PENNSYLVANIA – Ahead of President Trump’s visit to Moon Township today, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party mailed a copy of a recent report outlining his broken promises to the Pittsburgh area to his campaign’s local office. The report also details Vice President Biden’s plan to build our nation back better by delivering on good-paying union jobs and committing to a “Buy American” policy.
“President Trump is totally disconnected from the economic pain that his policies and broken promises have inflicted on families in southwestern Pennsylvania — so we sent him a reminder,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesman Andres Anzola. “If he actually takes the time to read the report, maybe he’ll learn a thing or two from Joe Biden’s plans about how to actually help working families and create the good-paying union jobs that Pennsylvanians want.”
Check out some more photos and video of the effort here. And here’s some highlights from the report:
- Trump said he would bring back manufacturing to Pittsburgh, but the manufacturing sector went into a recession in 2019, and there are nearly 3,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in Pittsburgh than there were at the end of the Obama-Biden Administration.
- Trump said he would bring jobs home from other countries, but he created a tax loophole that actually rewards companies for shipping jobs and profits overseas, and he reshored fewer jobs last year than in the final year of the Obama-Biden Administration.
- Trump said he would get tough on China, but his tariff war with China cost the US 300,000 jobs in one year. Steel shipments are down more than 25% nationwide from last year, and all while China produced the largest monthly volume of steel on record. Despite Trump’s promises, Pittsburgh companies like Kennametal are laying off workers, while Ampco-Pittsburgh shut their Avonmore plant, pointing to tariffs and excess capacity for economic losses.
- Trump promised a big infrastructure bill when he ran in 2016 and every year since — including a promise standing in front of the people of Pittsburgh — but he has failed to pass a major infrastructure package. And now, Pittsburgh has lost over 4,000 construction jobs in the last year.
Text of the full report is included below:
FACT SHEET: Made in Pittsburgh: How Joe Biden Will Fight for Workers and Create Jobs in the Steel City
Joe knows we need to get serious about defeating the pandemic, dig out from the worst jobs crisis in nearly a century, and rebuild the middle class so everyone comes along. He has a plan to Build Back Better by summoning a new wave of worker power and building an economy that serves the dignity of the hard-working people who make it run. Joe knows how to do it because he’s done it before — he oversaw implementation of the Recovery Act, then the single biggest stimulus in American history, to end the last big recession. The Recovery Act sparked a record 113 straight months of job growth and put union members back to work building American infrastructure. Allegheny County alone received over $1.2 billion from the Recovery Act to invest in everything from schools to health services to hundreds of infrastructure projects, including the North Shore Connector, critical bridge and street repairs, and Pittsburgh airport upgrades. As President, Joe will put millions of Americans to work in good-paying jobs with a choice to join a union.
TRUMP HAS BROKEN HIS PROMISES TO PITTSBURGH
During President Trump’s election campaign, he told the people of Pittsburgh “We’re going to start winning so much that you’re going to be calling me saying, ‘Mr. President, I was at your rally in Pittsburgh. We don’t want to win anymore. It’s too much. We can’t take it.’” Nearly four years into his presidency, it’s not the Pittsburgh families who are winning. Trump thinks if the stock market is up, his rich friends and donors are doing well, and corporations see their valuations rising — then everyone must be doing well. But Joe knows from growing up in working class neighborhoods in Scranton and Delaware that the measure of our economic success is the quality of life of the American people. And right now people in Pittsburgh are struggling.
While Trump deliberately lied about the seriousness of the virus and failed to do his job, lives have been lost. And instead of helping Pittsburgh families recover, Trump has driven our economy into the ground:
- More than 11,000 people have been infected and 363 have died from the virus in Allegheny County, and America was hit worse than any other advanced nation.
- More than six months into the virus, Pittsburgh’s 14.5% unemployment rate is still more than double what it was at the start of the year – and increasing – and nearly 105,000 more people are unemployed in Pittsburgh today than at the end of the Obama-Biden Administration.
- And, as President Trump continues to oppose relief funding for state and local governments, the City of Pittsburgh is facing a $100 million shortfall. Mayor Peduto has recently said four hundred city employees could be laid off if Pittsburgh does not receive federal funding, cutting 10% from all departments – including police and fire. This will result in lack of essential services in addition to job losses.
- Trump’s recovery is exacerbating inequality with the super wealthy and CEOs seeing their stocks go up, but for middle and working class Pittsburghers opportunities remain low. And employment among high wage workers in Allegheny County has increased since January while it has decreased for low-wage and middle-wage workers.
Even before the pandemic, the Trump Administration failed to deliver results for American workers, and today, too many working families in Pittsburgh are worried about paying their bills and putting food on the table:
- President Trump gave big tax breaks to the super wealthy and corporations over hardworking Pittsburghers. Corporations that won billions of dollars in tax cuts still slashed jobs, shifted production overseas, and passed profits through to wealthy investors.
