November 7, 2014
By Sean McGarvey, President of North America's Building Trades Unions
Washington, DC – The American voter has clearly spoken. And with victory comes responsibility for this new Republican congressional majority. Specifically, the responsibility of putting aside petty and counterproductive political partisanship that, quite frankly, has been the defining feature of both political parties for over a decade now.
The message sent by the American electorate in yesterday's election was plain and simple: they are tired and fed up with partisan warfare and incessant gridlock. Their simple desire is for Congress to focus on serious work, not trivial political pursuits.
A good place to start would be to work with the Administration on crafting an effective and robust plan to invest in the re-building of America's crumbling infrastructure; as well as approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and the formulation of a comprehensive national energy policy. Such actions offer so many positive economic attributes that it is mind-boggling to most Americans as to why we have continuously failed to come to agreement on these types of issues that are so basic and straightforward.
Just like in this election, where our members worked tirelessly on behalf of candidates -both Republican and Democrat alike – who understand the basic concerns of working American families, North America's Building Trades Unions have historically been willing to work with lawmakers from any and all political persuasions who place a priority on solving our nation's pressing problems, rather than scoring political points.
The livelihoods of the 3 million skilled craft men and women who comprise our unions depend, in large part, on our government operating in an efficient and productive manner.
"We stand ready to work with this Congress to achieve those ends.
