Innamorato signs executive order to protect Allegheny County union workers

Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato signed an order Thursday creating an “office of worker protections” to enforce labor and anti-discrimination laws, citing recent Trump administration moves to curb federal union bargaining.

“This office will be a place where workers can turn to when their rights are threatened, and it’s a place where employers can find tools and resources so they can operate fairly,” Innamorato said.

Innamorato signed the “Strengthening Worker Protections in Allegheny County” executive order inside the The Western Pennsylvania Electrical Training Center in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats, surrounded by union workers from eight organizations, including local members from the Service Employees International Union, Laborers’ International Union of North America and the United Steelworkers Union.

The order comes just days before Labor Day and roughly three weeks after an explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works killed two workers and left 10 others injured.

“The work — fortified by the power of collective bargaining — we’re building a culture where every worker goes home safe, and every project crosses the finish line with product at the end of the day. We all want and deserve the same thing — to go home safely to our loved ones,” said Natalie Jackson, IBEW Local 5 treasurer.

In March, President Donald Trump signed an order the impacted agencies including that departments of State, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Justice and Commerce and part of Homeland Security, stating that the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 gave him the authority to end collective bargaining for the unions in these agencies because of their role in safeguarding national security.

The executive order, the second Innamorato has signed this year, tasks County Manager John Fournier “to study and recommend measures to expand organizing rights for workers not currently covered by the National Labor Relations Act or other federal labor statutes,” by evaluating legal and policy frameworks, successful models from other jurisdictions and potential pilot programs.

“What we see all over this country is not just an attack on those rights, but our very existence. … We are the only wall left between good and evil,” said Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council. “This isn’t just about protecting unions. This is about protecting the American way of life.”

The order also promises to develop a Best Value Procurement program where bidders will be required to demonstrate a commitment to worker safety and equal opportunity to be rewarded a contract for services with Allegheny County.

A proposal for the program will be created by Fournier and presented to Innamorato within the next two months, as outlined in the executive order.

“This is to strengthen the protection specifically for county employers, employees and our contractors, and this will analyze the decline in federal labor enforcement, so we can determine how to fill those gaps,” Innamorato said.