Investments in infrastructure and manufacturing are driving a revival in Ohio’s trades: Mike Knisley
By Mike Knisley, Guest columnist, cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In the more than 35 years I’ve spent as a member of the building trades, I’ve seen firsthand how many challenges America’s unions have faced as American jobs have been shipped overseas.
Since I got my start in the United Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters, and Service Technicians during the Reagan administration, I’ve heard presidents talk a lot about investing in construction and infrastructure, with little to show for their promises.
But now, as the executive secretary-treasurer of the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council – which represents over 100,000 men and women who work in union construction here in Ohio – I have the privilege of overseeing the most significant investments that Ohio’s trades have seen in decades.
Most politicians talk a big game, but it takes a true leader to get things done. President Biden has turned his words into action.
From investments in America’s roads and bridges, to green energy technologies, to our nation’s semiconductor supply chain, the Biden administration’s economic investments are revitalizing the industries that built America and strengthening industries critical to America’s future.
Now, we’re starting to see those dollars flow into communities across Ohio, visibly improving infrastructure and communities that have been ignored for too long. When you have good roads and quality infrastructure, you feel hopeful about the prospects for the community in which you live.
That economic hope is critical to creating a state in which our young people want to stay, build careers, and raise children.
Along with that general economic hope, the president’s infrastructure legislation is creating a renaissance in the trades. For a young person interested in the building trades, there’s never been a better time to get involved. You can come out of your apprenticeship program, apply those skills as a worker, become a foreman, a general foreman, a superintendent, a quality control supervisor, and so on.
Now, more than ever, there is a lot of upward mobility in the building trades, which is critical to strengthening America’s threatened middle class.
Perhaps no single project exemplifies this economic potential more than the new Intel plants being constructed by our workers in New Albany, just outside of Columbus.
The jobs from this project, which was made possible by President Biden’s investments in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, will not just employ thousands of workers over the next four or five years. The effects will be multigenerational.
If you’re a young worker, projects like Intel’s mean that you will have opportunities to make a living for your family, stay in your community, retire comfortably, and feel pride knowing that you have dedicated your life to building up your community.
This includes young people who did not have the opportunity to go to college. They now have greater opportunities to get a job in the trades and set their children and grandchildren up for well-paid, stable building trades jobs here in Ohio and across the nation.
Between President Biden’s investments in manufacturing, new technologies, and infrastructure, the growth of community pride and hope here in Ohio is palpable. It is creating generational growth across the nation and in Ohio, which is shedding its reputation as the heart of the Rust Belt and reasserting itself as the Silicon Heartland.
This economic shift is ushering in a brighter future.
It’s the most promising time I’ve seen in my long career in the building trades and for the young people who will build up both our union and our nation for many years to come.
Mike Knisley lives with his wife in Columbus, where he serves as the Executive Secretary-Treasurer for the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council. He is a proud member of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Service Technicians Local 776 of Lima, Ohio.