- Trump said he would bring back manufacturing to Pittsburgh, but the manufacturing sector went into a recession in 2019, and there are nearly 3,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in Pittsburgh than there were at the end of the Obama-Biden Administration.
- Trump said he would bring jobs home from other countries, but he created a tax loophole that actually rewards companies for shipping jobs and profits overseas, and he reshored fewer jobs last year than in the final year of the Obama-Biden Administration.
- Trump said he would get tough on China, but his tariff war with China cost the US 300,000 jobs in one year. Steel shipments are down more than 25% nationwide from last year, and all while China produced the largest monthly volume of steel on record. Despite Trump’s promises, Pittsburgh companies like Kennametal are laying off workers, while Ampco-Pittsburgh shut their Avonmore plant, pointing to tariffs and excess capacity for economic losses. Nearby, NLMK laid off workers last year, blaming Trump’s tariffs, while the ATI-Midland plant also said it shut down because of tariffs, and U.S. Steel has announced layoffs and closings in Western Pennsylvania and around the country.
- President Trump promised a big infrastructure bill when he ran in 2016 and every year since — including a promise standing in front of the people of Pittsburgh — but he has failed to pass a major infrastructure package. And now, Pittsburgh has lost over 4,000 construction jobs in the last year.
HIGHLIGHTS: HOW JOE BIDEN WILL WORK FOR PITTSBURGH
Joe will ensure the future is “Made in America” by all of America’s workers. Joe will create millions of jobs by mobilizing the talent, grit, and innovation of the American people and the full power of the federal government to bolster American industrial strength and ensure the future is “Made in All of America”– including in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh steel and other workers played a vital role in helping build America. And today, the city provides incredible benefits to industry, boasting an inland port, many transportation options, and proximity to a large portion of U.S. buying power — and critically, the Pittsburgh workforce. Joe believes Pittsburgh workers and other American workers can outcompete anyone, they just need their government to fight for them. Joe will:
Buy American — creating more opportunity for Pittsburgh manufacturing jobs. Joe will strengthen and enforce “Buy American” so that the massive amount of taxpayer money the federal government spends every year on everything from defense equipment to steel to auto fleets is used to help American manufacturers and their workers.
- Pittsburgh companies and institutions get about $1 billion per-year in government contracts that help to create local jobs — and could have the opportunity for more, but under the Trump Administration, government contracts awarded directly to foreign companies are up 30% and our military has become more reliant on foreign suppliers, increasing DOD foreign contracts 12%.
Support small- and medium-sized manufacturers in Pittsburgh to foster job creation. More than 92% of manufacturers in Pittsburgh have under 500 employees. Joe knows from his work to help rescuing the American auto industry in 2009 that these small and medium-sized manufacturers are critical to jobs, innovation, and ensuring that the future is made in America.
- While the Trump Administration has created huge new programs for any large multinational corporation to get cheap capital with no job commitments – it has no strategy to help smaller manufacturers invest and stay competitive.
- By contrast, Joe will provide capital for small-medium manufacturers so they can modernize and compete. And he will quadruple funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a program designed to provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with the technical expertise needed to compete. Even though the program has helped many small manufacturers in Pittsburgh, Trump has proposed eliminating it.
Innovate in Pittsburgh to create manufacturing and technology jobs. Home to cutting edge entrepreneurs, world class workers, and premier educational institutions and research facilities, Pittsburgh is a leader in advanced manufacturing innovation. The Obama-Biden Administration came to Pittsburgh to launch its Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, and then designated the Greater Pittsburgh Metals Manufacturing Community to receive federal support to grow the manufacturing hub.
- The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress have stood on the sidelines while China is on track to surpass the US in R&D in an effort to dominate future industries. President Trump has forgotten that major investments in federal R&D not only drove U.S. industrial and technological leadership, but created millions of good-paying middle class jobs.
- As President, Joe will make a new $300 billion investment in R&D and breakthrough technologies – to power home-grown industries that can lead the world and create jobs in advanced materials, health and medicine, biotechnology, clean energy, autos, aerospace, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, and more. This would unleash high-quality job creation in manufacturing and technology across the U.S., including in Pittsburgh, and helping American workers compete and win in the 21st century.
Create good-paying union jobs by building modern, sustainable infrastructure. The Port of Pittsburgh waterway system is an important industrial lifeline, but most of its dams and locks are 70 to 80 years old and in critical need of funding for repair if they are to stay in operation. There are more than 4,000 Pennsylvania bridges in poor condition — risking hazards like the 2016 Liberty Bridge Fire in Pittsburgh. The heavily trafficked rail line between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg only has two services per day because of capacity constraints.
- Joe will create millions of jobs rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. He’ll spark the second great railroad revolution, make our airports, seaports, and inland waterways the finest in the world; revitalize schools, roads, and bridges; invest in water infrastructure so all Pittsburgh residents have clean water to drink; aim to provide all Americans in in municipalities of more than 100,000 people with quality public transportation by 2030, and more.
