00:05:29:08 [Speaker 1]: Good morning and thank you all for joining us for this webinar on strengthening our central infrastructure workforce. I'm Meron Yohannes and I work for BPC's Housing Infrastructure project, as a policy analyst. And I will be moderating our discussion today on workforce and infrastructure developments as it pertains to the current COVID-19 prices and beyond. While many of us get here to stand firm orders, social distancing and work from home, essential infrastructure workers put themselves at great risk to
00:05:59:25 keep our critical systems running. The crisis has put a spotlight on these workers and reminded us all how important they are for public health in our economy. Today, we want to explore the vital role they today explore the vital role that they play in our economy, how we can better protect them through the crisis and invest in them after these threats to emerge. So joining me today are experts across the infrastructure sectors. First, we have hope F Kubic. She's the president and CEO of the Southeast Rural Community Assistance
00:06:32:17 Project, where organization provides training, technical assistance and other resources to help rule in tribal communities across seven states, address water, community development needs and housing and housing needs. Next, we have Billy Terry. He serves as the director of the National Transit Institute at Rutgers University, which provides education training programs for public transit workers. He has extensive experience and transit operation and policy, having worked
00:07:02:27 for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
00:07:09:25 [Speaker 1]: Next, we have Jason Walsh. He is the executive director of the BlueGreen audience, where he advocates for a more sustainable. We advocate for more sustainable economic future, launches more than 20 years of experience in policy development and advocacy in a range of issues, including climate, clean energy and economic and workforce development. Let's pretend to give a virtual applies to everyone I know to be here.
00:07:37:27 And I just need to thank all of you for joining me today. It's speaking with us today. So for the audience, I have a few questions prepared and I'm excited to get this going. For those of you tuning in, you'll be taking audience questions towards the end. I encourage you to use a wide chair tune available to you. And we'll be Agent Senior submitted questions. You can also submit questions via Twitter using the hashtag Keesey life.
00:08:07:28 Or you can tweet us. Our Twitter handle is at VPC. Underscore. Can get started? Hope I'm to start with you. That's OK.
00:08:20:10 [Speaker 2]: Can you each take a couple of minutes to explain your perspective? Experiences of working on infrastructure workforce is workforce issues. Yes, from my perspective, functioning critical infrastructure is imperative as it relates to water and wastewater, homeownership and lending services. CAP is a member of the AACAP National Network and I Network provides
00:08:47:28 technical assistance and training throughout our service area. We want to ensure that we properly address infrastructure workforce issues because we've been dealing with those for so many years now.
00:08:59:03 [Speaker 2]: Our technical assistance providers work with small rural water systems, one workforce issue that we often see as a shortage of licensed operators. And this has may have become worse by several different dynamics in all areas typically not experienced by larger communities. The one thing that we always see is declining populations. This leads not only to a lack of licensed utility operators, but also a
00:09:26:09 shrinkage of the pool of qualified individuals to work in the field. We also see poor business practices. Many small utilities don't believe in raising rates. There's a difference between understand what it cost to run a system versus what you need to actually get the revenue to operate the system. So that has cost them political, you know, pain for some some systems that they're operating at a very reduced utility rate, which causes low wages for their or their staff.
00:09:59:06 And let's talk about lower wages. So when a rural utility hires new workers and gets those folks hired up, you know, it's very tempting to go work for a larger system that's going to pay you Morcos because people have to take care of their families. So we need to make sure that we pay and pay a wage where we can keep these folks, especially in the rural areas, tribal areas and, you know, other marginalized areas that need water service. So I support what we're doing to help workforce development and and to help
00:10:30:05 with that as we're working with Spring Point partners to get a pipeline of people out there to get into the water and wastewater field.
00:10:38:08 [Speaker 2]: We're hoping to attract people, especially young folks, to get them engaged. Thank you. Thank you.
00:10:46:24 [Speaker 1]: Billy.
00:10:49:20 [Speaker 3]: Well, thank you. Good morning, everyone. I've been fortunate to have experience across a range of the sort of transportation diaspora. I can see now transportation is is very broad, but most of my experience has been in the transit aspect of transportation. As you know, we have highway maritime aviation are all under the larger banner of transportation. But my my experience that's predominantly been in the transit industry and
00:11:21:00 in the transit industry. Part of the challenge are a little known secret is there's a variety of workforce issues within the transit agency, large or small. I think when most people think about public transportation, clearly they think of the bus or the train and the operators, the wonderful men and women who drive that rolling stock, those buses and trains. But there are a host of other workforce development issues. In addition to the operators, you certainly have the maintainers, the
00:11:52:24 people who take care of the buses and the trains and the paratransit vehicles. But then you have people in the finance arena. You have lawyers, you have engineers who work on the track. So there's a wide variety of occupations and special. He's within the transit arena like many other industries. We are seeing a silver Senaki and so now we're the transit industry is
00:12:20:05 trying to communicate, has been trying to communicate that to transit industry is a viable industry for lawyers for finance.
00:12:29:23 [Speaker 3]: People also had the pleasure of working for the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, which is in many ways operates a little bit like a state DOJ team and be miscible Department of Transportation responsible for parking meters and streets and alleys and trees in the public space. And then once again, you have a wide variety of workforce development
00:12:52:19 issues, from arborist to paving and witling to planners. So a very, very wide variety of occupations when we think of of infrastructure. Who would who would ever thought that an arborist is critical to infrastructure? Right. But there are trees in our public way are part infrastructure, amedee urban and non urban areas. So I've been really fortunate to have an opportunity maylee on the legislative and policy arena, but to work on a number of issues in transportation.
