Pot Holes & Politics, May 27, 2010
As we head into Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to share with you my general thoughts about infrastructure in the Mid-Atlantic Region. For the record, our region is made up of the following states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia and the District of Columbia. As you can see we run the gamut from Right to Work states (Virginia) to Pennsylvania and Maryland, which are generally considered to be union-friendly states.
While Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are as different as night and day from Richmond and Raleigh-Durham, there is one uniting factor: All these cities have very high unemployment rates. When you look at the construction industry sector, those unemployment rates are close to 25%. We believe that everyone who wants a job should be able to get one. Full employment isn’t 6 or 7 percent, rather these rates should be in the 2 to 3 per cent range. You may call me a dreamer as the famous songwriter wrote many years ago, but this is something I wish our society as a whole would work towards.
Unfortunately, our country is full of bridges and highways that are simply falling apart.
Get Baltimore Working Jobs Festival May 8, 2010
From left to right: Baltimore Councilman Bill Henry, Former Philadelphia Mayor John Street, State Senator Catherine Pugh, and LiUNA Mid-Atlantic VP Denny Martire.
News & Update: May 12, 2010
We are already halfway through May and there’s been no let up in the Mid-Atlantic Region for politics. Our union has been quite engaged in a number of fronts and while I can’t cover everything today I am going to try weekly to keep everyone who is interested up to date on what we are doing and where we are going.
The big news this week is in Pennsylvania where Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak are tied according to a new Muhlenberg poll out today: 44 Sestak, 44 Specter, 3% undecided. The polls have been all over the map in the last few weeks against Specter so this is good news for Arlen. Dan Onorato continues to hold a substantial lead over his three opponents and we don’t expect much change here.
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