Brothers and Sisters,
Senator Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell introduced a bill that does nothing to address our issues as workers in the construction sector, nor the on-going public health and economic crisis.
In fact, it is a backward bill – undoing the paid sick leave provisions from the second coronavirus bill and focusing on putting corporations first. Millions of low-income Americans, seniors, and people with disabilities will be excluded.
This proposal also fails to provide necessary resources for states; on unemployment insurance; or extending medical benefits to those who will become uninsured quickly:
- Allows large corporations to kick employees off their health care by lifting the Obamacare employer mandate. This provision does not include the construction sector.
- Sabotages the paid sick leave law agreed to by Congress and the President, literally yesterday, by placing new limitations on it. This section does nothing to extend these provisions to the construction sector.
- Gives massive giveaways to mega-corporations by eliminating payment of employer-side payroll taxes. This only helps employers, not employees.
- Creates a massive $150 billion slush fund allowing the President to bail out his buddies. This bill also spends $50 billion bailing out the airlines, an industry that spent all of its TCJA savings on stock buybacks, regularly fleeces its customers, and abuses its employees, and has no provisions to guarantee pay to those airline workers affected the most;
Importantly, to those of us who have already been laid off,
this bill does not address making whole, the millions of new unemployment claims that have been caused by the crisis
Take Action Now:
- Take two minutes to send a letter to your elected officials to tell them what construction workers need to see in COVID-19 bills.
- Sign and share our public petition demanding Congress take immediate, bold action for construction workers.
We’re fighting to ensure our brothers and sisters, and workers across this country, are not left behind by Congress. Stand with Your Union!
In solidarity,
Ken Rigmaiden
IUPAT General President