Suozzi Announces “Tom & the Trades” Jobs Tour, Focusing on Good Jobs at Good Wages for the Middle Class
Bethpage, NY - August 18, 2017 - Today, Congressman Tom Suozzi (D – Long Island, Queens) announced a new initiative called “Tom & the Trades,” where over the upcoming months, Suozzi will visit with skilled workers and perform daily tasks to try and highlight the need to create more good jobs at good wages. Suozzi proposed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this year that the federal government needs to focus on helping the private sector create five million new $80,000 per year jobs by 2020. Today he cut meat with the butchers at a supermarket in Bethpage.
“It’s important to highlight how working men and women earn a living and how we can rebuild our middle class. The American Dream is slipping away for too many working families. They need access to more good jobs at good wages. Right now, more than 55 percent of the full-time jobs in America pay less than $50,000 per year. 82 percent of the full-time jobs in America pay less than $75,000 per year. It’s hard to support a family that way.
So, I’m doing this to bring attention to the hard work that good people are doing, and that we need to help them out. At the federal level, that means infrastructure investments, tax reform, and doing everything we can to make sure that the wealth created in our nation is shared by a strong middle class. It also means good jobs for graduates of high schools, trade schools, vocational schools, BOCES, community colleges and union apprenticeships. I’m committed to this effort, and in my capacity as Vice-Chair of the Problem Solves Caucus, I will work hard with Republicans and Democrats to try and see this through,” said Congressman Suozzi.
In June, Suozzi met with a cross section of Long Island companies in the aerospace and defense industries as well as representatives from BOCES, the Workforce Development Institute, local universities, community colleges, local school districts and unions to work on creating a pipeline of talent to fulfill jobs in the local economy.