Philip Ameris: Don't expect labor's endorsement after opposing blue-collar jobs

Pennsylvania’s battleground status draws attention to endorsements ranging from the presidential to the local level. The Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, of which the Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council is an affiliate, recently announced its statewide endorsements. In House District 34, the council endorsed Chris Roland, the Democratic challenger to Democratic incumbent Rep. Summer Lee.

Some frame this as a decision based on race or gender, but that attribution could not be further from the truth. Labor is only focused on the color blue, and by that, I mean who will create and protect blue-collar jobs to bring Pennsylvania residents of all backgrounds into the middle class. That is very different from the color associated with one’s political party.

I am baffled by Democrats who think they will earn the union vote just for being in the Democratic Party. That lesson should have been painfully learned in 2016 when President Trump won Pennsylvania with over 40,000 votes. Democrats need to earn back their endorsement, and in order to do that, they need to act on behalf of Pennsylvania’s working men and women.

While Lee is a Democrat, she attacks projects that would promote blue-collar job creation and economic prosperity, especially among the state’s minority groups. One construction project Lee vehemently opposes is the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County. This manufacturing plant that will be powered by Pennsylvania’s clean, natural gas resources has created 6,000 construction and manufacturing jobs and will create hundreds more once operational. On this project, construction workers earn a family-supporting wage.

Meanwhile, according to Data USA, over 35% of Pittsburgh’s black communities live in poverty and less than 10% of Pittsburgh’s college graduates are black. Without a college degree, access to Pittsburgh’s tech and health care jobs that politicians frequently tout becomes nearly impossible.

In contrast, the Shell cracker plant is an inclusive opportunity where local residents who may have only a high school education can earn a wage that will support themselves and their families.

Pennsylvania House Bill 1100 will expand the petrochemical plant industry and create jobs similar to the ones on the Shell plant. Although it received bipartisan support, Lee voted against the bill.

HB 1100 goes an extra step further for Pennsylvania’s working families by tying the tax credit to the prevailing wage. Companies that invest to build a petrochemical plant must pay workers the prevailing wage in order to receive the modest tax credit once manufacturing begins.

At a time when unemployment in Pennsylvania’s black communities is at 8.1%, the highest in comparison to other races and nearly double the statewide rate, one would think that politicians would look to create prevailing-wage jobs to benefit Pennsylvania’s diverse working class, not eliminate them.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America is proud of its diverse membership. In the same way, we welcome and embrace diversity in the Pennsylvania Legislature as long as it is conducive to the creation of blue-collar jobs.

It is pretty simple: If you are not going to protect blue-collar jobs, you are not going to get labor’s endorsement.

Philip Ameris is the business manager of the Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council, an affiliate of the Laborers’ International Union of North America.