68,842 bridges across America need work. So do America’s unemployed workers.   Tell Congress: These bridges need work, and so do America’s jobless workers.

In America, 68,842 bridges are deficient—and 282,672,680 vehicles cross
those bridges every day. Meanwhile, 9.1 percent of Americans are
jobless.

With so many people out of work and so many bridges and other pieces of
critical infrastructure in need of work, there’s a simple solution:
Congress must pass legislation putting jobless Americans to work fixing
critical infrastructure—bridges, schools, roads, ports and more.

Tell
your members of Congress: America is ready to get to work on our
bridges, transit, rail, airports, highways, ports, schools and the rest
of our failing infrastructure.

These projects don’t just create good jobs for the people who do the
original work—though that’s a big part of why they are important right
now. They also make our economy perform better in the long term by
increasing productivity. And they make America a better, safer place to
live.

Immediate work on America’s
crumbling infrastructure is a start. But we also need to pass a fully
funded surface transportation reauthorization and start now on even
bigger projects—world-class communications and energy systems,
high-speed rail and other infrastructure we need to be competitive in
the 21st century.

Tell
Congress: We need to fix our broken infrastructure and get started on
even bigger projects, too—the world-class communications and energy
systems, high-speed rail and other infrastructure we need to be
competitive in the 21st century.

I haven’t been to China, though I hope to go soon. But I am told that when you fly to Shanghai,
you land in a brand-new airport, you have high-speed broadband access
from the moment you arrive and you can get on a high-speed train in the
arrival terminal that will take you directly to downtown Shanghai at
speeds faster than 100 miles per hour.

This just isn’t available in any U.S. city. But we can change that. We
can meet these standards—and beat them. But only if our leaders rise to
the challenge.

Thank you for all the work you do.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka

President, AFL-CIO

P.S. In tough times, America has come together and put America back to work by building and rebuilding our infrastructure. But so far, the Republicans won’t do it.
That’s why we’re taking the pressure to every individual member of
Congress today—highlighting just how much work there is to be done and
how many jobless Americans are ready to get to work.

Tell
your members of Congress: America is ready to get to work. Let’s get
started on our bridges, transit, rail, airports, highways, ports,
schools and the rest of our failing infrastructure.

To find out how many bridges need work in your state and your state’s unemployment rate, click here.