Vice President Kamala Harris visited Philadelphia and gave an address about the importance of unions for Americans’ economic futures.
Harris was introduced to the crowd by Sheet Metal Local 19 apprentice, William Griffin. Griffin got his start in Philadelphia’s commercial construction industry through the Construction Apprentice Preparatory Program (CAPP), a pre-apprentice program supported by GBCA, which helped local Philadelphians enter the building trades and work on the Penn Medicine’s Pavilion project.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Standing in front of dozens of laborers in bright T-shirts bearing their locals, Vice President Kamala Harris told a South Philadelphia crowd Tuesday that economic prosperity for blue-collar workers depends on the strength of unions, which she said “move our nation forward.”
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The vice president touted the work of the White House Labor Task Force, which she chairs alongside Walsh, a former union leader and ex-mayor of Boston. The group in February drafted a report that included dozens of recommendations to make it easier for workers to organize and bargain collectively. That report included a call for about a dozen agencies to prioritize federal grants that create union jobs.
Harris also promoted the $1 trillion federal infrastructure spending law that passed last year — one of the most significant investments in infrastructure in decades — saying it would create thousands of jobs for union workers like carpenters and plumbers.
And she announced a new program by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration aimed at protecting workers in dozens of high-risk industries from heat-related injuries, by allowing inspectors to proactively examine workplaces for such hazards.
