The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issues “10 Things You Should Know” as the Democratic National Convention kicks off today with a platform of how to Move America Forward.
There is no sharper contrast in this presidential election than in the value the President and his challenger, Gov. Mitt Romney, place on transportation and infrastructure investments and jobs.
“The President is pushing record investment in our transportation system as an engine for creating several million middle-class jobs and creating an economy built to last,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind. “In contrast, Gov. Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan would slash transportation investments 46 percent – cuts that would ruin our already stressed transportation system and eliminate 500,000 jobs a year.”
10 Things to Know:
The President enacted, over near-unanimous GOP opposition, an economic recovery plan in 2009 that was the largest transportation stimulus package our nation has ever seen. The plan created and saved 2.5 million jobs
[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Feb. 17, 2009]
The President proposed – and GOP leaders blocked – a job creation plan to repair and modernize15,000 miles of highways, improve 4,000 miles of rail and transit systems and build 150 miles of new runways.
[Statement of Administration Policy (SAP), H.R. 7 – American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012, Feb. 14, 2012.]
The President slowed the financial bleeding faced by public transit systems and their riders by giving them flexibility to use portions of capital funds to avoid damaging service and job cuts and expensive fare hikes.
[Supplemental Appropriations Act for 2009, 2012 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act]
The President blocked GOP House proposals to eliminate the federal transit funding program and force reckless privatization mandates on local transit providers. [Statement of Administration Policy (SAP), H.R. 7 – American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012, Feb. 14, 2012.]
The President’s appointees to the National Mediation Board replaced undemocratic union election rules with new rules that are empowering more airline and rail workers to form and join unions and bargain collectively.
[Federal Register May 11, 2010, p. 26062, Docket C-6964]
The President settled a Bush-era collective bargaining dispute with air traffic controllers and enacted legislative reforms that repair the broken collective bargaining system at the FAA and ensure “NextGen” modernization moves forward with labor-management cooperation and collaboration.
[FAA press release Aug. 13, 2009, “Preliminary agreement reached with air traffic controllers,” CNN, Aug. 13, 2009]
As part of his We Can’t Wait initiative, the President accelerated 7 nationally and regionally significant projects to modernize and expand 5 major ports in Jacksonville, Miami, Savannah, New York/New Jersey and Charleston.
[White House press release, July 19, 2012]
The President enacted family and medical leave protections for airline crews to care for their families.
[White House statement on enactment of the airline crew Technical Corrections Act, Dec. 21, 2009]
The President invested billions in high-speed trains and provided record budgets to modernize Amtrak.
[ARRA, Feb. 17, 2009]
The President rejected efforts to allow foreign ownership of U.S. airlines in negotiations over a new aviation agreement with the European Union, and won approval for the first-ever workers’ rights provision in an international aviation agreement.
[DOT press release, March 25, 2010; “EU-US sign second open skies aviation agreement,” Breaking Travel news, March 26, 2010]
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The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, represents 32 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, motor carrier, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit us at ttd.org or on Facebook and Twitter.
Contact: Jennifer Michels, jenniferm@ttd.org, 202-628-9262
