Buckeye Reporter

COLUMBUS, OH – On August 31, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) addressed graduates of the 7th class of the Central Ohio Building Futures Program, a 12-week program put on by Franklin County and the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council (C/COBCTC) to prepare participants for careers in the skilled trades.

“I look around this room, and I see the future of our state – the future of work, the future of trade unions, the future of the middle class. For the last two years, all over Ohio and around the country, we’ve been working toward a new American industrial policy that puts American workers at the center,” said Brown in his remarks. “When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. That’s what the Building Trades does, and it’s what you all will do in your careers.”

The graduates are placed in apprenticeships in any of the C/COBCTC affiliated trades, including the Bricklayers, Carpenters, Iron Workers, Pipefitters, Cement Masons, Electricians, Tile Layers, and receive union benefits and middle class wages during their apprenticeships. Brown secured investment to expand the program through Congressionally Directed Spending.

“Creating Central Ohio Futures is proud to Partner with Franklin County and the Columbus Building and Construction Trades Council to offer the Building Futures Program, which has proven to be a life changing opportunity for the members of our community that have taken advantage of it. We are so proud and grateful to have the support of Senator Brown, who has been and continues to be a fierce advocate for Ohio and particularly those that have been traditionally underserved and marginalized,” said Leland Bass CEO of Creating Central Ohio Futures.

“Columbus Building Trades is proud of the support Senator Brown has shown for the Building Futures Program. He shares the same values and goals of organized labor: fighting every day for members of our underserved communities, providing the training and skills necessary to get on the direct path to the middle class,” said Dorsey Hager, President, Columbus Building Trades.

Sen. Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery follow:

I look around this room, and I see the future of our state – the future of work, the future of trade unions, the future of the middle class.

For the last two years, all over Ohio and around the country, we’ve been working toward a new American industrial policy that puts American workers at the center.

You are the reason why.

It’s about creating opportunity for bright, determined, talented workers not just to get a job, but get a good job, and build a career, a life.

For too long, we haven’t had enough of those opportunities in Ohio.

As a student at Johnny Appleseed Junior High School – yes, that its real name; the Johnny Appleseed Pioneers – I walked the halls with the sons and daughters of steelworkers at Empire Detroit, Electrical Workers at Westinghouse, Autoworkers at General Motors, and with the children of union carpenters and laborers and painters.

By the time I got to Mansfield High School, those plants were starting to shut down.

Corporations searched the globe for cheap labor. First, they went to anti-union states in the South.

Then, corporations lobbied for tax breaks and bad trade deals to help move jobs overseas – always in search of lower wages.

And Wall Street rewarded them for it, over and over and over.

States like Ohio have lived with the consequences for more than four decades now.

And the solutions we hear from people on the coasts have too often rung hollow.

Go to a fancy school – and bury yourself in debt. Learn to code. Move away.

It’s elitist, it’s out-of-touch, and it’s failed multiple generations of Midwestern kids.

You shouldn’t have to leave town or leave Ohio to find a good-paying, rewarding job. And you shouldn’t have to get a four-year degree and take on massive debt to join the middle class.

Efforts like Building Futures are the answer.

It’s a pathway to good jobs, where people can build careers and see a future.

It’s why as Dorsey and Steve said, we’ve worked to make sure Building Futures has the investment you needed to get off the ground and to grow.

And grow you have – the new class already started this week.

There’s really nothing else like Building Futures – it’s the first program of its kind, and it’s empowering people to transform their lives.

It’s making good paying, skilled union jobs accessible to everyone – especially people who we haven’t had enough of in the trades.

In the past, you went to a Building Trades conference, and pretty much everyone looked like me and Dorsey. Maybe a couple of guys had beards.

But look around this room – I see Ohio.

Just look at this class – there are graduates of all ages, and all backgrounds. There are men AND women. Some of you already have families that your union card will make a difference for.

For many of you, this is your first experience in construction. For some, it’s your first job. And for others it’s a second or third career.

You are walking out of this hall tonight not just with a job – you’re walking out with jobs that pay upwards of $50,000 year. Jobs with a union card.

You all know what that union card means:

• Better pay,
• Healthcare and retirement benefits,
• More control over your schedule,
• A clear path to the middle class.

And everything we’re doing is about giving you the opportunity to put the skills you’ve learned and developed in Building Futures to work.

We passed the most pro-worker infrastructure bill ever, with the strongest-ever Buy America rules and Davis Bacon protections.

That means more work for tradespeople all over Ohio – repairing roads, laying broadband cables, replacing lead pipes, rebuilding bridges.

We passed the Inflation Reduction Act, with prevailing wage and strong Buy America rules.

And we passed the CHIPS Act to spur investment in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing.

When Intel announced their investment in Ohio, I remember talking with the Intel CEO and Mike Knisley in New Albany. And that very day, I started pushing Intel leadership to enter into a project labor agreement with the Trades.  

Intel is going to need thousands of plumbers, pipefitters, electricians, sheet metal workers, iron workers, laborers, cement finishers, and more over in Licking County.

Now, we’re breaking ground, and union tradespeople are already building this plant – including some of you in this room.

It’s because you’re the best at what you do.

And today as you graduate, you’re joining that tradition.

Some of you at Intel, some at Honda, some working at Fox Squirrel – wherever you end up, you’ll be building a future for yourselves, for your family, and for Ohio.

Over the past year, think of all the things you learned, all the skills you developed. And today, you reach another milestone on your path.

Keep calling on me and I’ll keep fighting for you and your programs and your jobs and for your union.

I’ll close with this:

On my lapel, I always wear a pin depicting a canary in a birdcage.

I wear this pin instead of the official Senate pin.

It was given to me by a steelworker at a Workers’ Memorial Day rally in Ohio more than two decades ago.

Many of you know the story:

Before the turn of the last century, mineworkers took canaries down into the mines to warn them of poisonous gasses. 

They didn’t have a union strong enough or a government that cared enough to protect them.

Throughout the 20th century, we worked to change that:

We passed worker safety laws and overtime and minimum wage and workers’ comp. We banned child labor. We enacted Social Security and Medicare, and workers’ rights and women’s rights and civil rights.

But that progress didn’t happen on its own – it happened because citizens and activists and workers like you, in union halls and church basements, stood up and demanded their government work for them.

They demanded a country with a strong middle class, where hard work pays off for everyone – where ALL work has dignity.

You are all a part of that proud tradition.

When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. That’s what the Building Trades does, and it’s what you all will do in your careers. Congratulations.

Original source can be found here.