00:13:28:21 Again, particularly in transit. So I really look forward to talking about how this Kobuk 19 pandemic has impacted the ability for us, for transit agencies and state deal teams and municipalities who operate transit have been you.
00:13:47:24 [Speaker 1]: How are you? Jason.
00:13:51:12 [Speaker 4]: Thanks, Marone. Good morning, everybody. So a little bit of context. The BlueGreen Alliance is a national partnership of seven labor unions and six environmental organizations are guiding. Principle is that Americans don't have to choose between good jobs and it's new environment. They can have both and they have to have the goal of our infrastructure. Work is consistent. And it's really twofold. We want to invest in building a more modern resilience and sustainable
00:14:22:20 infrastructure that will also create high quality family sustaining jobs and result in public health and environmental benefits far, far into the future.
00:14:34:14 [Speaker 4]: This pandemic has highlighted just how inadequate we've been, dangerous the current state of our infrastructure is, with too many Americans unable to rely on basic necessities like clean water when they need it most. Additionally, we've seen just how fragile the livelihoods of many workers are, to many of whom live paycheck to paycheck.
00:15:02:29 And these two problems are interwoven. And should be addressed in tandem with smart investments and legislation that has strong standards embedded in it. So with more than 40 million Americans filing for unemployment benefits, with an infrastructure system that consistently gets a D plus grade from the American Society for Civil Engineers, we should really be viewing public investment in infrastructure as an unparalleled driver for economic
00:15:35:09 stimulus and job growth, which we badly need. And if that is done smartly, it can make this country cleaner and more resilient in the face of catastrophes like this pandemic or natural disasters, which are increasing in frequency and power due to climate change and through a workforce lens. Public investment in infrastructure can also be used to create on ramps into construction, careers and other careers and jobs, in particular for
00:16:04:13 unemployed and disadvantaged workers. So there are well recognized policy levers that enable this from project labor agreements to community benefits. The local hiring. Right. So so that people who who live in communities where infrastructure projects are developed can actually benefit directly from those projects. And then the utilization of of pre apprenticeship to apprenticeship program pathways and certainly the construction center that the best of those are
00:16:35:16 registered apprenticeship programs that are jointly run by by building trades unions.
00:16:40:04 [Speaker 4]: And there they're signatory employers. I'll stop there for now.
00:16:45:18 [Speaker 1]: Well, we look forward to hearing more, Jason. Thank you, guys. So to my next quick, we've talked about it now. There's the universe issues. And I've been for your reports. You've talked about inadequate infrastructure and investments. So I guess I just want to know. Are these the same pressing challenges facing essential workers at the outset of the covered 19 pandemic? And are these going to be the same challenges as people are going as we're
00:17:15:21 opening up our economy, going back to work? Or are there other challenges that we're not really familiar with that have been exasperated since Koban 19? So I wanted to start with. You believe that's OK?
00:17:29:12 [Speaker 3]: I think that certainly first of all, thank you. The challenge of enhancing the workforce of public transport workers, I think is ongoing. Certainly pre Kovik 19. The inability to train and bring on new folks, even though this is a short period of time, feels like forever, though, for these past few months. But I would imagine that we will still see challenges in training.
00:17:59:04 Let me give you an example. My organization, the National Transit Institute, that's essentially what we do. Don't go across the country providing classroom style training to transit agency staff, to state dhoti workers, to staff of metropolitan planning organization on a wide variety of issues related to public transportation. I would imagine there will be some time before we can implement our full contingent of classroom style training across the country, given that
00:18:29:29 pandemic.
00:18:30:19 [Speaker 3]: So I think that that the notion of training well has been and will continue to be an issue even more so post a pandemic. I think the underfunding of providing transit service has again, as always, been an issue. Transit services is essentially a public service, you know, and it's a public service that requires subsidy.
00:18:57:15 Just like your garbage pick up, just like your fire and in E.M.S. services. And so funding it has always been a challenge. Pre at 19 is certainly postcode 19. I do think that uniqueness of this pandemic that we're dealing with is impacts on ridership. Over the past several years, we have been seeing dips overall in the aggregate and public transportation, whether that be because people are moving into the inner cities, we see a lot of places that are doing tella
00:19:33:20 commuting again, pre Kovik 19. There been a number of impacts on public transportation ridership and certainly post the pandemic of our hope as an industry will gradually see people return back to public transportation. But again, we will be facing issues of protecting riders. We will be facing issues of protecting operators. We certainly will not be able to operate at full capacity on our buses and
00:20:02:20 trains as as we adhere to social social distancing. So I would say that the funding issues, the training issues and the ridership issues are certainly exacerbated back Kovac 19. But we're certainly issues that the industry was facing prior to go to.
00:20:22:19 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Bill. Jason, same question for you.
00:20:28:17 [Speaker 4]: So I what I want to stress is, is that the actions we need to take as a country to reopen our economy. And get it moving again are inseparable from the actions that we need to take to keep workers healthy and safe on the job. A leader of one of our labor partners, the Utility Workers Union, which represents workers among natural gas and power utilities, has likened going
00:21:03:14 to people's homes to fix utility problems, which their members have done on a daily basis since this crisis started. As walking through a minefield. And tragically, many, many of them stepped on mines. So 13 members of just this one union have died from covered in in the line of duty. So with with states opening back up and and more workers headed back to
00:21:29:23 work, the problem's only going to get worse. The Trump Isman administration, unfortunately, has made it clear that health and safety for essential workers is of little concern to them. This is not conjecture on my part. It's clearly evident from the actions this administration has taken and not taken. Rather than issuing a temporary emergency standard, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued voluntary guidance to employers for keeping their workers healthy in the face of this virus, which is
00:22:00:11 non-enforceable by design. And instead of using the Defense Production Act as it should be used, which is to ensure that U.S. manufacturers produce the PPE that are frontline and essential workers need.
