Transport Workers Union
26th Constitutional Convention
Resolution #5
Commitment to Infrastructure Funding
Our national transportation infrastructure is the foundation upon which the TWU is built.
Transport workers rely on our transportation infrastructure every single day – to get us safely to and from work, to keep us safe on the job, and to ensure that we continue to receive our paychecks and can put food on the table for our families.
However, for far too long, that infrastructure has been allowed to fall into a poor state of repair. For too long, the state of our infrastructure has been taken for granted. Our airports, highways, roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, and transit systems are woefully out of date and in dire need of help.
Presently, there is an estimated backlog of one trillion dollars’ worth of necessary transportation infrastructure repairs. Tens of thousands of bridges are in poor condition. Hundreds of thousands of miles of roadway put drivers and passengers in grave danger. Commute times are growing longer as buses, rail cars, tracks, and train stations grow out of date.
In other areas of the country, millions of Americans are still without access to basic transportation infrastructure. For those people, that means an inability to connect with friends, family, and loved ones. It also means a lack of opportunity and security – as people cannot access jobs, healthcare, and other necessities in a timely or affordable manner.
At its best, our transportation infrastructure has been an essential part of connecting people with each other and with critical opportunities. But if we fail to take critical steps to address, update, and improve our transportation infrastructure, future transport workers will inherit a system that divides people and impedes access to the very things that we need most.
Now, therefore be it RESOLVED,
That the delegates to the 26th Constitutional Convention of the Transport Workers Union of America, believe deeply that our crumbling transportation infrastructure poses a threat to our economic livelihoods and physical safety;
and be it further RESOLVED,
That the delegates seated here believe that critical investment in our airports, highways, roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, and transit systems can successfully repair, improve, and expand our transportation infrastructure and create new, safe, unionized transportation jobs;
and be it further RESOLVED,
That this Convention calls upon the Congress to pass, and President Biden to sign The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which would invest more than $1.2t into our nation’s transportation infrastructure and resilience, repair roads and bridges, modernize public transit, invest in reliable passenger and freight rails service, create thousands of good, union jobs, and build the future of transportation infrastructure;
and be it FINALLY RESOLVED,
That the Transport Workers Union of America believes that this bill is a statement by political leaders that transportation infrastructure is not a partisan issue, and as such, a copy of this resolution should be sent to President Biden, and the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate.