To: Thomas F. Prendergast, MTA Chairman and CEO
Tell MTA to Buy American Steel!
Don't outsource the renovation of the Verrazano Bridge and send a $34 million steel production job to a Chinese manufacturer. New York should be buying American-made steel that supports good jobs in the United States instead of sending our business overseas to buy inferior materials.
Why is this important?
The MTA is outsourcing the Verrazano Bridge renovation, North America's longest suspension bridge, to a Chinese steel fabrication manufacturer. Not only does this deal ship good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas, it returns inferior building and construction materials for a bridge millions of New Yorkers use everyday. In 2002, California commissioned a Chinese steel fabricator to expand the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and shoddy steel and faulty welds delayed construction for months, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars for cheap "made in China" steel. Add your name to the petition to tell the MTA to stopping racing to the bottom at the expense of domestic jobs and buy American.