Building Trades Calls for Wage Protection in Immigration Reform

by James Parks, Apr 3, 2006

More than 2,000 Building Trades workers are heading to Capitol Hill April 4, where they will press Congress to protect wages for U.S.-born and immigrant workers in the trades.

At the start of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) legislative conference in Washington, D.C., April 3, BCTD President Edward Sullivan laid out where Building Trades workers stand on immigration legislation:

The Building Trades are united in our demand that the legislation have a strong “wage floor.” Under this scenario, both U.S. workers, who must be offered job opportunities first and immigrant workers are protected from greedy employers whose only wish is to drive down wages and working conditions. 

“We know there’s going to be some kind of immigration plan—they’re not going to run 11 million people out of the country, so we have to get to Congress,” says Boilermakers Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden.

While they have lawmakers’ attention, the Building Trades workers also will push for action on such key issues as saving underfunded pensions, providing affordable health care, ensuring safety in the workplace, creating better jobs and boosting union construction jobs under the recently passed federal energy and highway bills.

Success will require a unified movement, delegates say. Sullivan says the Building Trades are united, strong and determined to make a difference in the 2006 elections, despite changes in BCTD’s structure and the recent disaffiliations of the Laborers and Operating Engineers. Media reports claiming disunity in the industry, he says:

…may be colorful and attention-grabbing, but it doesn’t necessarily match the reality of inter-union cooperation in the field or in Washington. I can assure you that serious conversations to protect the unionized industry are being held at all levels and they will be successful. The Building Trades must and will continue to move forward.

As an example, Sullivan announced a Solidarity Agreement enabling the unaffiliated Teamsters to “participate as our partners at all levels of the building trades.”  

Unity was on a number of the delegates’ minds, especially as it affects workers’ ability to win key legislative victories. Dale Johnsen, a member of Bricklayers Local 4 in Northern Indiana, says:

We have to come together to get a better Congress for working people. This is a vicious Congress, not concerned about working people. This administration is only interested in taking care of the rich.

As with every BCTD legislative conference, a host of politicians from both parties will address the delegates. Speakers include Govs. Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa) and Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.), Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), nine House members, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. 

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