St. Louis Public Radio reporters Chris McDaniel, Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies welcomed St. Louis Building and Construction Trades secretary-treasurer Jeff Aboussie to the Politically Speaking podcast.
Note: You can subscribe to us on iTunes now.
The south St. Louis native has politics in his blood, so to speak. He’s a cousin to former St. Louis Alderman Martie Aboussie and political consultant Joyce Aboussie. In recent years, he’s become one of the most influential organized labor leaders in Missouri.
His role is largely to work with legislators to pass or sink bills deemed hostile to organized labor. For instance, Aboussie worked with legislators on both of sides of the aisle to defeat “right to work.” He also tried to build support for an incentive package to lure Boeing’s 777X to Missouri.
On the show, Aboussie said:
- Labor organizations have often worked together with business groups on certain issues, such as getting the 777X to St. Louis.
- He strongly supports Councilman Steve Stenger’s bid for St. Louis County executive. He said that St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley had betrayed organized labor by giving county contracts to non-union companies over the years.
- Organized labor will have to assess whether they’ll work for Dooley if he wins the Aug. 5 primary. He noted that unions helped Dooley defeat Republican Bill Corrigan in 2010.
- He strongly supports Amendment 7, a 0.75 percent sales tax increase for transportation. But even though proponents will have a fund-raising advantage, he said it’ll be a “heavy lift” to get voters to pass the tax increase.
Follow Chris McDaniel on Twitter: @csmcdaniel
Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies
Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum
Follow Jeff Aboussie on Twitter: @STLConstruction
