Hoffa: Fund rail, infrastructure repair to create good jobs
Written by jrood
Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa called on Congress to stress road and bridge repair and public transit expansion in the next federal highway bill.
Hoffa noted an Economic
Policy Institute study shows that building public transportation, including
rail, generates 31 percent more jobs than new construction of roads and
bridges. The study also concluded that repair work on roads and bridges creates
16 percent more jobs than new construction of roads and bridges.
EPI released the study,
"The job impact of transportation reauthorization," June 25. It
analyzed a funding proposal by Transportation for America that emphasized
maintenance and retrofits of existing infrastructure and adequate public
transportation. Transportation for America is a transportation-reform coalition
that advocates sufficient funds for new highway capacity along with money for
repairs and public transit, which are more labor-intensive parts of the
transportation system.
"This study shows
why America needs a new direction in our transportation policy," said Hoffa.
"Cleaner and smarter transportation investments will create millions of
good-paying quality jobs and put our nation on a path to a lasting economic
recovery."
According to EPI, the
Transportation for America proposal would yield 400,000 more jobs over six years
than the current mix of transportation spending. The EPI study found that a
proposed $500 billion transportation bill could support more than 7.2 million
jobs.
Most of those jobs, EPI
concluded, would help people hardest hit by the economic recession. Eight in 10
of the jobs would be filled by people without a four-year college degree. A
higher percentage of union jobs would also be created – 15 percent vs. 12
percent in the overall economy.
