Posted on 09/20/2021 4:58:58 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Greg Lalevee is standing in the midst of a truly epic collection of construction equipment at his union’s training center, just off the New Jersey Turnpike.
This former sand mine, which his union uses to train workers in construction equipment, is bristling with cranes, pile drivers and dozens of other pieces of heavy machinery. But before showing off a construction arsenal vast enough to raise a skyscraper on the spot, Lalevee is enthusing about his union’s good fortune as Congress finally pays attention to infrastructure.
“When President Biden announced his plans, for us to hear that — it was nirvana,” says Lalevee, business manager of New Jersey’s Operating Engineers Local 825. “You need the free flow of goods. With the rise of Amazon and Internet shopping, trucking is more important than ever. You're going to need these bridges, highways and byways. We'll see the resurgence of rail too.”
Lalevee is not saying this from the position of a Democratic partisan. Unlike many labor leaders in America, he plays both sides of the fence. Local 825’s training center was the site of an endorsement rally for Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s re-election in 2013 and for Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2017. For Lalevee, and many of his allies in the New Jersey building trades, it's a question of who has the power to help their members keep working.
The head of Local 825 is a gregarious and well-liked fixture of New Jersey politics. He’s also part of an increasingly tenuous tradition in the building trades union movement. In the Northeast and Midwest, these unions often allied with moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats alike to advance the interests of their members and the industries that employed them.
“Infrastructure has never been a partisan issue,” says Lalevee.
(Excerpt) Read more at governing.com ...
PING!
Ah, Captain Obvious is smiling. ;-)
Wait just a minute. First we learn 80% or more of the money for the stimulus went to Dem voting cities and states and Planned Parenthood and NPR.
Now we learn Dem supporters the labor unions will benefit from infrastructure.
If I didn’t know better I’d say the Dems are pork dealing corrupt politicians who “reward our friends and punish our enemies.” /s
Phrase was coined 110 years ago by top union boss Samuel Gompers.
Three trillion dollars of Chicago “walking around money”.
Yeah remember when Caliph Baraq made SlowJoe the “Stimulus Sheriff” in 2009?
It’ll pay prevailing wage for a whole bunch of guys to lean on their shovels and smoke.
One of the reasons the minimum wage of $15 is such a huge thing. Union salaries for the various levels are based on a multiplier of the minimum wage.
A “boon” — that’s laughable.
This is nothing but a scam to get union bosses to recycle the money back to the Dems. Just like the filthy Solyndra scam.
NOTHING good will flow down to union members. Just tens of billions of dollars passed to Dem pols from their union goons.
Get rid of Davis Bacon and spend the savings on bike paths ....:)
Win-win.
The same unions that will not protect workers from refusal to take a vaccine... imagine that.
They are corrupt a f.
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