This research brief finds that when manufacturers raise the domestic content of their products, they create at least 26% more jobs than manufacturers that only meet the 60 percent Buy America requirement.
Hardcore capitalists will argue that transportation authorities should worry about their bottom dollar, especially when it comes to taxpayer money. But hiring and buying local is a sound way to create jobs and leverage public dollars for the best use.
With unemployment rates at 7 percent statewide and much higher in Baltimore, it's clear we need to be innovative and think about how we can grow the manufacturing industry by creating jobs across all communities, particularly those that are low-income.
Turning federally funded transit projects into a vehicle for job creation that also boosts America’s manufacturing sector is an overdue step.
No matter the intended beneficiary, LAANE has prevailed with the same underlying argument: that the investment of public funds should yield public benefits.
Chicago labor groups are pissed. And they have a right to be. The Montreal-based company Bombardier Transportation was awarded a $1.14 billion contract to build more than 700 train cars for the Chicago Transit Authority, and the local workforce has been left out.
The Chicago Federation of Labor and Chicago Jobs with Justice, among seven other groups, want new manufacturers of Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) rail cars to lay out specific details about how many local jobs will be created before any contract is awarded.
Chicago labor and community groups on Monday called on the Chicago Transit Authority to require bidders on future rail car manufacturing contracts to submit detailed plans for creating local jobs.
Jobs to Move America is working across the country to develop apprenticeship programs and job pipelines that will ensure people who have historically been denied access to manufacturing careers have the necessary skills to obtain good, family-sustaining manufacturing jobs.
This strategy for directly linking job creation to transportation procurement comes at an opportune time given all the recent attention on infrastructure investment and bringing manufacturing jobs to U.S. soil after decades of outsourcing.
