Isaac Yu Photo
Elicker at Wednesday morning’s endorsement.
Union workers are lining up to build New Haven — and Mayor Justin Elicker’s growing list of reelection endorsements.
Representatives of 13 building trades unions showed up with Elicker at one of the city’s busiest construction sites Wednesday morning to endorse his quest for a second two-year term.
About 30 of the union members gathered for the announcement, smiling for pictures in front of the Downtown Crossing construction project where some of them are employed.
Elicker held a press conference there with Chris Cozzi, president of the New Haven Building and Construction Trades Council. The group, which includes ironworkers, painters, glazers, electricians, insulators, operations engineers, and other construction workers, represents 20,000 workers statewide, an estimated 1,000 of whom reside in New Haven.
Representatives from the group’s 13 individual unions voted unanimously at their last monthly meeting to endorse the mayor, who they said understands the value of union work and apprenticeship programs.
Cozzi: Elicker a partner in creating construction jobs.
“Construction jobs are not always permanent — but a career in construction is,” Cozzi said. “The mayor understands that.”
The council, he said, always conducts a single-issue vote for endorsing, based on which candidate they believe will provide better work opportunities for its members. It last endorsed Elicker in October 2019, after he won the Democratic mayoral primary.
This year Elicker faces an expected Democratic primary challenge from Karen DuBois-Walton.
Elicker stressed the importance of local workers receiving local construction jobs. He lauded the city’s construction jobs pipeline program, which graduated seven trainees in its first class last month, and the council’s apprenticeship programs, which train workers for long-term careers at no cost.
He also touted the partnership between the council and his office, naming the 101 College and Tweed Airport projects as examples of successful joint advocacy.
“It’s an indication to me that this relationship is working well, and that I’m following through on the issues these workers care about,” the mayor said. “We’re doing the right thing, making sure that people who live in New Haven, that are unionized, have the right opportunities.”
Mark Buono at Wednesday’s event.
Mark Buono, an ironworker in the union Local 424, agreed.
“He gets it, and he’s doing a great job,” Buono said. “We want more work in New Haven, and he’s gotten us to the table where in the past, we’ve fallen on deaf ears.”