Pittsburgh, Pa. (March 22, 2020) – As first responders face a shortage of supplies across the country, the Western Pennsylvania Laborers’ District Council (Western PA Laborers), an affiliate of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), increased available resources in Allegheny County by donating a portion of the Western PA Laborers’ own supplies.

The Western PA Laborers donated CDC-approved personal protective equipment which included approximately 160 N95 filtering facepiece respirators and 120 suits.

“With the proper equipment, COVID-19 doesn’t have to add to the already dangerous nature of first responders’ work,” said Philip Ameris, Business Manager of the Western PA Laborers.

U.S. Representative Conor Lamb and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald are leading the county’s efforts for first responders.

“I want to thank the Laborers for their help at this time,” said Fitzgerald. “Our friends in Labor are always there for us, and we appreciate their contributions at this critical time.”

“As always, even as their members are taking an enormous hit in this crisis, organized labor is doing what they always do: stepping up to help the entire community,” said Lamb.

Since emergency repairs are the only construction permitted during Pennsylvania’s shutdown of all “non-life-sustaining businesses,” many of the construction projects LIUNA members were working on are suspended.

“There were two options for our personal protective equipment that is not needed for construction right now,” said Ameris. “It could have been sitting in storage or saving lives, and the choice was obvious.”

The donations will not stop here. The Western PA Laborers have purchased non-perishable food for LIUNA members who are out of work. Also, the Western PA Laborers offered its spacious training center parking lot for any county food drives.

“In Pittsburgh, we look out for one another even when we are practicing social distancing,” said Ameris. “This is what Laborers did before COVID-19 and it is what we will do long after it.”

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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.