Building Trades Leaders Take Concerns to Hill

BAC President John J. Flynn greets Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), guest speaker at this year’s BAC lunch, held in conjunction with the BCTD Legislative Conference. Cummings, a fifth-term Congressman from west Baltimore, chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the House Task Force on Health Care Reform.

Building trades leaders from across the U.S. convened in Washington D.C. recently to consider grass roots and lobbying strategies to help preserve Davis-Bacon/prevailing wage provisions, ensure full funding for infrastructure surface transportation and highway construction, and protect union benefit plans.

Sponsored by the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), the annual Legislative Conference focused heavily on key issues before the 108th Congress, where many union-backed programs are under attack. BCTD President Edward C. Sullivan told conferees, “Tens of thousands of jobs are at stake” for union construction workers, and slammed a series of Republican maneuvers attempting to strike Davis-Bacon provisions from an array of federal construction projects. Sullivan also called for regulatory and legislative relief for union pension plans, and serious consideration of universal health care coverage, citing the pressures that skyrocketing health care costs bring to the collective bargaining process.

The Conference concluded with the first major gathering of eight
of the nine candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for
president in 2004.