WASHINGTON — The Laborers’ International Union of North America, a construction union representing about half a million workers in the U.S. and Canada, said Wednesday that its members helped deliver midterm election victories for working families and pledged to hold newly elected officials accountable.
In a statement released Nov. 4, LIUNA General President Brent Booker said the results were not a partisan story.
“Laborers built these wins the same way they build everything else: one shift, one block, and one conversation at a time,” Booker said. “This wasn’t about left or right. It was about building from the ground up—and if Laborers know anything, we know building.”
Booker said voters, despite what he described as gerrymandering and efforts to suppress participation, told Washington they want leaders who put their paychecks, freedoms and families first. He said families are tired of high gas and grocery prices, corruption, canceled projects, the loss of bargaining rights and what he called “economic warfare” with Canada, which he described as the closest U.S. neighbor and ally.
He pointed to results stretching “from historic union towns to Texas, the birthplace of ‘Right-to-Work,’” saying voters there rejected chaos and division. Booker said elected officials decide whether workers can organize and whether project labor agreements — pacts that set wages and conditions on construction jobs — put union members to work.
The union said it would work with newly elected leaders of either party to advance good jobs, strengthen workers’ rights and build an economy that delivers for working families.
“The work doesn’t wait, and neither should the people who represent us,” Booker said.
LIUNA’s statement was one of several from national labor organizations this week welcoming the midterm results, in which Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress.
This report is based on information from the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
Source: Laborers’ International Union of North America
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