Pittsburgh, PA
July 18, 2023
Thank you for that gracious introduction, Mayor Gainey. We are so proud to work with you on a range of issues that are central to the lives of working people in your city. We’re thrilled to partner with you in this.
It’s an honor to be here with First Lady Dr. Biden, who challenges us every day to ensure multiple pathways to opportunity for everyone, especially women, people of color, and underserved communities.
Congressman Deluzio and County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, thank you for your leadership.
And of course, a huge thank you to the workers, unions, and labor leaders here who are making all of this possible.
You’ve all heard President Biden commit to lead the most pro-worker, pro-union administration in history. As the leader of his Labor Department, I’m proud to say he’s been delivering on that promise since day one. To the workers here, I want to send a message loud and clear: the Biden-Harris administration has got your back, and we’re all in on putting workers first.
Workers like Robert Elmilian, who’s here with us today.
Robert knew early on that getting a four-year degree wasn’t the right path for him. After high school, he took a job as a fast-food worker, then as a convenience store manager. When he found out he was going to be a new father, he knew he needed a change. He could barely support himself on his income at the time – how was he going to support his family?
Robert discovered a pre-apprenticeship training program called “Breaking the Chains of Poverty” that gave him a pathway into the Operating Engineers apprenticeship program.
Today, he’s a crane operator who earned more in his first week at his union job than he made in a month at his prior job. And as President Biden says, a job is about more than a paycheck, it’s also about dignity.
Robert is proud. Proud that he has been able to buy a house for his family. Proud to one day tell his son that he helped to build this airport terminal.
Robert told me that these construction jobs are, quote, “the soul of the middle class.” Well, Robert, you’re exactly right, and I’ll just add – as the President often says – the middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.
Robert, thank you for sharing your story – because it illustrates what I want to talk about today: how good jobs change lives.
The $20 million federal investment in modernizing this terminal is going to generate $2.5 billion in economic activity, use made-in-America steel, and create thousands of jobs for the local community.
That’s why it’s a critical part of our Investing in America Workforce Hub in Pittsburgh, where we’re working closely with leaders on the ground to make sure all communities in Pittsburgh have access to the good union jobs that are being created.
For the Biden-Harris administration, empowering workers and creating good union jobs for all communities is our North Star. And we are doing that by prioritizing a tool called Project Labor Agreements to make sure federal construction projects like this one are staffed by union labor and include important commitments to recruit, train, and hire local workers from underserved communities to build our nation’s infrastructure.
The workforce system is infrastructure too – the roads and bridges that connects workers to the good jobs they want and need and employers to the people they want and need.
But our workforce system – just like our physical roads and bridges – needs some attention too. It’s got some cracks, and some potholes.
Under President Biden’s leadership, we’re creating a workforce system infrastructure that’s going to be as strong as the physical infrastructure we’re building.
In fact, PIT2Work – that’s the federally-funded pre-apprenticeship pilot program here – is a fantastic example of a workforce training program done right. It's a partnership between the airport and Partner4Work, the local workforce board that is the leader on the ground. It’s intentional about recruiting folks from traditionally marginalized communities, including workers of color – in fact, Black Americans make up over 90 percent of the first cohort of trainees. It’s demand-driven, so management and labor are working together to identify the skills needed and the number of jobs that’ll be created from a project before the shovel even hits the ground. It includes a stipend, so you can earn as you learn. And it offers wraparound support services like transportation and child care.
That is Bidenomics in action. An economy that puts workers first – and where opportunity is available to everyone.
So thank you again for all that you do.
Now, it’s my pleasure to turn it over to my colleague, Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, who has been an incredible partner in this work.