00:22:11:17 [Speaker 4]: This administration has instead forced it to use it to force workers back into unsafe conditions and meatpacking plants of the 25 counties in the U.S. with the highest number of confirmed cases of corona virus per capita. Thirteen have outbreaks concentrated in meatpacking meatpacking plants. So to our minds, this issue of occupational worker health and safety is absolutely critical.
00:22:35:25 [Speaker 2]: Is it? Boom. Wow. I mean, as I listened to Jason Billy, I think about our own industry, the water and wastewater field. Oh, my. All I could say is that the most pressing challenges facing essential workers is the three of not knowing what to expect. There is a sense of uncertainty, you know, among the workers and the possibility of getting exposed to the virus and being taken it home to your family and loved ones best.
00:23:04:27 That has to be a lot of stress. And we, you know, employers, our government, we must acknowledge that workers health and safety is first and foremost. We must ensure that we have access to personal protective equipment. And also, we must educate workers on how to, you know, properly navigate these new paid sick leave laws. These are new laws that were actually put in place to help them and to protect them. But we let we have to let them know their rights under those and allow them
00:23:32:27 to use what is there available for a lead? An obstacle that I see, especially in the utility field, is the fact that workers are doing and with public perception.
00:23:43:22 [Speaker 2]: The public is constantly asking, is the water safe to drink? Well, yes, there are systems in place to make sure that the water is safe to drink.
00:23:51:17 [Speaker 3]: However, a real indicator on how, you know, active or vibrant or the virus is going down is what's in the wastewater.
00:24:02:01 [Speaker 2]: We have seen where that's an indicator of what's in the community. If you see more instances of it being present in the water, the less you know what's happening in the community. If you see it going day on day, you know that the cases are going down, but that they in a sense, if they can be, you know, research and test the wastewater to see what's happened and they could be like what you call a line of defense to signal to the community about and come aware about and
00:24:30:17 alert us about the potential of the virus, Britain. And one last point that I want to mention, though, workers and the waste in the water industry are eligible for retirement.
00:24:41:13 [Speaker 4]: I think Billy announced that, especially for his field.
00:24:45:24 [Speaker 2]: So there is an urgent need to hire, train and retain younger and more diverse talent in in this field. We need skilled workers as certified operators and as people return to work and businesses reopen the increase by the potential of the virus spread. And this is there and the exposure is there. So everyone must adhere or, you know, to some degree of practicing social distancing and using the PPE to protect you.
00:25:13:22 [Speaker 2]: We want to protect all the back essential workers. So this is more critical to help us with the threat of. Thank you.
00:25:26:20 [Speaker 1]: So you mentioned hope about some paid leave policies, right? Which kind of wants to bring up something that we've all been seeing? Right. Cairn's act, what Congress has been passing to protect workers, families and all that. So from paid leave to hazard pay to new work or workplace regulations for social distancing. Whereas Congress for all of you last Congress stepped up.
00:25:55:11 Where has it fallen short in its attempt to respond to this crisis? And Jason, I hope you can answer this question first.
00:26:02:16 [Speaker 4]: Thanks, Don.
00:26:06:20 [Speaker 1]: You're very welcome.
00:26:09:01 [Speaker 4]: So you mentioned the bipartisan Keres Act were on start. It provided badly needed support for workers by making smart investments. Right to keep workers safe on the job and keep those who were left unemployed afloat a little bit longer? House Democrats took further action. I think we all know by by passing the Heroes Act, which address many of the outstanding issues that we're seeing on the ground right now, including
00:26:44:04 requiring Oshiro to issue a temporary emergency standards I talked about earlier, fully utilizing the Defense Production Act to get workers to the people they need to stay safe, expanding unemployment insurance and paid sick leave and delivering critical support to local governments and schools, which are really hurting right now. There are still crucial pieces of the puzzle missing. So, for example, the Heroes Act and the Ocean Emergency Standard, it did
00:27:14:06 not include an analogous requirement for the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which covers all miners in this country who are among the most vulnerable to respiratory illnesses, given the kind of work that they do and given that so many of them already suffering from black lung disease?
00:27:31:29 [Speaker 4]: Unfortunately, the Senate has not yet taken up the heroes legislation that the Senate majority leader has said. We need to wait and see how things go to the extent he has shown any interest in any legislative response. It is, too. It is attempting to shield companies from responsibility for exposing their workers to illness instead of trying to keep workers safe and investing in saving and creating jobs, which to our minds, even by the low standards of
00:28:02:00 our current politics, is just deeply wrong. I think that the biggest missing piece right now is the Congress. Both chambers still need to craft and pass economic stimulus legislation. We can both attend to immediate economic relief, but also start doing what we need to do for the medium and long term. And we need to start now. I mean, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that our economy will
00:28:28:04 shrink by nearly a trillion dollars as a consequence of this pandemic. So we need to see that kind of legislation pulled together. And is and as we've been talking about on this call, infrastructure is one of the best ways to stimulate the economy.
00:28:45:18 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Jason. They said that, you know, I also know that Congress has stepped up in offering basic protections for people, you know, impacted by this crisis, but much more needs to be done, especially for our workers that are the frontline workers.
00:29:04:13 [Speaker 2]: And one obvious shortfall is the lack of testing. There is a need to make sure we have adequate testing being conducted to stay ahead of this crisis.
