Harrisburg, Pa. (February 10, 2020) – Today, the Pennsylvania Building Trades Unions continued their efforts to pass House Bill 1100 (HB 1100). This time with a video truck urging Governor Wolf to sign HB 1100 into law.

The message targeted Governor Wolf after a spokesman for Governor Wolf announced on Friday that he plans to veto HB 1100. The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in the state House, with a vote of 157 to 35, and in the state Senate, with a vote of 39 to 11.

“Let’s call a veto of HB 1100 what it really is – an attack on Pennsylvania’s blue-collar workers,” said Tony Seiwell, Business Manager of the Eastern Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council.

HB 1100 would establish the Energy and Fertilizer Manufacturing Tax Credit. This tax credit is estimated to generate a private investment of at least $450 million and create a minimum of 800 construction and manufacturing jobs per plant. A similar tax credit attracted an investment to build the Shell Cracker Plant outside of Pittsburgh which has created over 6,000 family- supporting jobs.

“With HB 1100, an even larger number of Pennsylvania’s working men and women can share in the prosperity started on the Shell Cracker Plant,” said Philip Ameris, Business Manager of the Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council.

Companies first build the petrochemical and fertilizer plants. Once operational, Pennsylvania awards a tax credit to the plants utilizing Pennsylvania’s dry natural gas resources primarily from the northeastern portion of the state to manufacture everyday products.

There’s a historic difference on HB 1100 that benefits local workers. The tax credit is available only after agreeing to pay workers the prevailing wage. Currently, there is no other Pennsylvania law where the tax credit is contingent upon paying the prevailing wage.

“Governor Wolf supports raising the minimum wage, and here is an opportunity through HB 1100 to create prevailing wage jobs in counties in need of job creation,” said Ryan Boyer, Business Manager of Laborers’ District Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity.

Potential counties to build future plants include Luzerne and Lackawanna. The unemployment rate in those counties exceeds Pennsylvania’s statewide rate of 4.5 percent.

Pennsylvania is a battleground state, and a Democratic governor vetoing a jobs bill could result in negative implications on the Democratic Party in the Presidential Election.

“If Governor Wolf thinks that this won’t have an impact on how working families vote in November, he is mistaken,” said Dennis L. Martire, Vice President and Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA). “Working families need to see Democrats acting on their behalf in order to win back the trust lost in 2016.”

LIUNA Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizing Coalition owns and operates the digital truck.

The video truck will make additional appearances leading up to March 16 when session resumes. At that time, the Senate will send HB 1100 to Governor Wolf.

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The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Mid-Atlantic Region represents more than 40,000 working men and women predominantly in the construction industry in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Virginia and North Carolina