With BEAD looming, workforce safety remains a big problem

The United States needs way more workers to support the upcoming flurry of federal-funded broadband projects. But the broadband industry’s also got catching up to do with its labor standards. In fact, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is the first federal broadband grant program with “any type of language” concerning labor practice requirements, according to Marcus Chambers, network telecom technician for CWA and state broadband lead for Maryland. Both broadband work quality and workers’ safety have been on a downswing for years. For CWA’s part, it offers OSHA-10 Construction courses to employers and schools that are training broadband technicians. It also encourages new technicians to “shadow” veteran technicians on-the-job, so workers aren’t just learning from “by-the-book material.”