00:29:13:23 [Speaker 2]: It has been really hard, especially for me, when I have seven states and one or two states are declining in cases being reported and then three or four are increased. And how do you manage that? How do you keep your workers safe and help the community be safe? This is well and not another shortfall is access to health care during this crisis. This is still a major issue. Ambitious concern, everyone, because if you have an American citizen who doesn't have health care, but they still have to go to work, whether do you
00:29:44:08 think they're going to do they're going to go to work and then they're going to potentially get other sick. But if they had access to leave and sick leave and could stay home a bit better then than that, we'll have a better outcome. We also have the potential that if a person does get sick, especially in a small rural water plant where you have two, maybe three workers, if one person gets sick and, you know, you already reduced to workforce because
00:30:12:01 you have to stay home for 14 days. So small communities and rural water utilities, they need additional support not only for the short term to compress the long term recovery. As you know, Jason just stated, this is gonna to be a huge impact. They already have cash flow issues and customers are not able to pay their utility bills. That's a major concern. And utilities are already operating on a bare minimum.
00:30:39:01 [Speaker 2]: But even before this pandemic. So their revenue streams have also, you know, further reduced. And I would like to see Congress out with that. We must pay these workers better. So we need to raise the rates so that we can pay our employees.
00:30:53:03 [Speaker 3]: Just let me say this, but this current global health crisis is a reminder of how we are all interconnected. We all are. And how our collective health and well-being are thoroughly interdependent. So Congress has, you know, fallen short on making sure all Americans have access to health care and economic relief, especially our Low-Income Workers. Thank you.
00:31:19:11 [Speaker 1]: Thank you. Well, I certainly think that the Keres Act was a vital step in providing relief to the transit industry.
00:31:31:20 [Speaker 3]: The CARES Act offered to transit industry roughly twenty five billion dollars in assistance. That money is being allocated through existing programs, which I think definitely is a plus there. You already have these existing channels where transit agencies are used to those programs and that twenty five billion dollars will be funded through those existing programs. But I think some of the key points for the Caires Act in aiding the transit
00:32:01:00 industry is providing operating costs. But typically, the Federal Transit Administration provides funding for transit agencies, but that those moneys are predominantly for capital costs. With the Caires Act does, it provides resources for transit agencies for operating costs, distinct difference between operating costs and cap cap capital costs in and for the Keres Act to be able to provide large agencies, medium size agencies, small agencies, specifically what resources
00:32:35:23 to help them with operating the cost of fuel, the salaries of operators, et cetera, et cetera.
00:32:42:08 [Speaker 3]: And there's no limit as to how much a transit agency can use that care's act money for operating costs. Secondly, as was mentioned of those resources from the CARES Act will provide vital, vital funding to provide PPE for transit workers, for the operators, for the mechanics, for road supervisors, people, frontline workers who come in contact with riders.
00:33:09:15 So the utilization of those resources to purchase PPE is critical. Also, as it was also mentioned, that the moneys from the Kahrizak will allow transit agencies to pay salaries of of operations personnel on administrative leave. Right. So if you have to sit some people down, if someone has a presumptive positive testing for at 19 and that person's out, Kahrizak resources can pay those persons salary. The other thing is, is that the Kirs Act funding for transit entities is
00:33:41:20 one hundred percent federal share. Typically, Federal Transit Administration dollars or 80, 20, sometimes in some instances, 90, 10. But this money is federal share, which means there's no local match. You can use all of those Kahrizak resources for the PPE, administrative leave, etc., etc.. So you have a number of transit agencies in an attempt to allow people to use their systems, have waived fares.
00:34:12:00 So there, in fact, is a loss of revenue. And again, Keres X money will allow transit agencies to to supplement their revenues because of the loss of revenue. Not only because of reduced ridership, but possibly B, for waiving waiving fares.
00:34:28:24 [Speaker 3]: I don't have much commentary on the Heroes Act other than I certainly think it is additive to the great work that Congress has done with the Kahrizak. But that certainly in the midst of the legislative process. So I think that's sort of a bit of like, you know, taking score at halftime. I think there's definitely much work to be done not only in the Senate, but ultimately if the Senate passes legislation to see things come back in
00:34:58:15 conference committee. I would encourage those who are interested in the impacts of the Kahrizak and what the House has done with the Heroes Act to visit the website of the USDOT? There's a whole Kovik 19 page. I would also encourage you to visit the website of the American Public Transportation Association and the Community Transit Association of America to Trade Associations for the transit agency has done a great job of informing the public, informing the transit industry about the impacts of
00:35:32:29 Cauvin 19 and have some great summaries on both the Kahrizak legislation and the Heroes Act legislation passed by the Senate.
00:35:42:01 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Billy. Really appreciate all that information, this kind of leads me to then my next question. So we talked about Jason mentioned the Heroes Fund. We talked about with hope, some basic protections in place. I want to know, as Congress is weighing on, you know, some highway reauthorization bills, water resource Melbournian and water assistance being discussed on the Hill. And, of course, broader infrastructure, stimulus bills.
00:36:12:00 [Speaker 1]: So going up what we were just talking about, what would you all like to see both to what would you like to see in the future in legislation to both protect workers through the crisis, but also, you know, investing in building the new younger generation and skilled workers? And I would start with you.
00:36:35:10 [Speaker 2]: OK, sure. Thanks. Thank you, Mahlon. I would like to see protection for workers through the crisis by. Yes, definitely invest in and building a pipeline of young skilled workers. We need to ensure that these young workers have strong math and writing skills because we're seeing that as a challenge, especially in my line of work. So education is key. We also should assist or adopt a water right protection program for struggling, struggling utilities and provide low income ratepayer support,
00:37:05:23 you know, similar to the Lahe program that helps customers with their their heating and home needs there. We also need to limit doing this crisis, guarantee coverage of medical expenses. As I stated before, we made it to cover to cover it. This should not expire in December. This is something that should be extended and maybe stay in place, provide job protections for workers who fear returning to work. Many people are fearful of returning to work because they don't want to
00:37:38:09 become vulnerable, especially those who have underlying conditions? So we need to make those workers feel protected. The pipeline. Now, we don't really know the answer to this and to issues like salary are addressed.
