Building trades stand up for disaster refugees

Building trades stand up for disaster refugees: They’ve fled floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and civil wars – and now Donald Trump plans to throw them, too, out of the U.S. But not if the nation’s construction unions can help it. “They” are some 329,000 people who have entered the U.S. since the start of this century on “Temporary Protected Status,” or TPS. They’re not permanent residents, they’re not undocumented workers, they don’t hold green cards and they have to keep reapplying to stay here. They work legitimately and openly in the U.S., and many are construction union members. Ejecting them would slam workers and hurt unions, said Gebre and union Presidents Kenneth Rigmaiden (Painters), James Boland (Bricklayers) and Eric Dean (Ironworkers.) “We’re asking Congress and the administration to allow our members to work at their jobs and have time with their families,” said Dean. TPS holders and their allies will lobby Capitol Hill this week on the issue. “We need to keep being vocal, because time is limited,” added Dyana Forester (left), political director of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, noting that the impact of Trump’s stands goes far beyond TPS. "So we’ll fight like hell” for the TPS recipients “and take nothing for granted.”
- Mark Gruenberg, PAI Staff Writer

---