Cleveland.com: Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb joins cavalcade of Biden boosters at union conference

Sabrina Eaton, cleveland.com

WASHINGTON, D. C. - Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb is trying to help President Joe Biden with union members across the country while drumming up support for projects at home.

On Tuesday, Bibb was in the nation’s capitol to join a cavalcade of Democratic officials urging the North America’s Building Trades Unions more than 3 million members to reelect Biden. After delivering a speech at the group’s legislative conference, Bibb said he planned to meet with members of the Biden administration on Tuesday to urge construction of a proposed Amtrak line that would link Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton, and would also have meetings as part of his work with a group of mayors working to fight climate change.

Union members have long been a key constituency for Democratic candidates. Biden, who recently obtained an endorsement from the United Steelworkers union, is actively seeking union backing to shore up his support from blue-collar workers - many of them union members - who helped ex-President Donald Trump win the White House in 2016. Biden is scheduled to address the NABTU’s legislative conference on Wednesday.

“Our president, President Joe Biden has done more, probably, than any president in American history to create good paying union jobs in cities like Cleveland all across this great nation,” Bibb proclaimed after taking the stage to Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

Bibb joined acting Labor Sec. Julie Su and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on stage at the Washington Hilton in extolling Biden’s policies to members of the NABTU, an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Bibb said the American Rescue Plan promoted by Biden “gave America’s mayors the opportunity to put real money in our neighborhoods” with infrastructure projects installed by union members. He said the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 paved the way for 10,000 jobs in the Columbus area, including 7,000 construction jobs, at a new Intel chip plant.

On top of that Bibb said the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping Cleveland eliminate its lead water lines, improve transit infrastructure and close the digital divide with affordable city-wide broadband.

“These progressive policies benefit all of us and we are grateful for your advocacy and the tremendous impact that it has,” Bibb told the more than 2,000 NABTU members gathered for a legislative conference at the Washington Hilton. “Unions reduce disparities and income inequality, stand guard against policies that hurt working people, strengthen families through better wages and benefits and boost civic participation. All of these activities serve to strengthen our democracy.”

Bibb also warned of “the threat of a leader who promises to stand with workers, but does exactly the opposite,” suggesting that restoring Trump to the White House would threaten “cuts to programs that working and middle class Americans count on.”

The message was well-received among the conference’s attendees who see the public works projects Bibb extolled as an opportunity to grow union jobs.

On top of that Bibb said the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is helping Cleveland eliminate its lead water lines, improve transit infrastructure and close the digital divide with affordable city-wide broadband.

“These progressive policies benefit all of us and we are grateful for your advocacy and the tremendous impact that it has,” Bibb told the more than 2,000 NABTU members gathered for a legislative conference at the Washington Hilton. “Unions reduce disparities and income inequality, stand guard against policies that hurt working people, strengthen families through better wages and benefits and boost civic participation. All of these activities serve to strengthen our democracy.”

Bibb also warned of “the threat of a leader who promises to stand with workers, but does exactly the opposite,” suggesting that restoring Trump to the White House would threaten “cuts to programs that working and middle class Americans count on.”

The message was well-received among the conference’s attendees who see the public works projects Bibb extolled as an opportunity to grow union jobs.

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