00:37:52:17 [Speaker 2]: We need to attract new workers. That would be difficult. People do not see the water and wastewater field is appealing. So we need to educate the public about why this job is important and working in this field, maybe incorporating a water wastewater track in trades and technical education. I would like to see the schools, you know, offer trading again and also in community colleges for those who are not pursuing four year degrees right away? And one thing that I would like to see are for all skill set programs to be
00:38:25:07 reintroduced in the school systems. One motivation, boy, essential workers to adopt a program where older workers, you know, are given an incentive to stay on longer and pass their knowledge to others who are willing to listen and learn? And I think that will be very important. And of course, financial investments are always key. Thank you. Thank you.
00:38:50:08 [Speaker 1]: How about you, Billy?
00:38:53:28 [Speaker 3]: Well, I certainly would imagine that as we consider a new authorization bill, us in the transit industry shied away from calling it the highway bill. But would we? The new surface transportation authorization bills, we all know expires this September. So we are certainly on the on the clock. I would imagine that there will be some elements of the Keres Act and quite
00:39:22:27 possibly the Heroes Act. If that legislation ultimately is passed or some form of it, it's very controversial in the industry. The amount of federal money funds that are used for operating, I think that Congress really had no choice but to allow for operating dollars to be used by transit aces.
00:39:44:22 [Speaker 3]: Given the pandemic. But I think as a long term strategy, that will be interesting to see that there are many members of Congress who believe that the operating costs of trying to HD very much should be borne by the localities. And there are some of us who necessarily believe that. But that'll be interesting to see if that is the element that transfers from the Keres Act to a surface transportation authorization bill. Again, that the wider utilization of federal funds for operating, certainly
00:40:17:00 we would love to see a heightened level of dollars overall for capital when operating. But one of the things that is critical is training. We have seen the the House majority roll out its bill. It is called the Invest Act, which is their first volley of a new surface transportation authorization bill.
00:40:41:02 I encourage people to take a look at it on the House TNR committee. Mr. DeFazio is the chairman. And one of the things that is in the best act are increased funding for training. I want to be very careful because I don't want to have a motion infomercial here about my organization. But there are certainly continue funding for the National Transit Institute, who for some twenty nine years says providing training on the administrative side of transit. But there's also resources to the tune of 12 million dollars a year for a
00:41:13:18 brand new program that's focused on frontline worker training. And Jason, I think you'll be proud to hear that many in the transit industry are very, very much environmentally focused.
00:41:27:03 [Speaker 3]: And one of the things that's happening in the transit industry is the shift to cleaner fuel, rolling stock, electric electric buses, hybrid buses. And so what that means is that we have to train a new generation of maintenance workers and technicians to adequately maintain those new buses. God bless that individual who works for the Chicago Transit Authority for 30 years as a mechanic working on diesel buses.
00:41:53:06 Now, all of a sudden, that transit agency buys 100 electric buses. How do we transition that worker to be able to service these newer technology vehicles? So certainly, I think increase operating and capital funding, we hope, translates into a surface transportation bill and certainly increased funding for training. And then the very last point that I would make, it is critically, critically important that our next surface transportation bill provide increased funding for research, particularly the Transportation Cooperative
00:42:31:03 Research Program to CERP, which a part of. And I cannot stress how critical it is that the next bill funds the opportunity for research as we move transited into its next generation of service.
00:42:47:02 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Billy. Jason.
00:42:50:20 [Speaker 4]: Look, let me just acknowledged what Billy said. Yeah, we totally agree with you. Public transit is up. Oh, sorry. OK. It's me now. Sorry I had to move to my daughter's bedroom, so I was trying to spare you the view of her stuffed animals. So I'm just kind of on a very professional role here throughout this entire webinar.
00:43:20:10 [Speaker 4]: Oh, so, yes, public transfer transit is, as far as we're concerned, is is absolutely central to building a more sustainable lower carbon economy in terms of. What more we'd like to see from from Congress as it as it weighs, these are different pieces of infrastructure legislation and I should be clear? The House in particular has done a good job of this so far. But we just want to make sure that as we rebuild our infrastructure, we are
00:43:54:10 making sure that we're doing all that we can to make the jobs that are created high quality jobs. And to do that requires some intentionality. Right. First, I'll just say we've got to protect workers. Right, to organize in the union, which we don't do a good enough job of in this country. We also have to ensure that any legislation includes strong procurement and labor standards.
00:44:20:06 So by procurement, I mean standards like buy American provisions. Right. Which ensure that infrastructure investments support American jobs throughout the supply chain, which makes total sense as as policy is very, very popular with both Republicans and Democrats? I mean, arguably, as important as making the investments in our infrastructure is how we can make them and what kind of jobs they create. And the way that infrastructure investments are made can significantly
00:44:51:23 influence how they impact communities and the quality of the jobs that are supported. So I've mentioned a couple of policy levers at the top. I'll mention a few more prevailing wage provisions are critical, particularly in the construction sector.
00:45:10:25 [Speaker 4]: I mentioned local higher requirements. Project labor agreements are essentially master agreements on big construction projects between contractors and the different graphic craft unions that that actually build the work and can have very concrete community benefit, many benefits attached to those agreements that include a pipeline developing a pipeline of workers, often from the local areas where these projects are being built into not just the jobs doing the work,
00:45:41:21 but into career jobs. Right. And and that is that that's the pathway there is pretty well established pre apprenticeship to apprenticeship and then on a journey person status. So those are the kind of provisions that we are working on. In addition to making sure that we're just making those investments, making sure that those investments result in and the right kind of outcomes from from a good quality and community benefit standpoint.
