April 23, 2021

Brothers and Sisters,

Recently, President Biden introduced his American Jobs Plan to provide a new investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Over the next several months, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate will negotiate the details of this massive infrastructure legislation. While we expect the final legislation to include funding for a wide variety of projects that will translate to more jobs for the United Association, we must work hard to ensure the bill includes basic labor protections that will guarantee our fair wages and benefits.

These protections are non-negotiable for the UA. We need our allies in Congress to stand firm and fight to protect our jobs and our wages.

That’s why we’re launching a grassroots effort to persuade our Representatives and Senators to support these strong labor protections for federally funded energy projects and infrastructure investments. These protections will help us win more work with fair wages and benefits and ensure that this industry – which already has a bad track record on labor – is not dominated by extreme activists.

Click here to take action at this link and tell your Representative and Senators to support these labor protections.

For your reference, the following labor protections must be required on any energy project that receives federal funding, whether it be new or existing appropriations, tax incentives, or loan guarantees, in order to ensure workers earn a fair wage and that projects are done right the first time:

• Davis-Bacon prevailing wage provisions
• Utilizing Registered Apprenticeships (like the UA’s training programs)
• ABC test to combat wage theft and worker misclassification
• Neutrality agreements
• Local hire provisions

Thank you for taking action to keep our union strong. We will share more updates throughout this campaign and we will continue to engage our elected officials directly to protect our jobs and win more work.

Fraternally,

Mark McManus

United Association

General President