water main breaks, crumbling VA hospitals and an aging energy infrastructure.

Infrastructure investment not only gives us more time with our families by improving commuting times to the job and utility services, like our water and power – it also puts us, LIUNA members, to work.

The fact is: infrastructure investment is at the heart of what powers our hours and our ability to put food on the table for our families. Without it, we don’t work, and we don’t get paid.

We play an important role in building safe, reliable infrastructure across transportation, energy and water industries.

Transportation

Transportation infrastructure investment will enhance our deteriorating roads, bridges, tunnels and public transportation systems.

Energy

From natural gas extraction to renewable energy development, energy infrastructure LIUNA helps power our homes and businesses.

Water

Water infrastructure investment not only provides essential clean drinking water to our communities, but also makes our wastewater and inland water systems more efficient.

Prevailing Wages

Government sets a minimum wage for nearly every kind of work. Why shouldn’t we also have our own local minimum wage as construction workers? We should.

Prevailing wage laws (also called Davis Bacon Laws at the federal level) are fair, government-regulated locally set minimum wage that every employer must pay construction workers for taxpayer funded construction projects. It is named after former Long Island Republican Congressman Robert Bacon who was upset after a contractor from Alabama brought up workers to build a Veterans Bureau hospital in his district without hiring local workers.
Before state and federal prevailing wage laws were enacted, government contracts were awarded to contractors who would win the work by cheating workers and driving area wages lower.

Of course, that is bad for workers, but it is also bad for taxpayers who were footing the bill – because the labor was non-union, cheap, unsafe and unskilled. By electing candidates who support prevailing wage laws, we will earn a fair wage on taxpayer funded construction projects.

Project Labor Agreements (PLA)

Project Labor Agreement (PLAs) are a negotiation tool that unions use to regulate the terms and conditions of a specific construction project before work begins. PLAs help protect union members, like us, from contract surprises that would impact our wages. Developers like it because it makes the project more predictable. A win for everyone. PLA’s have been used on notable projects like the Hoover Dam & NASA’s Cape Canaveral.

Project Labor Agreements also reduce confusion among trades working together on a project. PLAs make sure everyone follows one set of agreed upon rules on the job for the duration of the project—all before the project even starts.

By electing candidates who support and understand project labor agreements, we can help complete complex projects on time and on budget, while earning a good union wage.

Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAP)

LIUNA invests millions to ensure all of us – from a first-year apprentice to a 30-year journeyman – will have the skills to make a quality career from construction work. This state-of-the-art construction training is free to all members. Free! And these programs ensure we’re safe on the job even before we’re hired to work.

There are, however, low-road apprenticeship programs that are popping up that allow non-union contractors  to take advantage of apprenticeship pay scale.

NON-UNION APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS

Unregulated and dangerous
Allows contractors to take advantage of lower paid apprentices
Benefits the contractor, not the worker

LIUNA APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS

State-of-the-art training
Free for members
Creates a construction career
Builds a pathway to the middle class

On the federal level there’s been a recent push for Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). IRAPs would open the door to unskilled workers – which can lower our wages, weaken our benefits and make our jobs less safe and secure.

By electing candidates who reject fake apprenticeship programs and, instead, support LIUNA apprenticeship programs, we can protect their wages, benefits and safety on the job.

Health Care

LIUNA’s multi-employer health and welfare plans have been providing affordable, accessible and quality coverage for members for generations.
Did you know that 82% of union construction workers have health insurance, compared with only 46% of non-union construction workers?
While bargaining for health care grows more expensive, LIUNA knows how important health care is to us and has our back. Our union believes that healthcare is a fundamental human right for all Americans. Our leaders should too.

By electing candidates who support unions, we can preserve our quality union healthcare plans.ake apprenticeship programs and, instead, support LIUNA apprenticeship programs, we can protect their wages, benefits and safety on the job.

Retirement Security

Our union pension plans allow us to retire with dignity after a career of hard work.

Social security and a pension plans have long been the foundation of a secure retirement for generations of Americans. With a recent shift from these programs to fend-for-yourself retirement savings and personal savings, union workers are struggling to retain their defined-benefit pension plans. We need allies in our fight.

By electing candidates who support unions, we can preserve our union pension plans and retire with dignity.

WE CARE ABOUT