00:46:11:11 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Jason. I want to ask one more. We cannot. I'm sorry, guys.
00:46:17:15 [Speaker 3]: I just I just wanted to just make two two quick points out of one to. Be strategic with my words here. I agree with you, Jason, that as a nation across all sectors, creating high quality, high paying jobs, that our country is is a priority. But I just would offer an addendum regarding by America as as as a lobbyist who was who was going on Capitol Hill having conversations with our policy
00:46:50:25 makers about by America? I would humbly assert that it is a it is an incomplete conversation to talk about by America and enhancing domestic content if we are not simultaneously having a conversation about enhancing our domestic manufacturing footprint, particularly as it relates to the production of rolling stock in in you know, for example, there is there is one heavy duty
00:47:24:28 engine manufacturer in the United States.
00:47:27:14 [Speaker 3]: There's one. Right. And so if we're going to begin to have the discussion, if we're going to continue discussion about enhancing by America, we have to have that simultaneous discussion about what we must do as a nation to to enhance and bring back manufacturing in this in this country. Because the reality is that from a transit agency, when you have a very, very narrow choice of of manufacturers, you either have to buy it overseas
00:47:58:28 or increases the costs of whatever your your your purchasing. So this is one point that I wanted to make. And the second point that I wanted to make, there was a question about education in our in our infrastructure workforce. And that is, in fact a challenge. You know, I believe that my organization, A.I., and there are many other organizations who provide, quote unquote, training and education. Our sister agencies, the National Highway Institute, Transportation Safety
00:48:27:21 Institute, are wonderful organizations that provide training to transit how way in other transportation workers. But the but the notion of, let's say, a mid-level manager who has children and a single parent and they want to move up from mid-level management to senior level management, and they must do so when they're off the clock, that that is, in fact a challenge? I see many transit agencies across the country who are providing tuition
00:48:56:20 reimbursement, flexible schedules, et cetera, et cetera? But I do believe that if we want to provide opportunities, particularly for women and minorities, to move up in the ranks of their particular agencies, transit, otherwise they focus on education and allowing people to enhance themselves is is critical.
00:49:18:13 [Speaker 4]: Can I, as a point of order, enthusiastically accept Billy's friendly amendment to what I said about by America, though? And just to be clear to you, Billy entered into the audience. The only reason I'm not talking as much about manufacturing is is is because of the focus of this call. We do a ton of work on manufacturing. Billy's Diner by America is not enough.
00:49:42:11 [Speaker 1]: We also have to be broadening and deepening our manufacturing base.
00:49:48:13 [Speaker 4]: Billy mentioned rolling stock there. There are a bunch of areas where we need to be doing this. I mean, I think one of the. One of the very interesting lessons, I hope, from this disaster we're in the middle of is getting a pretty clear understanding of what it means to lose supply chains for vital materials and products. I mean, the disaster of not being able to procure personal protective
00:50:18:12 equipment. And having governors, you know, try to outbid each other to get an order from China is insane. And it has enormous human and economic consequences. So so, yes, investment and in in infrastructure investment, in retooling and rebuilding our manufacturing base go hand-in-hand.
00:50:43:22 [Speaker 1]: Thank you for raising that, if you, Jason, for accepting his amendment, really appreciate it.
00:50:50:11 [Speaker 3]: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:50:53:15 [Speaker 1]: I do have one last question and then I want to go to the audience. Of course, some hope. I'll start with you. We've talked about how utilities have to have are trying their best to, you know, adhere to state orders, which is a distant sea.
00:51:09:04 [Speaker 1]: But at the same time, they have to do their jobs and to do their jobs, they have to go out there. So as we're hearing in the news, in the new normal right, including decency is folks is we're going back to work and helping our economy. How have public agencies and private utilities managing these liabilities for workers who contract to be? But how have they been managing those liabilities?
00:51:38:08 And do you think Congress needs to step more or has he stepped in?
00:51:45:26 [Speaker 2]: So for us, as far as managing the liabilities for staff who, you know, have come in contact or have actually been exposed, we exile all of our workers to definitely, you know, do not no one come to the office. But if they do come to the office, we we also have asked them to, you know, self quarantine to stop the spread. We don't want it to impact out our operations, as you know, if it's if it's a major concern.
00:52:13:15 We'll have to shut down and stop operating. And that's not a thing we want to do. So so that's how we are managing it. We also, as far as the recruitment process, we have actually still hired people through this pandemic. Of course, all of that is online. We do that virtually. We offer all of our staff a kit of PPE kids that they can carry with them and keep in their offices. And we've also, as far as managing camp communication plans, put in place to let them know how to come back to work, how they're supposed to conduct
00:52:48:14 themselves in, and the proper procedures to follow, to keep everything clean and disinfected and to keep the spread it down in and out.
00:52:59:02 [Speaker 2]: You know, our cabin network, we we do offer a lot of training. So I would say that for us go on out into the general public, the rural areas, also to train the boards and utility managers about how to help their workers. You know, there's a big stink about whether you should wear a face covering or not. And we need to educate them on why that's important. You know, that does help. As the numbers decline, we see that it is important to to to practice the things that have been told us have been communicated to us, especially from
00:53:32:10 the CDC as far as Congress. I don't believe they need to step in. They just need to provide a mapping and provide more guidance and have a clear, you know, path for us as citizens to know what we're supposed to do and passing conflicting messages. And I think that's where it was hurt in the country as far as what we want to do, as far as how to protect ourselves. So when I say that, I think also we need to make sure that the the items
00:54:02:13 are affordable. We're seeing price gouging and people can afford things even to this day protect themselves. We can't find items like that purchase items. And unfortunately, they've come from China, which, you know, we would like to buy local red. But everything, I think, Jason, and really say that manufacturing something as simple as making the math happen, as simple as having alcohol and hand sanitizer within all that stuff being shipped here from from China, export
00:54:30:20 for us.
