Diving briefing: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh took the workers ’stand first in a series of interviews and statements that followed the presentation of the US jobs plan to President Joe Biden last week, as workers called for vaccinations and affirmed his commitment to organized work and raising the level of the federal minimum wage. After releasing details of Biden’s $ 2 trillion infrastructure plan last week, Walsh described it in a statement as “a historic investment in the working people of America.” “It will create millions of well-paying, family-maintenance jobs that rebuild the middle class by empowering our workers to build America’s future,” he said. “As a former construction worker, I know that a good job can change your life,” he added. After the country got 916,000 jobs in March, the Minister of Labor said it was encouraging news, but there was still work to be done, including personal measures by workers to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and vaccination. “It really depends on all of us and what we do about our behavior, and that means taking care of ourselves,” Walsh said in an interview with MSNBC. I want to encourage people to vaccinate Dive Insight: When asked about a possible increase in the federal minimum wage of $ 7.25 an hour, which has been excluded from Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion US bailout, Walsh said he and the president are still focused on the issue. “The president is committed to raising the minimum wage. I am committed to raising the minimum wage. There are members of Congress who are committed to raising the minimum wage,” Walsh told MSNBC. “No family can survive on $ 7 an hour. It’s very difficult to live on $ 15 an hour,” he said. “I think this is a conversation we’re going to have with business leaders all over this country.” Advocates for construction employers have said attempts to raise wages in the construction industry are misleading, as these jobs pay more in the first place. “The average wage for workers in construction trades is $ 22.83 an hour, which is still 13% higher than the average for all occupations,” said Brian Turmell, Vice President of Public Affairs at Associated General Contractors of America in an email to Construction. Dive last week. He was dealing with Biden’s call for project work agreements in the US jobs plan, as well as the inclusion of the Right to Organize Protection Act, a pro-union bill that the House of Representatives recently passed but faces an uphill battle in the US. Senate. With the results of the vote to form a union by employees at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama coming as soon as this week – a push Biden left behind in a video release from the White House in February – Walsh reiterated that while it was up to the employees to decide which path to choose, it was He and the president upheld their right to collective bargaining. “When you look at the labor movement in this country over the past 50 years, the decline in numbers, and you look at the decline in the middle class, there is some correlation there,” Walsh said on MSNBC. “So I think people should have the right, they should be able to join a union if they want to. There is a voting process, and that’s what’s happening on Amazon right now. People vote, and we’re waiting to see what the result is. And if people vote to join unions. “We have to organize unions. If people vote not to join unions, that is what the will of the worker will be.”
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