St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council endorses Hillary Clinton for president

The St. Louis Building & Construction Trades Council has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

“Hillary Clinton’s strong record and her commitment to job growth for America makes her the obvious choice of the Council,” said Jeff Aboussie, executive secretary-treasurer of the Council.

“Hillary Clinton believes one of the best ways to increase jobs and improve our nation’s competitiveness is to invest in infrastructure,” Aboussie said.

Hillary Clinton has called for a national infrastructure bank that would leverage public and private funds to invest in projects across the country.

‘WE CAN ALL RISE TOGETHER’

Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, visited the Machinists District 9 Hall in Bridgeton recently to campaign for his wife. The IAM was the first major industrial trade union to endorse Hillary Clinton in August 2015. More than 20 other unions have since followed suit.

“We’re finally at a point where we can all rise together. We have to elect a president that will allow us to rise together,” said Clinton to a roaring round of cheers and applause from the several hundred Missourians in attendance. “In order to do that, we have to have more jobs and higher wages.”

MANUFACTURING

Clinton said his wife has always stood up for working men and women, and believes that outsourcing of manufacturing jobs must stop.

In addition to the infrastructure bank, he said Hillary Clinton has supported bills to bring new manufacturing technology to small and medium-sized businesses. She also has called for doubling the funding for Manufacturing Extension Partnerships, public-private partnerships that help manufacturers and proposed expanding them to focus on renewable energy, co-founded the bipartisan Senate Manufacturing Caucus, and has stood against unfair Chinese trade practices,

Hillary Clinton voted in support of authorizing action on Chinese imports if the Chinese government did not reform its currency practices.

She also is focused on doubling funding for job training programs for workers displaced by international competition and also supports the formation of Regional Skills Alliances to bring together local businesses, governments, educational institutions and labor organizations to collaborate on new programs to train workers for modern technology jobs.