CWA Collects Signatures Against One Touch Make Ready Pole Policy

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The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is fighting hard against a Federal Communications Commission proposal they say endangers its members and could send CWA work to unskilled non-union contractors. The FCC is preparing to vote Aug 2 on, and almost certainly approve, a proposal to allow for "one touch, make ready" prep for attachment of communications equipment on utility poles. The idea is to speed broadband deployment by allowing those attaching or moving wires and equipment on utility poles to do all the work itself, rather than spreading it across multiple parties--say incumbent users doing the moving and the new attacher doing the attaching. 

That will save time, but CWA says at the price of safety, as well as jobs. "Pole attachment work is complex, and if done incorrectly, can cause electrocution or poles to fall," it said this week in pushing back hard. In decrying what it said was the dangerous, anti-union proposal, the union said it had collected 9,000 signatures on a petition against the proposal which it delivered to the FCC the week of July 23.


CWA Collects Signatures Against One Touch Make Ready