ICYMI: Mikie Sherrill Touts Strong Support for Labor, Slams Ciattarelli’s Anti-Worker Record

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By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: ATLANTIC CITY — This morning, @Mikie Sherrill addressed the New Jersey State Building and Construction Trades Council conference in Atlantic City. She outlined how her administration will use union labor to build more housing and drive down costs for families, fix New Jersey’s aging infrastructure, and meet our state’s energy needs. Mikie contrasted her record of standing up for labor and investing in working families — including a 100% lifetime score from the AFL-CIO — with Jack Ciattarelli’s long history of weakening protections for organized labor and opposing investments that would create jobs for workers across the state.

Below are excerpts from her remarks as prepared for delivery:

My promise to all of you, is that as a former federal prosecutor I understand strong laws are meaningless without enforcement. In my administration I will bolster our enforcement efforts to protect workers and ask my Attorney General to stop settling every case, and prosecute bad actors to send a clear signal in the industry that cheating on public works will no longer be tolerated as the cost of doing business.

Unions built New Jersey, and you all have a critical role to play as we work to make the Garden State into the world’s premier manufacturing and innovation hub and bring costs down for families. That will involve building all across our state using labor from the Building Trades — from homes and new energy infrastructure, to roads, bridges, and new business facilities. I’m up for the challenge, and I know your members are too.

As New Jerseyans’ utility bills go up, we’re also going to need to make bold investments in our energy supply. As governor, I’ll host solar on state properties, and I’ll work with the Building Trades to get it done. We’ll lead the nation in clean, cheap power while making our state energy independent.

Just last week, I visited a solar farm in Southampton Township where over 200 union workers across multiple crafts turned a capped landfill into a source of energy that is lowering utility bills for local residents.

Like so many solar projects across the state, the farm used Inflation Reduction Act tax credits to reduce construction costs and hire union workers.

While we need solar in the short term, if we want to meet our economy’s long-term energy needs, we must build our nuclear energy infrastructure. I will expand our nuclear energy generating capacity to take on our energy crisis. That’s another opportunity to create union jobs into New Jersey to move our state into the future.

I’ll invest in the people who keep our economy running. I’ll expand helmets to hard hats programs and invest in high-quality registered apprenticeship programs. And as governor, I’ll be the best governor for business and for labor.

I have big goals for the Garden State, and we are going to have to work together to get this done.

I want to tell you a little bit about what we are up against in my opponent Jack Ciattarelli.

A civil rights champion once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

My opponent has repeatedly shown all of us exactly who is – he courted and received the endorsement of the ABC, not once but twice. In fact, I’m sure you saw because I know you track this, the day after he won the primary this year, the ABC advertised their full throated support for him.

His support from ABC is no coincidence. Time and time again he has turned his back on labor. When he was a legislator and had the chance to expand PLA’s to more projects in New Jersey, Jack’s vote was crystal clear. Jack said NO.

He had another chance to stand up for workers when he cast his vote on a common-sense, bipartisan legislation that required certain bidders to provide proof they would pay the prevailing wage. What did he do? Jack said NO.

Many of you remember the summer of 2016, when the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) ran out of money, bringing projects across the state to a standstill and leaving thousands of building trades workers without jobs. When a bipartisan agreement was finally reached to replenish the TTF and get your members back to work, do you know what Jack did? He said No.

And then, there is the Republican @Price Hike Bill, which rolls back the tax credits that are funding clean energy projects across the State. The elimination of these credits means that countless union workers could lose their jobs.

But perhaps even worse, it cuts off the development of new projects and ends the opportunity to create thousands of new union jobs. Did Jack stand and fight for these projects or these jobs? Jack said NO.

And, throughout his career, Jack has worked to dismantle state pensions and health benefits, voted against raising the minimum wage five times, and is now endorsed by three state senate and assembly members who have introduced right to work legislation.  Again and again, Jack said NO.

Republican Governors all across the country have shown us who they are, by pushing right to work laws, dismantling prevailing wage protections and finding innovative ways to limit the rights of unions and your members.

New Jersey is sure as hell not a right to work state, and I refuse to surrender our future to someone who will make us one.

Look, Jack has told us who he is. All I am asking you to do is believe him.

While some will paint this election as a Democrat vs. Republican narrative, that’s not what this election is about.

I have a vision for workers in NJ.  I will champion PLAs, I will demand my AG to go after cheaters, I will be bold in encouraging innovation and meeting our energy needs. I’ll be the best governor for business AND for labor. All of this against a guy who has shown us he is unwilling to stand up for workers at every turn and is willing to follow a playbook that looks to dismantle all the values we all hold so dearly.

The future of the labor movement in New Jersey is on the ballot in November.  As a candidate and as Governor, labor will always have a seat at my table.

Curated by Humra Kidwai

Source: PressRelease