00:54:31:23 [Speaker 2]: The other way to what we're doing to help with the liability is a half people come into the office in staggering stages that way. No. Not everyone is in the office and we're still offering if you can work from home. I think that helps as well. And we're learning now working from home really does work. You know, it's a lot of what you have to be in office. But no, you can still work from home. We have shown that we can be productive and still keep everything running by working from home.
00:55:03:12 [Speaker 1]: Thank you. Hope you quickly and then, Jason, we can get to our audience.
00:55:12:13 [Speaker 3]: I repeat the question, Mara.
00:55:15:20 [Speaker 1]: Yeah, sure.
00:55:17:09 [Speaker 3]: I want to know how our public agencies and private utilities, though, in your experience, transit, have been managing the liabilities for workers who contract coal at 19. And do you think Congress needs to step in when it comes to liability concerns? Well, I think I don't know. Meningie is an interesting verb. Certainly a number of transit agencies across the country have have are
00:55:48:23 doing testing. There certainly somewhat of a controversy about temperature taking, as we all know that you can be non symptomatic and still spread the virus. Certainly, transit agencies have implemented to the best of their ability social distancing methods within the workplace there. There is a workplace for transit agency like bus shards, rail yards, other
00:56:17:22 administrative facilities. And so I think they've they certainly have been been doing their best.
00:56:24:29 [Speaker 3]: I do, as I sort of think out loud when we have this discussion about managing the liability of somebody using your service and potentially contracting the virus, whether they be a rider or a worker. I just think it's a much, much broader conversation that we have to have in this country. You know, somehow if you are in a restaurant and you contract it, is the restaurant liable if you are? I mean, there I think that we're dealing with something now that is it is
00:57:01:24 historic in many ways and in that line between what we have to legislate and how we have to educate, hope, make the point about educating people, about wearing mask or face coverings. And so I apologize. I'm giving you my lobbyist answer here simply because I think that this national dialogue that we have to have, you know, you specifically use the
00:57:27:17 word liability, right. Which I think is appropriate? But this notion of I am liable in the midst of this pandemic if you come to work, I am liable as a business owner would if you come to renew your business license at city hall writing your waiting in line. So I'd just say I don't want to belabor the point, but I just think that
00:57:53:01 we're at a place now where we are all vulnerable. Right. And that vulnerability, does that vulnerability equal liability. And I think that that's a very, very broad discussion that we have to have as a nation.
00:58:10:01 [Speaker 3]: And then ultimately, does that discussion translate into legislation that says that you will be liable if someone contracts it in the course of consuming or participating in something that you sponsor as a business, as a public sector entity, et cetera, et cetera? I think that's a broad question that we still have to to answer as a nation.
00:58:32:22 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Billy. What about you, Jason?
00:58:35:24 [Speaker 4]: This is a this is a hard topic to talk about briefly.
00:58:38:28 [Speaker 1]: So we have time for Q&A.
00:58:42:05 [Speaker 4]: Let me just briefly say that what I think is not a inadequate solution is providing employers with legal immunity from workers who can who contract the virus because their employer is not letting them wash their hands or maintaining adequate social distance or developing protocols that protect them from infection? The proposals I've seen rests on this notion that as long as employers make
00:59:15:14 a good faith effort, they should be immune legally and that that is deeply inadequate, particularly when when a good faith effort is based on voluntary guidance. To go back to the point I was making earlier that OSHA is putting out. If it were based on a national standard that requires employers who develop
00:59:38:22 infection control protocols, then it's a different conversation.
00:59:44:20 [Speaker 2]: Thank you, Jason.
00:59:46:13 [Speaker 1]: All right, so we've got a ton of great discussion so far, and I think we have some audience questions. So Bruce Anderson asks on YouTube, is there any research that covers transportation and utility cooperatives and and the compensation, safety and employee retention experience?
01:00:09:21 [Speaker 1]: You to get help, please.
01:00:13:21 [Speaker 2]: I would just say that there are cooperatives, but not to the point where compensation is making any difference. You know, that's more about access. Well, what I've seen I haven't seen a thing about compensation. Conversation across the board has pretty much been pretty low in some instances. So I would like to see that improved. Billy. No, I'm maybe I'm struggling a bit regarding the question is research that covers transportation and tillet cooperatives and that compensation's, that
01:00:48:08 was a lot in there. Maybe I'm mis interpreting the question. I'll just briefly respond by saying that there is a tremendous of a partnership between transportation entities, mainly transit agencies and utility entities. As again, as sea see shifts to things like fuel cell buses, compressed
01:01:15:05 natural gas buses, liquefied natural gas buses, electric buses, and those partnerships that have to be had with energy and utility providers. We see a number of best practices in those partnerships and related to employee retention experience. I will sort of hearken back to some of the innovative things that transit agencies are doing to provide education on a job training to provide
01:01:45:29 supplementary programs like mentoring programs and then also tuition reimbursement, flexible schedules. If and if you think about it, if you give and I would imagine this is the same across sectors, if you give someone an opportunity to advance in his or her a job in occupations and within their employer, I would.
01:02:11:07 [Speaker 2]: I can't think of any stronger employee retention program is to give a person an opportunity to makes.
