Eugene DePasquale picked up a major endorsement from the Pennsylvania Building Trades for Attorney General. The council represents 130,000 workers across the commonwealth.
The Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents more than 130,000 union members across the commonwealth, endorsed Eugene DePasquale for Pennsylvania Attorney General on Thursday.
“We’ve fought hard to organize and bargain for our members, but when the bosses try to steal our wages, misclassify us as contractors instead of employees, or push us to work in unsafe conditions, we need another strong, effective ally on our side,” PA Building Trades Council President Rob Bair said in a statement.
“We trust Eugene will be in our corner for those fights—because for the last 20 years, he always has.”
DaPasquale, a Pittsburgh native, was first elected to the Pennsylvania House in 2006 and then went on to serve as Pennsylvania Auditor General from 2013 to 2021. He is running against York County’s Republican District Attorney Dave Sunday for Attorney General in the fall election.
The office will be vacant at the end of the year after Attorney General Michelle Henry promised not to run for the position after finishing out the remainder of then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s term.
Henry was appointed to the office after Shapiro was sworn in as governor in Jan. 2023.
While serving as state attorney general, Shapiro used the attorney general’s office to advocate for working Pennsylvanians by prosecuting wage theft and worker misclassification.
In 2021, Shapiro sentenced Glenn O. Hawbaker, one of the state’s largest construction companies, to pay more than $20 million in stolen wages. At the time, it was one of the largest prevailing wage criminal cases in US history.
Labor unions such as the building trades are looking for the next attorney general to continue that advocacy for workers.
“Big corporations are used to getting their way, often at great expense to consumers and workers – but that won’t fly when I’m elected Attorney General,” DePasquale said in a statement. “I have a message for anyone trying to cheat PA workers, price gouge consumers, or scam our seniors: when I’m Attorney General, I’m coming for you!”
