Policy Experts and Union Leaders Scrutinize Infrastructure Decline

Experts spoke about the intersection of public infrastructure and labor at a Law School panel Tuesday, emphasizing the need to invest more federal dollars in infrastructure projects.

The event, called “Infrastructure: Labor, Social, Political, and Economic issues,” was sponsored by both the Harvard Trade Union and the Labor and Worklife Program and featured a panel of four speakers, all with backgrounds in infrastructure policy.

Panelists said many public works projects in the United States are in decline, and that infrastructure spending peaked many decades ago. Brent Brooker, secretary-treasurer of pro-union group North America’s Building Trades Unions, said that at least 60,000 bridges across the country are “structurally deficient.” Brooker also criticized conditions of many American highways, which he said have been neglected by the government and are often congested, leading to wasted automobile fuel.

Larry W. Beeferman, director of the Pensions and Capital Stewardship Project at the Law School, began the event by describing intersections between labor and infrastructure policy. Beeferman said that before the United States invests more in infrastructure, it should consider whether or not the projects will create well-paying jobs with good working conditions that will benefit labor unions.

Towards the end of the event, panelist Kevin DeGood, who organizes infrastructure policy proposals at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said that for most Americans, investing in infrastructure is not seen as worthwhile.

DeGood said he hopes to change citizens’ minds about the power of infrastructure, and show that many projects are “a historical legacy.”

“You inherited facilities that other people had the courage to build,” he said.

DeGood added that he thinks prospects for progress in infrastructure investments and labor unions will be slim President Donald Trump’s administration. Throughout his campaign, Trump was critical of unions, once confronting a union leader on Twitter and implying that unions often weaken American businesses. In December, Trump nominated restaurant mogul Andrew Puzder, a vocal opponent of unions, to head the U.S. Department of Labor.

“This administration and the Republican Congress are extremely hostile to the labor movement,” DeGood said. “It’s probably the largest political target in their minds, so they will do absolutely everything they can do diminish the capacity and strength of their unions.”