01:02:21:26 [Speaker 4]: J.C., want to take the owner, want to go to the next question. What they said? One more question. Zach Valdez asks. Asks on YouTube, What is the role of traditional versus advanced manufacturing in strengthening our central infrastructure workforce? Follow up. Can you discuss the importance of childcare and education within a central infrastructure workforce framework's?
01:02:54:00 These questions have a lot packed into them.
01:03:00:16 [Speaker 3]: And, you know, I think some of this depends on how you define traditional versus advanced manufacturing. Certainly.
01:03:08:22 [Speaker 4]: And I will defer to my colleagues here who are more practitioners than I am? I know both require pretty significant skills training. I, I think in both traditional manufacturing and in advanced magnet manufacturing, certainly you're seeing a far greater need for information technology skills. So, you know, for ACNC operators, for I mean, a lot of this stuff is increasingly computer based.
01:03:39:01 But beyond those comments, I don't have a lot to offer.
01:03:48:07 [Speaker 3]: Now, I want to say in a general, I think manufacturing and just a number of even what we traditionally have been blue collar and something I like to call baby blue collar. Right. A mix between white collar and blue collar. We we see the necessity for technological skills. We see mechanics having to enter work orders on our pads. We see. So I would just say in general, not necessarily manufacturing, but I do see a technological enhancement from people at all skill levels in order to
01:04:21:17 perform his or her duties.
01:04:25:24 [Speaker 4]: I bet you hope.
01:04:29:08 [Speaker 2]: Manufacturing is not, you know, what I'd deal with. But I will say just No one that what we need. We do need more manufacturing here in this country so that we can get what we need on time. I am very disappointed at the fact and knowing this, what this virus has brought to my attention is how dependent we are on other countries for things that we need, basic things that we need. So and also the importance of childcare. If you want to help folks who are, you know, trying to increase their skill
01:05:02:08 set and get a better job, or you need to provide that child care. And that's something that also is just not there. We have to have that so that people can go back to school, increase their skill sets and get a better job, take care of their family. A lot of that we see. That's what keeping what is keeping people from, you know, getting better opportunities?
01:05:25:02 [Speaker 4]: Thank you so much.
01:05:27:20 [Speaker 1]: I want to say something about employee townsite, about employee retention. But the thing about that is that when when when I see a lot of our small utilities, they get folks that come in and they train them and then they leave for better paying jobs. So how can we have know combat that? Well, we you have to in order to live in this country, unfortunately, it takes money. So we need to see how we can strengthen those systems to make sure that the
01:06:00:00 workforce is protected.
01:06:01:04 [Speaker 1]: There are also. Thank you. And now we still have audience questions, but I want to be cognizant of the time. So I'm just gonna end with one question that that I want to ask all of you. I think will be really important for our audience. Are there any other lessons we should take away from this unprecedent crisis moving forward?
01:06:29:00 [Speaker 3]: But I would say from the the the transit industry developing enhanced systems of of cleaning our rolling stock in our in our workspace, something that we'll see going forward. I certainly believe that we'll all be in the cleaning and sanitizing mode for some time to come. But then secondly, on the administrative side, where we see people working from home, we see the wonderful folks who work for Zoome and WebEx and MASC
01:06:59:13 team being bombarded. God bless their customer service folks right now. But we'll also begin to see the ability for folks to work remotely on the administrative set across across our industry. So I think those two things, probably not the most mind blowing things, but two things that we'll definitely see moving forward.
01:07:20:09 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Bill. Thank you.
01:07:24:22 [Speaker 2]: The one thing that I want to take away from this, I'm just on a personal level. You know, we're all in this together. We must support our public health and welfare of everyone here. Utility workers are essential when it when I go to Wal-Mart. Those folks are essential. We cannot look at people as servants.
01:07:46:19 [Speaker 2]: These are people that are helping us to just maintain our daily lives so that that is what has brought out a lot of what Koban 19 has brought out to me, a new job? I'm very grateful for when I go to the grocery store, someone cleaning the carts. I never thought of that. So new jobs, new opportunities, new ways to protect ourselves. Let us don't overreact. Let us not panic and let us, you know, thank all of our essential workers for keeping us or keeping us safe.
01:08:18:20 [Speaker 4]: I think for me, the biggest lesson and takeaway is that our economy and society wasn't working for too many Americans. And this crisis has made that clear than ever. I mean, I've talked about how workers are living paycheck to paycheck. We haven't talked as much about the fact that this pandemic has shown how a virus, just like pollution, disproportionately impacts communities of color
01:08:50:02 and low income folks. So biggest takeaway from my vantage point is that it just remaking the pre coveted status quo isn't good enough. Right? After all of this human tragedy and economic ruin, we should work toward coming out the other side of this crisis in a better place than when we went in.
01:09:14:12 [Speaker 1]: Thank you, Jason. Well, that is our webinar today. Thank you. Hope, Billy Jason. Thank you so much for sharing your insight with all of us today. I really appreciate all of you taking the time out of your very busy lives to join me today.
01:09:29:17 [Speaker 1]: I also want to thank our audience for joining us as well. I know we went over a little bit, but, you know, you got some great information. I think it was worth it. I also want to think, oh, I also want to recognize the questions that we didn't get to feel free to contact EBC. E-mail us, call us, and we'll make sure that we can get your question answered. And I also want to thank the event's team and our producer today for making us all look good and and ensuring the broadcast would run smoothly today.
01:09:59:05 So thank you guys so much. Really appreciate having this conversation. You all today and everyone has a wonderful, great day. And I look forward to continuing this discussion to support and better to better support our essential infrastructure workers. Thank you, Ron.