Trades council backs Deluzio’s bid for a second term

A labor organization representing thousands of trades workers – including bricklayers, boilermakers, roofers, electrical workers, asbestos workers, plumbers and steamfitters – announced Friday in O’Hara its endorsement of U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio’s bid for a second term.

“Chris is the only candidate in the race that stands for working people,” said Greg Bernarding, business manager for the Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council, which represents 17 different trades, 33 unions and about 55,000 workers.

Bernading cited the role of Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, who represents the 17th District, in securing a project labor agreement for workers hired to restore the 88-year-old Montgomery Lock and Dam on the Ohio River in Beaver County.

“We were hearing a rumor that there wasn’t going to be a project labor agreement,” Bernarding said. “I personally called the congressman and talked with him about it. And it was probably that day or the next day, he was in Washington, D.C., and he called to assure me that there will be a project labor agreement on the project. That’ll be work for thousands of men and women.”

Jason Markovich, president of the council and business manager of Laborers Local 373, described Deluzio’s Republican opponent, state Rep. Rob Mercuri, R-Pine, and the GOP as putting “corporate profits over working people.”

He contrasted that with Deluzio’s record.

“About a month ago our union was on a picket line,” said Markovich. “And on a Saturday, Chris joined us with his family to reassure us he supports us with anything we might need in the future.”

In accepting the endorsement, Deluzio noted his support for the Protect the Right to Organize Act, a bill that would strengthen workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain. Union leaders say the bill would level a playing field now tilted heavily in favor of owners and bosses. Big business organizations oppose the measure, which passed the House but lacks support to overcome a GOP filibuster in the Senate.

Markovich noted Mercuri’s opposition to the PRO Act and said the Republican challenger has gone as far as calling it “un-American.”

Deluzio mentioned his efforts to “make sure big laws like the Inflation Reduction Act are going to work for us and our workers. Hydrogen power is a part of that.” The use of natural gas to produce hydrogen in a manner that’s carbon neutral could produce more than 100,000 jobs in the Appalachian region, lawmakers have said.

Deluzio also mentioned his support for a bill that would extend OSHA protections to public sector workers. As a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Mercuri voted against similar provisions, Deluzio said.

“My opponent’s anti-worker record is dangerous and it’s bad,” Deluzio said. “We don’t need another corporate bought-off politician selling us out down in Washington.”

After the announcement, reporters asked Deluzio about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ statements, made when she was running for president in 2019, in opposition to fracking. She’s since walked back those statements, but the GOP has been hammering her over the issue. Many workers support fracking because it brings jobs to Western Pennsylvania.

“The Biden-Harris administration has never taken that type of action [to ban fracking] and I can’t imagine she’d be willing to change course in that way,” Deluzio said. “And she’s also going to hear from folks like me and Sen. [Bob] Casey and others about the importance of our energy jobs in Western Pennsylvania and how we can meet climate goals.”

Deluzio continues to push his Rail Safety Act and says he’s buoyed by momentum he sees the bill picking up in Congress. He noted the bipartisan support voiced for the measure last week during a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on rail safety.

“For a while it felt like Republican leadership was working against us,” Deluzio said. “It still seems that way to some extent, but to have the rail subcommittee chairman leading the bill on the Republican side and working with us – in that hearing you saw bipartisan frustration with railroads and a commitment to take some common sense steps to protect us.”

The bill continues to face Republican opposition, but Deluzio noted the support of Republican Rep. Michael Rulli of Ohio, whose district includes East Palestine. During the hearing, Rull stated bluntly that “the state of our rail safety is a global disgrace.”

“He and I have talked about this extensively,” he said. “We see eye-to-eye, that this has to be a bipartisan effort to protect communities like ours.”