PRESIDENT’S REPORT March-April 2021

BY JOHN GUADAGNO

As I write this article for the Conduit, I hope we have seen the last of the bad weather. With spring starting, let us clean our yards at home, get our boats ready for the season, and start planning our vacations for the coming year.

So here we are over a year since the Covid pandemic had been declared. Here in New York, things have intermittently begun to loosen up as far as the restrictions go.  Just a little here and there,but do not be misled, the virus is still dangerous and deadly. 

Many have been and continue to be vaccinated and hopefully, many more will be in the next few months. But we must remain vigilant and keepourselves safe and out of harm’s way.

Nationwide, we have had over 525,000 fatalities and over 48,500 here in New York. That includes some of our members and their families. Our condolences to all who have lost loved ones.

Let us now discuss our Presidential election. I have always spoke about elections having consequences, and this year is no different. With a pro-union president (Biden), his administration in the first fifty days signed into law multi-employer pension plan protection. The Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act, which will protect over 100 multi-employer pension plans from insolvency. Included among these funds is a particularly large fund that, absent of Congressional intervention, would have gone insolvent by 2025 leaving millions of retirees without their expected monthly pension. This relief act also protects our pension fund from large fee increases from the PBGC and keeps our pension plan delivering what was promised.

President Biden is committed to union jobs, green energy policy, building infrastructure, and growing union apprenticeship training. He fired the anti-union and anti-worker general counsel of the NLRB hours after being sworn in. He has made it a priority that his administration will acknowledge the value of collective bargaining and the right of workers to organize. We have not had that commitment in a long time.

On the volunteer front, we have a few projects this year for anyone who wants to help. Please call the President’s Office.

This concludes my report for this Conduit. Work smart, work safe, until we meet again.