PHILADELPHIA – Exhorted by leadership to stand and fight for the labor movement in the face of a proven enemy of working people, Building Trades workers took to the streets this morning with urgency ahead of the 2024 presidential election. In August, the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), representing over three million union construction professionals, formally endorsed the ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
Now it’s crunch time in this hard-nosed working-class corner of Philadelphia.
They gathered on Southampton Road outside the headquarters of Glaziers Local Union 252, where
Jimmy Williams, General President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, addressed the troops representing all Building Trades, from teamsters, to ironworkers, to steamfitters, to pipefitters and electricians.
“It’s good to be home,” said Williams, standing in the parking lot with the men and women of labor. “I’m from Philly. I started my career in Philadelphia. I started my career as a glazier some 20 years ago, and I gotta tell you guys one thing today. This is so important. There’s only 30 days until Election Day. I get to travel this entire country and I can tell you, this entire election hinges on what we do here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Every election seems to run through this city, and I call tell you this much. If we do our part, you don’t just get to vote for yourself – you get to vote for your brothers and sisters in states where their vote don’t matter, which is why this is all the more important.
“Donald Trump represents everything we fight against,” Williams added. “I was a glazier. I worked in Atlantic City back in the nineties. He broke that town. He broke our contractors. He talks to people like they are shit. We are a union! We fight for workers. Donald Trump fights for himself, and I know a lot of people out there on the job fall for that and I’m going to tell you, we’re going to regret it if we wake up in November to another Donald Trump presidency. That’s how important it is to go out and talk to our fellow members and brothers and sisters and tell them the truth. The Biden Administration has done more to help construction workers – union construction workers – than any other administration in my lifetime. This administration saved our pensions. They gave us ten years’ worth of infrastructure jobs. They updated Davis-Bacon. They support project labor agreements on all federally funded construction projects. For us, for Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades, that should be enough.”
Tim Crowther, political director for Glaziers District Council 21, said he wants members to keep labor issues at the forefront of the argument. The corporate media divides the movement and tries to pit workers against one another with wedge issues. There’s TV land and then there’s the reality.
“We’re focused on right to work, prevailing wage, pensions, annuity, and with those issues we keep our membership united,” Crowther told InsiderNJ, standing at the center of the organizing drive. “We understand there are a lot of other social interests out there, but the one thing brings us together are labor issues. This [Biden-Harris] administration is very friendly to the building trades. The Infrastructure Act for us means job creations, as does the Chips and Science Act. This administration has helped with development to our Navy yards and the Monroe Energy Plant. In addition, three-mile island is reopening in our jurisdiction, and that will create thousands of jobs. And it’s not just the jobs. It’s the conditions that come with labor jobs, including apprenticeship programs and PLAs. No other president has been as proactive about our issues as this one.”
Amid the stampede of guys heading for the main table stacked with literature as they prepared to hit the streets of Northeast Philadelphia, Maurice “Mo” Osborne of Glaziers 252, spoke passionately about how critical it is for workers – and Americans – to back Harris-Walz.
“I’m here because democracy is on the line in a way that it hasn’t been in my lifetime,” Osborne said. “If we lose that, what do we have as a country? Here we are again. I can’t believe we’re even having a conversation about this. It blows my mind that it’s close in Pennsylvania. I’m here to remind people this is the United States, and in the United States, democracy rules. It means that when you lose an election, you concede a loss. You explain to supporters, we fought the good fight. But that didn’t happen> we know that one ticket is already lying about election fraud. If you are a patriot and you want our country to continue, stamp out these authoritarians every time or we’re going to lose that.
“I love my country for many reasons,” added Osborne. “We’re not perfect but we want to be better. The U.S. has been that shining city on the hill because we are always striving to be better. We have come so far and fought so much. This is my country, and I will fight for my country politically because that’s what my ancestors expect of me. They’re not saying ‘march 20 miles over a bridge.’ They’re saying, ‘knock on some doors.’
“That’s what I’m going to do. I have a daughter in college now, and I want a good future for her, a future of democracy, and yes, when it comes to labor, don’t forget the Biden-Harris Administration has been the administration in history to stand on an active labor line. That’s Biden-Harris. On the other side, you have someone who quite literally put companies out of business building in Atlantic City when Trump decided he wasn’t going to pay his bills. His people, and I know people who were in the room, said ‘we will offer you pennies on the dollar, and if you don’t like it, sue us.’ If everyone did that, we wouldn’t have a business. We wouldn’t have a livelihood. Look, I pay my dues and I pay taxes. Trump – he’s a billionaire and he doesn’t pay his taxes. It’s crazy. You have a guy saying publicly on a stage that he hated paying overtime to workers. How are you going to be pro-labor and he literally just said, along with his lies, over and over again. This is real. This is what’s on the line. All that, and when there isn’t a peaceful transfer of power, you get Jan 6th.”
A state contest drives – and complicates – the election up here in Northeast Philadelphia, where local
star Sean Dougherty, Democrat, lawyer and son of a judge, competes to be state representative. He’s popular and sources describe him as the favorite. Leadership just wants to make sure that members not only back their favorite son, but the top of the ticket, too, in the lurid echo chamber of wedge issue cable news.
“Groups of two,” yelled Crowther. “Line up! You and a partner. Grab a map and lit and hit every door. Line up in two’s. Let’s go!”
Ryan McAdams (pictured, top) circled up and led the Steamfitters from Local Union 420, and Brian Eddis, Building Trades business agent, handed the literature and maps to the canvassers.
“It’s volatile out there,” McAdams told his fellow steamfitters. “Anyone tries to get into it with you, you move along. You make your case, and you move along.”
Said Eddis in a break in the action as the workers headed for their cars, “Everything’s on the line for every labor household. Don’t get sidetracked from our paycheck. It comes down to putting food on the table and taking care of families. You take the ILA strike [just settled]. The corporate side was trying to paint them [the workers] as bad but not taking accountability by failing to deliver a good pay increase. It’s the same story of misinformation from corporate, which continues to drive the old theory of pitting one working class group against another. But unions are the spearpoint of work, and I’m absolutely confident that we will do our part and they only way we can do our part is to communicate not only with our members but with our neighbors.” In twos, as directed, the workers – mostly men – headed into their designated neighborhoods of Northeast Philly with time ticking down and not only the Harris-Walz Campaign but the labor movement itself – and more in the words of Mo Osborne – depending on them.
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Building trades labor unions in Northeast Philadelphia have recently taken to the streets in support of Democratic candidates in the upcoming election. These protests come at a time when the construction industry is facing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty.
The building trades unions, which represent workers in various construction trades such as carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work, have long been a strong supporter of Democratic candidates who advocate for policies that benefit working-class Americans. In recent years, these unions have been vocal in their opposition to Republican-led efforts to weaken labor protections and roll back worker rights.
The protests in Northeast Philadelphia are part of a larger effort by building trades unions to mobilize their members and support candidates who will fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, and job security. These unions have been particularly active in supporting Democratic candidates who have pledged to invest in infrastructure projects that will create jobs and stimulate economic growth.
In addition to their support for Democratic candidates, building trades unions have also been advocating for policies that address racial and economic inequality in the construction industry. These unions have been working to increase diversity and inclusion in the trades, as well as fighting for fair treatment of immigrant workers.
Overall, the protests by building trades labor unions in Northeast Philadelphia are a reflection of the growing political activism within the construction industry. As workers continue to face challenges due to the pandemic and economic uncertainty, these unions are standing up for their rights and fighting for a better future for all construction workers.
