Tulsa Union Rallies For President's Job Bill

A Tulsa labor union says it's time for congress to find money to repair the state's roads and bridges.

The iron workers took to the streets Monday to encourage lawmakers to pass President Obama's American's Jobs Act.

The President has proposed a $447-billion jobs bill, $60-billion of that would go to build and repair roads and bridges. For a local union that money can't come fast enough.

In the cold, windy weather they stood together on top of the Sheridan Road bridge at Highway 11.

"And see on the surface this bridge looks really good but we've got pictures of underneath and it's not," Harvey Swift, Iron Workers Local 584, explained.

Down below you can see concrete that's flaked away from the bridge exposing the rebar to the elements; you can also spot pieces of iron hanging from the bottom of bridge.

These members of Iron Workers Local 584 say the key to repairing the bridge could lie in President Obama's American Jobs Act.

"There's billions of dollars that's available if it passes to come back to fix bridges like this," Swift said.

The president has proposed $60-billion dollars to the country's infrastructure. State leaders say that money is badly needed here, citing an $11-billion dollar backlog of projects across the state.

"I don't understand why the parties can get together and build bridges and roads in countries that don't even like us, but we can't do it in Tulsa County. It doesn't make any sense," said State Representative Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa.

News On 6 spoke with both Senator Coburn and Senator Inhofe's office and they say they're against the president's jobs bill and Senator Inhofe, as a matter of fact, says he's introduced his own highway bill that would do the same thing but has more support in the Senate.

Read Inhofe' Statement

Read Coburn's Statement

Representative John Sullivan says there's another bill going through the house. He agrees that our bridges and roads need to be repaired but doesn't think the president's plan is the way to go.

"It's more pork barrel spending, really, it's not infrastructure. I think we need to address our infrastructure needs through a transportation bill not a failed stimulus proposal like the President's introduced," U.S Representative John Sullivan, R-Okla., said.

The union doesn't care if the money comes through the president's plan or Senator Inhofe's. They just say something desperately needs to be done before a tragedy strikes.