Anti-union group backs Garrity

August 6, 2026

Sign Up for the Keystone Labor Report Newsletter

Good afternoon everyone.

It’s Thursday, Aug. 6, and welcome back to another edition of the Keystone Labor Report. You can find Tuesday’s edition here.

Here’s some quick housekeeping before we get into everything.

I will be away next week enjoying a fishing trip to Lake Ontario with the family, and will return to our regularly scheduled programming on Aug. 18.

Sean Kitchen

Political Correspondent, The Keystone

(Jason Ardan/The Citizens’ Voice via Getty Images)

While Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and other Democrats have been uplifting unions throughout the campaign season, Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity is touting an endorsement from an anti-union organization in her campaign for governor.

The Associated Builders and Contractors Keystone Chapter PAC endorsed Garrity on Wednesday, and according to the organization’s national website, it will continue to support pursuing right-to-work laws, which undermine workers’ ability to form unions and collect dues to pay for the services that they provide.

On top of that, Garrity accused Shapiro of being “in the pocket” of the building trades and other construction unions even though she received their endorsements while running for reelection in 2024.

“ We have to look at workforce development. We don’t do enough, and that is because the governor is in the pocket of the trades,” Garrity said while campaigning in Erie last month.

Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter running against US Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Lehigh.), was endorsed by the United Auto Workers Local 667, which represents thousands of workers at the Mack Truck plant outside of Allentown, per Brooks for Congress.
Allegheny County is bracing for President Donald Trump’s Medicaid cuts, which take effect after the midterm elections, and expect more than 26,000 residents to lose their healthcare coverage, per The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts received another round of adequacy funding to close the funding gap between wealthier and poorer districts in this year’s budget. You can see how much your district received per Spotlight PA.

(Photo by Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Residents in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties found a creative way to throw a wrench into US Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s (R-Luzerne.) reelection chances after submitting more than 40,000 signatures to place a ballot measure banning insider trading by local elected officials on the 2026 ballot in both counties.

For those keeping track, Bresnahan has made over 640 stock trades at an estimated value of $8.43 million since taking office last year.

“The tens of thousands of signatures we collected are a direct rebuke of the status quo,” said Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, executive director of Action Together NEPA, in a statement.

“Voters in our community have watched, outraged, as officials prioritize personal stock portfolios over the common good. People are sick of the corruption and the conflicts of interest. By filing these signatures, we are showing that NEPA residents are tired of just talking—we are demanding an end to self-service in our government and setting a new standard for ethical leadership,” she stated.