The Biden-Harris administration’s bold legislative plan to expand broadband internet access to every part of the U.S. is bringing a wealth of work and organizing opportunities for IBEW locals throughout the country. Rockford, Ill., Local 196 is one example of this.
“Our broadband business is smooth, straight and steady,” said Business Manager Derek Luetgert. “It’s going through the roof.”
Taking broadband access nationwide was a major goal of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which allocated $65 billion for the initiative through a program called Internet for All. Administered by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, IFA is tasked with ensuring that every address in the U.S. can connect to reliable and affordable high-speed internet within the next few years.
“We’re always out scouting contractors, and they’re helping us expand,” said Local 196 organizer Greg Doss. “We’ve had a great deal of success, but it doesn’t happen overnight.”
IFA’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program has been doling out $42 billion in grants for upgrades or deployment of broadband connectivity in all U.S. states and territories plus the District of Columbia.
BEAD targets rural and urban areas that are classified as “unserved,” where those lucky enough even to have an internet connection may see, at best, download speeds of up to only 25 megabits per second and upload speeds up to 3 Mbps, and “underserved” areas, where downloads top out at 100 Mbps and uploads up to 20 Mbps.
|
| Members of Rockford, Ill., Local 196 pose for a photo with representatives from the U.S. Department of Commerce during the department’s recent visit to the local’s training facility.
|
Thanks to the White House’s ongoing consultations with the IBEW and other unions, labor-friendly policies and organizing incentives in the IIJA flow through BEAD. So do “labor peace agreements,” under which employers agree to remain neutral and allow workplace access during organizing campaigns.
BEAD’s rules also help IBEW members by placing union contractors on a level playing field with nonunion firms, which must furnish proof that they can staff broadband projects with certified workers. BEAD recognizes that workers with the IBEW and other unions already come with such training and experience.
What likely means more to contractors, internet service providers and municipalities is language in BEAD that gives those that prioritize the employment of union workers access to generous tax breaks.
“The BEAD funding was so critical in helping us bring in new contractors,” Luetgert said. “It’s meant millions of dollars in work for us that’s being covered by project labor agreements.”
BEAD-related work throughout the U.S. has translated into hundreds of new IBEW members, said Illinois State Organizing Coordinator Charlie Laskonis. “There’s been a mix of ISP work and private fiber-optic projects” in Illinois, he said.
Laskonis and international representatives with the Sixth District, which includes Illinois, have been engaging with locals statewide to help them capture BEAD-funded work.
Local 196 covers 14 counties in the northern part of Illinois, where one BEAD project in the less-developed Lake Carroll area aims to pull 1,200 miles of fiber-optic cable. That project has had a few challenges, Luetgert said.
“There’s some pretty rocky terrain,” he said. “We’re bringing in bigger equipment for it.”
BEAD’s allocation of more than $1 billion for projects in Illinois supports a statewide broadband expansion initiative launched by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019 called Connect Illinois.
The federal funds also include money for workforce development, which, for Local 196 members, is provided at the local’s training facility in Genoa through a partnership with Chicago Local 9.
“They’ve helped us tremendously by sharing a great deal of advice and their formal curriculum and textbooks on directional drilling and excavation,” Luetgert said.
The two-week training course also allows well-qualified workers to demonstrate their proficiency so they can test out and get on jobsites more quickly.
That’s good news for the members of Local 196, for whom steady broadband work should continue for the foreseeable future — especially considering Connect Illinois’ estimates that there are still tens of thousands of Illinois households and addresses that remain unserved or underserved.