- He’ll make sure these jobs are good jobs with a choice to join a union by requiring projects to pay workers prevailing wages, prioritize Project Labor Agreements, and employ workers trained in labor-management registered apprenticeship programs. And, the materials used to rebuild our infrastructure will be sourced in America.
- Joe will invest in renewable energy, creating new, good-paying jobs. Joe Biden will maintain existing fracking and drilling, and ensure they are done safely. Joe is opposed to banning fracking – no matter how many times Trump lies about it. He will ban only the very small percentage of new gas permitting on public lands – but about 90% of fracking is done on private lands today. He will make sure fracking is done as safely as possible, protecting drinking water and limiting methane emissions.
Pursue tax policies that reward work over wealth. For four years, Trump has relentlessly pursued an economic agenda that rewards wealth over work and favors multinational corporations over small businesses. He promised tax cuts that would create jobs, spur economic growth, and deliver substantial savings for working families. Instead, he gave away hundreds of billions of dollars to the largest companies and richest Americans.
- Joe Biden won’t ask a single person making under $400,000 to pay a penny more in taxes. Instead, he will require corporations and the wealthiest Americans to finally pay their fair share. Joe will also enact middle class tax cuts that finally give working families the financial support they deserve.
Invest in a pro-worker tax-and-trade strategy, to fix the harmful policies of the Trump Administration and give our manufacturers and workers the fair shot they need. Even before Covid, manufacturing exports from Pennsylvania to other countries, adjusted for inflation, were 4.7% lower in the first three years under President Trump than the last 3 years in the Obama-Biden administration.
- Joe will ensure every decision made about trade must be to build the American middle class, create jobs, raise wages, and strengthen communities.
- Biden will take aggressive trade enforcement actions against China or any other country seeking to undercut American manufacturing. He’ll rally our allies in a coordinated effort to pressure the Chinese government and other trade abusers to follow the rules and hold them to account when they do not. And he will reverse the Trump Administration’s policies that encourage offshoring, and instead penalize companies who offshore and reward companies who invest in workers and jobs at home.
Bring back critical supply chains to America so we aren’t dependent on China or any other country for the production of critical goods like medical supplies in a crisis — bringing home jobs in the process.
Encourage, not only defend, union organizing and collective bargaining. Joe knows the only way to take on abuses of power by corporations and Wall Street and to restore America’s middle class, is with worker power. As President, Joe will send economic recovery legislation to Congress that will make it easier for workers to organize a union and bargain collectively with their employers.
- Pennsylvania union workers earn more than 15% more than non-union workers and are much more likely to have health and retirement benefits, but President Trump has waged a war on unions — including by increasing taxes for union members who can no longer deduct union dues, promising to veto the PRO Act, and stripping federal workers of their right to unionize.
Raise wages and make sure Pittsburgh workers have the pay, benefits, and protections they deserve. Joe Biden will raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, protect and expand access to health care, and make sure no Pittsburgh worker can be discriminated against for pre-existing conditions, including COVID-19.
- Biden would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than doubling the wages of some Pennsylvanians still earning $7.25. Even before the pandemic, this raise would have increased wages for more than 1.8 million Pennsylvanians statewide, including those earning below $15 an hour and those already earning more who will see a pay bump as employers seek to attract and retain employees. In Allegheny County alone, this would have directly raised the wages of 192,000 workers, which is nearly a third of the county’s resident workforce.
- Biden will stop employers from denying workers overtime pay they’ve earned. President Trump abandoned the Obama-Biden overtime expansion, costing more than 300,000 Pennsylvania workers over $150 million in lost wages already. Joe will ensure workers are paid fairly for the long hours they work and get the overtime they have earned.
- Joe Biden will make sure every American has access to quality, affordable health care. Obamacare ensured that more than 1 in 4 Pittsburgh residents with preexisting conditions could not be denied insurance, and gave 479,000 Pennsylvanians peace of mind that comes with insurance. But Trump is in court trying to overturn the entire law in the middle of a pandemic. Joe would protect and build on Obamacare, by providing a public option and lowering costs for care and for prescription drugs. He’ll also lower the Medicare eligibility age, providing a new option for those ages 60-64.
- After a lifetime of hard work, working Americans should be able to retire with dignity, free of financial worry. But Trump is threatening to gut Social Security, by “terminating” the tax that funds it, and he has failed to address the multiemployer pension crisis. He’s betraying American seniors who’ve paid in their whole lives, at the time they most need it. Joe will protect Social Security and get people a check that really makes ends meet, and he will strongly support efforts to stabilize multi-employer pension plans and pursue structural pension reform.
- Joe Biden will make sure workers are safe from COVID-19 and other workplace hazards by setting and enforcing robust safety standards. No one should get sick, injured, or die because they went to work, but Trump has tried to weaken several occupational and safety regulations established during the Obama-Biden Administration, reduced Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) investigators to a historic low, and failed to put in place OSHA Emergency Temporary Standards to keep workers safe from COVID-19.
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