Infrastructure Deal Includes $40B For Needed Training of Workers

A $1.2-trillion infrastructure spending bill passed by Congress Nov. 6 includes $600 billion for new roads, rails, ports, water systems, bridges, dams, airports and broadband.   

While the reporting on the initiative has focused on the ambitious scale of the planned projects, John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union of America, said for labor one of the most important wins was the inclusion of $40 billion for workforce training.

Currently Lack Those Skills

“The reason that’s so important is because there is going to be a fifth-generation technology built into a lot of this infrastructure that existing transportation workers are not trained to do,” he said. “So, absent the trade- union movement’s efforts [lobbying] the existing workforce would have been just left in the lurch, with no skills to actually perform in this new advanced technology infrastructure world that’s going to exist in 10 years.”

He added that the workforce initiative went well beyond the transportation sector.

“The building trades that operate apprentice programs that take kids right out of high school, regardless of what their training was in high school, and put them into apprentice programs and teach them trades—all of this is going to be re-invigorated with the entire look of that is going to change because of this bill,” Mr. Samuelsen said. “There is a percentage of every Federal dollar that has to go into workforce development to make sure workers are not left behind. That’s revolutionary, and it’s all a product of the strength of the American trade-union movement.”

The bill also requires the nation’s mass-transit systems to develop strategies to combat assaults on transit workers with provisions for withholding Federal money if agencies don’t comply.

'A Blue-Collar Blueprint'

The day after the bill passed by a 228 to 206 vote in the House, President Biden described the legislation as “a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America, and it's long overdue.” He predicted it would “create millions of jobs, modernize our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a whole range of things, to turn the climate crisis into an opportunity."

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers' annual Infrastructure Report Card, the United States earned an overall C minus, with D's for aviation, dams, waterways and roads.

In New York State, the group estimated the average New Yorker spent $625 a year on car repairs necessitated by  driving on substandard roads. Ten percent of the state’s bridges are rated as structurally deficient.

“Drinking water needs in New York are an estimated $22.8 billion,” ACIS reported. “424 dams are considered to be high-hazard potential…This deteriorating infrastructure impedes New York’s ability to compete in an increasingly global marketplace.”

'Too Long Failed to Fund'

“For too long, Congress has failed to adequately fund our infrastructure, leaving our country with infrequent and unreliable transit services, congested roads, failing sewer systems, lead in our pipes, and unsafe bridges,” U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler stated on the House floor. “Congress has also done far too little to rectify the great urban planning mistakes of our nation’s past, including the fragmentation of majority-minority communities and failing to alleviate environmental injustice.”

According to Mr. Nadler the spending measure includes nearly $28 billion in direct funding for the state, including over $10 billion for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, nearly $2 billion for bridge and tunnel repairs, $12 billion for roads and over $2 billion to improve water infrastructure and broadband coverage. Over $20 billion is set aside to upgrade rail service for the Northeast I-95 corridor.

"After decades of delay and decline, much-needed infrastructure funding will be a game-changer for New York State,” State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento said in a statement, noting it would help with "climate-change mitigation, electric vehicles and clean drinking water while creating good union jobs in the process. The funding will also finally make high-speed internet affordable and available everywhere.”

Six of the 13 Republicans who risked the wrath of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy by voting for the measure were from New York and New Jersey. The New York GOP votes came from U.S. Reps. Andrew Garbarino, John Katko, Tom Reed, and Nicole Malliotakis, with New Jersey's Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew also approving it.