Larry I. Willis

We know that Joe Biden will be more than just an infrastructure candidate. As Vice President, Joe Biden showed clear leadership in using infrastructure investments to save our economy and spur job growth. He made sure that recovery money during the last economic collapse was spent in the right way and with accountability. He can, and he will, do it again.

As president, we know that Biden will fight for working families. For more than 36 years, he has stood by his conviction that America works best when we put the needs of working class Americans first.

When United Airlines accepted $5 billion in taxpayer-funded financial relief through the CARES Act, the carrier did so on the condition that its frontline workers be kept on payroll — with existing benefits — through September 2020. That was by design. By stipulating that CARES Act funds make it into the hands of working people, […]

Many transit workers still do not have the personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning supplies, or adequate direction from their employers to ensure their health and safety, or the health and safety of their families. In cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, or Detroit, transit workers are literally putting their lives on the line to keep America moving. These workers are becoming sick and, in some cases, tragically dying at alarming rates.

There are immediate steps lawmakers can take to both buffer against fear of an economic slowdown and rebalance America’s economy in favor of working people. Chief among them: massive investments in our transportation system and infrastructure.

Ten years ago, American Airlines was heralded for bucking trends by not outsourcing its aircraft maintenance work to foreign repair stations. Now, 30,000 ground workers at American and their unions, the Transport Workers Union and International Machinists Union, are fighting to keep it that way. Since 2015, ground workers, including aircraft mechanics, have been negotiating […]

Earlier this month I had the honor of speaking at the Convention of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, or SMART, where I focused on the power of solidarity — a message that is especially important as the nation prepares to celebrate Labor Day. The belief that working people are […]

When Vice President Mike Pence toured the damage in America’s heartland caused by historic flooding, he pledged to work with Republicans and Democrats to ensure farmers and ranchers in Iowa and Nebraska receive the federal funding they need to rebuild. He was right to do so. Asking rural families to front the full cost of […]

Some ideas are so mind-numbingly bad that they do not deserve a serious response. Moon advertising comes to mind. (That’s right. Advertisements projected across the moon. An idea so universally hated that Congress threatened to intervene in the early 90s despite the utter infeasibility of it.) Stopping hurricanes with hydrogen bombs. (No joke: an actual real life meteorologist championed this idea.) Rebooting Casablanca as a live TV musical event starring a cast of unruly kindergarten-aged children who missed naptime and who are all very upset about it. (As far as I know, nobody is pushing this one. Let’s hope it stays that way.)
Here’s one more for you: paying for America’s desperately underfunded highway infrastructure needs by eliminating all federal funding for public transportation.

In an era when the economy is out of balance and stagnating wages are making it harder for working people to get by, our government should be pursuing policies that enhance the rights of workers and encourage them to join together in union. Sadly, a proposal by the National Mediation Board (NMB) does the opposite. […]