Easy decision, says union business agent
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2023
PITTSBURGH – Joe Rockey’s campaign for Allegheny County Executive rang up another union endorsement this week, with an endorsement by the 1,000-member International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 2.
“It wasn’t a hard decision,” said Jim Cassidy, the union’s business manager. “You’ve got to think of your membership first.”
The 120-year-old group is known as the first “Green Building Trades Union” because of its work in energy savings.
Cassidy said that his organization supported Rockey because of his pro-growth stand, and noted that his Democratic opponent, Sara Innamorato, had opposed the location of a “hydrogen hub” in western Pennsylvania. The Biden administration earlier this month announced that western Pennsylvania’s proposal to locate the hub in this region had been rejected in favor of one supported by political leaders in West Virginia.
“She opposes everything. I have lost so many thousands of work hours because of her and the people she hangs around with,” Cassidy said.
The Insulators endorsement now brings to more than 10,000 the number of workers represented by trades unions, including the Laborers International Union, the Boilermakers, and the Steamfitters unions. Rockey has also won the endorsement of multiple locals of the Fraternal Order of Police as well as the union representing county corrections workers.
“As the son of union Democrats, I know the importance of organized labor in Allegheny County. The men and women who make things work here deserve our unwavering support and that means always supporting the efforts to provide good, family sustaining jobs,” Rockey said.
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