Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Labor Press Radio With Alex Garrett and Congressman Tom Suozzi 9-5-24

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Labor Press Radio With Alex Garrett and Congressman Tom Suozzi 9-5-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm here at the high speed Rail conference
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and with Congressman Tom Swansea. I'm Alex Scritt, Congressman.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Thanks for joining me today, Alex, thanks so much for
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: having me on Liz.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Event's put on by Labor Press and all the good
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: people there. But why did you come today talk about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: your support for this high speed rail I.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Mean, the bottom line is is that high speed rail
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: is about making people's lives better. But it's also about
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: creating an enormous amount of jobs, jobs that have good
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: wages and good benefits. And we forget sometimes that the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: basic idea of America has always been that if you're
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: willing to work hard, you get a decent life in
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: return for that. I'll work hard in return and make
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: enough money so I can buy a house, educate my kids,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: pay for health insurance, and retire one day with help
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: being scared. And there's too many jobs in America these
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: days that don't make that promise anymore. So having jobs
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: by building something like a high speed rail project will
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: deliver good jobs at good wages with good benefits for
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: people for a generation.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: You were talking them there. You wrote a letter about this.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Tell us about the letter if you can.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Well, back in twenty twenty one, when we were first
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: talking about the Infrastructure project, the Infrastructure Bill, which has
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: provided you know, so much money for creating big public
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: works projects throughout the country. I wanted to make high
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: speed rail a part of the conversation, and I wanted
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: to make sure that we could start getting people in
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: the Northeast to start talking about high speed rail. They're
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: doing it in California, they're doing it in some of
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: the Southwest. I wanted to try and make the Northeast
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Corridor and especially from New York City to Boston, a
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: part of the project. And so that's what we're trying
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: to still do. Now. This is not going to happen today.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: It's not going to happen tomorrow. It's going to take
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: three years, four years, five years, six years. But these
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: kind of big visionary projects are what turnaround economies and
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: what provide enormous amount of jobs that change people's lives
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: for the better.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Being re elected, by the way, congratulations. Tell us about
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: your with labor now back in Congress. I know you
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: have the labor coucress. We'll talk about that for a minute.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I've always been a very pro union person. I
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: was the mayor of my hometown. I was ac count
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: executive of Nasal County. I was in Congress for six years.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I'm back in Congress now after my brief hiatus, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I started the Labor Caucus back in twenty twenty one
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: or so. And the idea was is that whenever you're
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: looking at an issue like immigration or climate change, or
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: any issue that you look at as a legislator, you
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: should be looking at it through the lens of how
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: does this affect people's wages and benefits. My grandfather was
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: an electrician for the IBW Local three. He helped put
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the lights on top of the mPire State Building. So
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I know that the union movement and the idea of
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: remembering that whenever you do a project, you got to
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: provide people with good wages and benefits. That's what makes
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: people's lives better in our country.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks so much for joining us today at here
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: at the Labor Press event. Thanks for joining us, for
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: having me