Contact: Jess Kamm Broomell, 412-562-2444, jkamm@usw.org
USW members next week are launching a nationwide week of action as a part of their ongoing We Supply America campaign, calling for robust investments in the country’s infrastructure and highlighting the contributions USW members make, both in obvious and more inconspicuous industries.
This will include a bus tour scheduled for stops at USW locals in six states between Aug. 16 and 20.
“We need a national infrastructure that keeps us safe, that is modern, that keeps our supply chains stocked with the materials we need, and that keeps the country moving in the right direction,” said USW International President Tom Conway. “As a union, we have the skilled work force to accomplish all these goals.”
Throughout its We Supply America campaign, the USW is calling on Congress to pass legislation to secure large-scale, long-term infrastructure investments that will create good, union jobs and rebuild communities.
“This is about so much more than fixing roads and bridges,” said Conway. “We need an ambitious overhaul of our entire critical infrastructure from modern schools and health care facilities to state-of-the-art communications networks. Everything that USW members make and everything that we do contributes in some way to this vital project.”
In a series of events along the bus tour’s route, USW members and leaders will address how comprehensive infrastructure investment drawing on American-made materials will provide widespread economic opportunity, strengthen domestic supply chains and spur job growth in communities across the country.
Along the way, they will be joined by like-minded allies, including Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, members of Congress and other elected leaders, company representatives, and environmental and manufacturing advocates, who share the union’s vision for swift, robust infrastructure investment that draws on the skills and determination of American workers.
In addition to the bus tour, USW members across the United States this week will be joining with their employers to send letters to the administration and elected officials, engaging in a postcard campaign that includes delivering thousands of cards to Senate offices, and calling their members of Congress in support of robust infrastructure investment.
“Ultimately, every worker and every family in every U.S. state will benefit in some way from an infrastructure program,” said International Vice President Roxanne Brown, who oversees the union’s legislative and political efforts from Washington, D.C.
“Done right, a robust infrastructure investment will spur jobs and job growth in communities across the country and bring meaningful economic opportunity to people in all of our neighborhoods,” Brown said. “Congress just needs to make it a reality.”
The USW’s We Supply America bus tour will include events in Chesterton, Ind.; Newark, Ohio; Weirton, W. Va.; Danville, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; and Pittsburgh.
Updates on the tour, including livestreams of the events, will be available on all USW networks: @Steelworkers on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, as well as at uswvoices.org/live.
The USW represents 850,000 workers employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in health care, public sector, higher education, tech and service occupations.