Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Chris Deluzio (PA-17)
COLLIER TWP, PA – Today, at a rally at a union hall in Western Pennsylvania, Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA-17) and Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) launched their plan to “MAKE STUFF HERE” and grow domestic manufacturing. Joined by leaders from local unions, industry, employers, and workforce development efforts, they presented their three-part agenda that lays out a new vision for America and its workers that can once again make the United States, and Western Pennsylvania in particular, a hub of manufacturing and good jobs.
“For decades, Western Pennsylvania was the manufacturing heart of America,” said Congressman Chris Deluzio. “Today, Senator Fetterman and I rolled out our MAKE STUFF HERE plan because we think Western Pennsylvania can once again lead America toward manufacturing dominance. By putting America’s working people and workers first, we can usher in a new manufacturing renaissance—with better labor and environmental protections than ever before.”
“We need to make sure we continue to make things right here in Pennsylvania. The Make Stuff Here Agenda is about standing with working people by keeping family sustaining, union jobs here, and it’s about investing in the forgotten cities and towns all across the commonwealth and the country that have been left behind,” said Senator John Fetterman. “I’m proud to stand with my colleague, Congressman Deluzio, to roll out this agenda, and I look forward to continue working with him and the rest of the PA delegation to ensure we continue to make stuff here in Pennsylvania and in America.”
Western Pennsylvania workers made the steel and materials that built this nation’s infrastructure, defended the free world from fascism, and laid the foundation of the American middle class. By 1979, U.S. manufacturing jobs and union membership were at all-time highs—but then things changed.
As international competition got stronger, free market idealists in Washington and Wall Street prospectors looking to make a quick buck chose to strip our communities for parts, leaving workers and our communities behind. These policies sold out communities like those in Western Pennsylvania: undercutting American workers, entire industries and their way of life in favor of growing corporate power and boosting profits at all costs. This story is far too common across America’s industrial communities.
Today, this trend is finally being reversed, thanks to a President and an Administration that understands the importance of making more things in America and the value of a union in helping working families get ahead. Historic investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the bipartisan Infrastructure Law are a phenomenal start, but we still have a lot of work to do.
Congressman Deluzio and Senator Fetterman make the case that must build on this foundation the Biden-Harris Administration has provided, and that is why we are here to unveil our MAKE STUFF HERE Agenda, a list of priorities, some bipartisan, some not, which they believe will grow manufacturing jobs here in Pennsylvania and across the country. They picture a new vision for America and its workers: One with a fair trade system, that invests in and builds up a strong union workforce, and that supports American manufacturers, especially in industries like steel and critical mineral production.
To achieve this vision the framework has three parts, which are:
1) FAIR TRADE enforcement
2) Building up our UNION WORKFORCE, and
3) BUILD STRONG supply chains and manufacturing facilities right here at home.
The full MAKE STUFF HERE plan is available here. Photos and video from the press conference are available here.
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