Politics & Government

Poll: AC Transit Buys American. Should Other Agencies?

Transit district will spend $16.4 million to buy 40 buses from a Hayward firm. Do you support or oppose Buy American polices by government agencies? Vote and comment.

 

The AC Transit board voted last week to buy 40 buses from Gillig, a 115-year-old Hayward firm that employs about 750 people and is the largest bus maker in the United States.

The deal will be worth about $16.4 million, half from the district the rest from a matching state grant, a transit district spokesman said.

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Gillig president Dennis Howard welcomed the contract but said winning wouldn’t cause a big hiring spurt. Nor would losing have led to layoffs.

What was important about the deal, Howard said, is that it showed policy makers were noticing the increasing erosion of the U.S. industrial base.

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“We’re losing the whole damn middle class in this county,” Howard said. “We’re losing our high-paying industrial jobs.”

Rome Aloise, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 853 in San Leandro, praised the deal. Gillig employs about 450 Teamsters.

“With the cooperation of responsible transit agencies who are buying American, we can keep good jobs in the Bay Area and the U.S. well into the future," Aloise said.

a Buy American policy for new rail cars.

But CalTrans took a different approach when buying the steel for the new Bay Bridge. It opted to save $400 million by turning to suppliers from China.

Which purchasing policy do you favor?

Vote in our poll and comment below.

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