DENVER - Imagine driving over a bridge and seeing a sign telling you the bridge is "structurally deficient."
These billboards will soon be alerting drivers all over the state.
In Denver, the Laborers' International Union kicked off a nationwide campaign to encourage the U.S. Senate to pass the $565 billion "Surface Transportation Act."
Workers at LIUNA Local 720 donned orange and blue Tuesday in helping kick-off a bid to get the government to pay part of the estimated $2.2 trillion needed for infrastructure repairs over the next five years.
The union held a news conference under a bridge on busy 6th Avenue - a bridge the state calls "structurally deficient." What that means is that concrete is falling from the bridge, leaving rebar fully exposed.
"We all have pride and we all don't want to be without work. We want to work if you give us the financing. We can do the work," said Tom Muller, an out-of-work construction specialist.
Carmen Rhodes, the executive director of a group that helps workers find jobs, says this is a chance for Colorado's Senators Udall and Bennet to step up and make a difference in worker's lives.
"We need our senators to act now. We need dollars to be invested here on Main Street," said Rhodes.
There are more than 600 other bridges throughout the state in the same, poor condition.
The unions say more than one-in-five construction workers in the U.S. -roughly 1.9 million people- are out of work; 60,000 of them in Colorado. That's why the union is investing $2 million to lobby the U.S. Senate.
These billboards will soon be alerting drivers all over the state.
In Denver, the Laborers' International Union kicked off a nationwide campaign to encourage the U.S. Senate to pass the $565 billion "Surface Transportation Act."
Workers at LIUNA Local 720 donned orange and blue Tuesday in helping kick-off a bid to get the government to pay part of the estimated $2.2 trillion needed for infrastructure repairs over the next five years.
The union held a news conference under a bridge on busy 6th Avenue - a bridge the state calls "structurally deficient." What that means is that concrete is falling from the bridge, leaving rebar fully exposed.
"We all have pride and we all don't want to be without work. We want to work if you give us the financing. We can do the work," said Tom Muller, an out-of-work construction specialist.
Carmen Rhodes, the executive director of a group that helps workers find jobs, says this is a chance for Colorado's Senators Udall and Bennet to step up and make a difference in worker's lives.
"We need our senators to act now. We need dollars to be invested here on Main Street," said Rhodes.
There are more than 600 other bridges throughout the state in the same, poor condition.
The unions say more than one-in-five construction workers in the U.S. -roughly 1.9 million people- are out of work; 60,000 of them in Colorado. That's why the union is investing $2 million to lobby the U.S. Senate.
