On Sunday, November 30, Secretary Hillary Clinton, the IUPAT endorsed Democratic candidate for the presidency, announced a massive new infrastructure plan in front of a union members and leaders in Boston.
The campaign stop held in Faneuil Hall was a part of the Secretary Clinton’s “Hard Hats for Hillary” drive to rally union voters. A number of union leaders joined her on stage, including International Union of Painters and Allied Trades General President Kenneth Rigmaiden.
“Secretary Clinton recent visited our training center in Las Vegas, Nevada,” Rigmaiden told the crowd. “She took a tour, and spoke with our apprentices who are learning our trades. It was very clear to everyone who met her that day that she genuinely cared about their personal story, their craft and their future. Hillary Clinton is all-in for apprenticeship as a pathway to a good career. She understands that apprenticeship is the vehicle that has the ability to take a kid who doesn’t see a bright future ahead, to become a well-paid skilled trades person working to build Boston’s new skyline, a parent able to take care of a family, and a neighbor able to give back to the community.”
Clinton told the crowd that it was the trades unions that kept training America’s workforce despite the recession, and that she will remain in full support of the advanced apprenticeship programs that continue build a better America.
She also announced her five-year $275 billion infrastructure plan to benefit roads, bridges, highways, railways, airports and the electric grid. The plan invests $250 billion of that budget directly in public projects, and then leverages the remaining $25 billion to generate additional funding through loans and other forms of credit to create billions more in infrastructure investment.
Why is that good for the middle class? According to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, every $1 billion in infrastructure investment creates 13,000 jobs, and the majority of those jobs are good-paying, middle-class jobs. That’s more work for the men and women of the International union of Painters and Allied Trades.