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Remarks by Secretary Buttigieg 3rd General Convention for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART).docx

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<Remarks by Secretary Buttigieg 3rd General Convention for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART)>

연사: 미국 교통부장관 / 일시: 2024.8.14

Glossary

1.     SMART (조합 이름, 음차)

2.     Federal Transit Administration 미 연방교통청

3.     Federal Railroad Administration 미 연방철도청

4.     the Bipartisan Railway Safety Act 초당적 철도 안전법

본문

Up until the Biden-Harris Administration arrived, the questions kept swirling about why we can't have nice things. Why we can't have high-speed rail. Why almost none of the world's best airports are in the United States. Why our roads and bridges were falling into disrepair. Why our ports were struggling to keep up. Why public transit wasn't serving everybody's needs. And the simple answer is that was a choice.   

Every time America missed a chance to do big things in infrastructure the backlog got bigger. The hole got deeper. And every time somebody made a big promise on infrastructure and then failed to actually do it – like we saw just a few years ago – the impatience began to turn into cynicism about the ability of Washington to get anything done. But from the first days of this Administration we set out to change that. 

Now here in year four, the money is moving, the dirt is flying, and America's future is changing before our eyes. And you are making that happen. 

There doesn't have to be a blue versus red death match when it comes to American infrastructure in transportation. There should be no such thing as a Democratic highway or a Republican bridge.  

These are just the foundations of everyday life that Americans depend on to get to work to take their kids to school, to visit their parents and grandparents, just to go get something to eat. And fortunately, a number of Republicans in Congress recognized that not everything needed to be a political battle and were willing to cross the aisle sit down with Democrats in Congress, with cabinet members like me, with President Biden and Vice President Harris. And we got that infrastructure law done.   

But it would not have made its way to the President's desk without the support of the people in this room. You stood up. You made clear that the legislation was something this country needed for everyday life and for our long-term economic growth.   

You did so knowing that if we got this bill through, we wouldn't just be building railroads and bridges, we'd be building livelihoods. Good paying jobs that mean presents under the tree, a new car or truck in the driveway, and everything else the family needs.  

SMART members and locals stood up for this bill, and I was proud to stand with some of you that day at the White House as President Biden signed the bill into law.  

I definitely want to lift up our work together, and your leadership on safety. In April our Federal Transit Administration issued a final rule to make public transit safer and better protect public transit workers including giving these essential workers a voice in safety decisions.   

And then after a lot of anticipation and a lot of work a rule that was developed two administrations ago – frozen by the last administration – that we knew in this one we had to get done. This spring our Federal Railroad Administration issued that long fought for rule for safe train crew sizes establishing what most Americans already thought was the case. What most Americans, all Americans, ought to know is common sense. Which is a one-mile or two-mile or three-mile-long train ought to have minimum crew size requirements to make sure everybody on that train is safe and everybody who lives anywhere near where that train is going.  

You helped make that happen. You drove that for years and I was proud to be with President Ferguson when we announced that rule. That is what the power of organizing and good policy working together can do. And it is good policy. 

We know there's more to do. But these are the kinds of gains that we can score when we work together. We have final rules to require emergency escape breathing apparatus for trains carrying hazmat.   

We conducted 7,500 focused inspections. Issued safety advisories. Developed a new rule to require those railroads to provide real-time information for local, first responders when something happens.  

And I promise you we are not walking away from the fight for sick leave until 100 percent of railroad workers have that sick leave. When we got here less than one out of ten class one union freight railroad workers had access to paid sick leave. We have pushed hard on that, and today the number stands around 90 percent. From just 5 percent to 90 percent in less than two years. And again, we will not stop until it's 100 percent, working together.  

We will continue to do everything in our authority to set higher standards to protect workers in the public. To upgrade and modernize our rail infrastructure to make operations safer.   

I know there's still more to do. A lot of it requires new authorities from Congress, which is why I have been demanding that Congress finally pass the Bipartisan Railway Safety Act to make tracks cars and working conditions safer for those who work on freight rail and everybody who lives near a railroad line in America. And I know you've been fighting for that too. So thank you for standing up for that important legislation.

But we won't give up. And we won’t back off. Just like we won't back off from insisting on a fairer tax code. Not tax cuts for the wealthy.   

We won't back off on standing proudly with our unions and maintaining our infrastructure momentum. We won't back off in the face of those who want to use the latest culture war to distract or divide workers while they put shareholders first.   

And we won't back off on defending and extending the historic infrastructure and transportation work that we're doing coast-to-coast that so many of you are part of we're part of together.

You are shaping a future that your kids will be proud of. And we are building it together. And yes, with unions like SMART leading the way, there is no going back. You are closing the gap between what America is now and what America can be. That will be your legacy. And that will be the legacy of America's infrastructure decade. And the best is yet to come.

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