LIUNA: Bridge Protests Today by Broad Coalition Focusing on Failure to Care for the Nation's Transportation Systems Highlights Need for Full-Investment Highway Bill

With One in Four Bridges in U.S. Unsound and More than 1 Million Construction Workers Jobless, It's Time for Action

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today LIUNA – the Laborers' International Union of North America – said hundreds of protests across the U.S. on deficient and obsolete bridges highlights the need for Congress to pass a long-delayed, full-investment Highway Bill.

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"For more than two years, LIUNA members have been sounding the alarm on the need to get people working rebuilding our aging, congested roads and crumbling bridges," said LIUNA General President Terry O'Sullivan. "Today, as a broad coalition of protestors embraces that message and condemns the failure to care for the basics of our country, it's time for Congress to stop playing politics, listen to the American people and pass a new Highway Bill."

The Highway Bill is the single largest piece of jobs-creating legislation in the U.S. It has been stalled in Congress for two years. Under-investment has led to one in four bridges in the U.S. being classified as obsolete or deficient.

Protests at crumbling bridges and roads, some including LIUNA members, highlight the real consequences of an economic and political system that has increasingly catered to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans while neglecting the other 99 percent.

"Our roads and bridges have been allowed to fall into disrepair as the Highway Bill – which in the past routinely won bipartisan support – has become caught up in political grandstanding," O'Sullivan said. "Ending the Bush tax cuts for the rich would be the equivalent of 10-times the investment needed for a robust Highway Bill – not to mention lost revenue from profitable corporations that pay no taxes and receive billions of dollars in refunds."

LIUNA members have a long history of fighting for investment in America's roads, bridges and other basic needs. The union raised public awareness for the need for a new Highway Bill through its Build America 2010 campaign with events around the country. Earlier this year, more than 8,000 LIUNA members successfully put pressure on Congress to back off an extension of the previous Highway Bill that would have gutted investment and destroyed jobs. Just this month, LIUNA members in Iowa launched a campaign to inject the Highway Bill debate into the Republican caucuses.

LIUNA members are fighting for a Highway Bill that preserves current levels of investment, such as the legislation approved last week by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Members oppose a plan favored by some House Republicans that would slash investment by one-third and eliminate 630,000 jobs in one year alone.

"If Congress is serious about putting people to work and taking care of America, it should pass the Senate bill or improve on it," O'Sullivan said. "With bridges deteriorating and so many jobless, it is absurd to be considering legislation that would slash both investment and jobs."

The half-million members of LIUNA – the Laborers' International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build America.

SOURCE Laborers' International Union of North America