PENNSYLVANIA – Earlier this week, Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis rallied support from the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters after he and Governor Josh Shapiro received the labor union’s endorsement.

Lt. Governor Davis reaffirmed the Shapiro-Davis Administration’s commitment to standing up and fighting for workers’ rights, and to always protecting the union way of life. From holding bad actors accountable and returning millions in unpaid wages, to expanding pathways of opportunity for Pennsylvania workers, Governor Shapiro and Lt. Governor Davis have made workers’ rights a top priority over the last three years.

Read more about Lt. Governor Austin Davis at the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters this week:

The Center Square: Lt. Gov. Austin Davis says Pennsylvania will never be a Right-to-work state

John Cole

• Addressing the annual gathering of the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters in Hershey earlier this week, Democratic Lt. Gov. Austin Davis made a pledge to its members as he and his boss, Josh Shapiro, seek a second term in November.
• “I want to be clear, brothers and sisters, every worker deserves a safe workplace. Every worker deserves the benefits and pensions that they’ve negotiated for and that they earned,” Davis said. “And as long as Josh Shapiro and I are in charge in Harrisburg, Right-to-work is dead in this Commonwealth and union organizing is alive.”
• The conference represents approximately 95,000 working Teamsters. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, of which they are affiliated, represents 1.4 million workers, from newspaper reporters to zookeepers to police officers to truck drivers, and everything in between.
• And as Davis said in his address, the administration has protected the rights of those workers through expanded apprenticeship programs and stepped-up enforcement efforts against companies that commit wage theft.
• “In the last three years, we’ve returned more than $15 million in unpaid wages to workers across the Commonwealth to make sure that if you work hard, you are paid what you’re owed,” he said. 
• Although Davis spent most of his speech promoting the work of the Shapiro administration, he also took jabs at President Donald Trump, saying that “constant chaos and confusion” is coming out of the White House.
  
• “For the last year, the Trump administration has purposely targeted workers through union busting, worsening worker protections and forcing costs to rise and giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires,” Davis said. 
• “With gas prices over $4 a gallon in the Commonwealth, Pennsylvanians have spent over $238 million more last month to fill up at the pump because of these reckless policies,” he continued. “Despite the policies that are causing these rises, the Governor and I have been laser focused on making sure the economy here in Pennsylvania works for every single one of us.”
  
• Several candidates running in 2026 earned the conference’s endorsement on Monday, including the Shapiro-Davis ticket. President Bill Hamilton called Davis, a son of a union bus driver, a “great friend of the Teamsters,” during their annual meeting. 
• “He always has our backs. Whenever he’s asked to step up for labor, he does.” Hamilton said of Shapiro. “There’s never been a question.”
  
• Gardner-Bird emphasized the importance of their endorsements in races up and down the ballot. 
• “Endorsements are one of our strongest tools for leverage in pushing forward gains for our members,” he said.

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