IBEW 2327 Participates in Workforce Development Roundtable on Massive Broadband Investment

Last week, union leaders with IBEW 2327 attended a roundtable discussion with April Delaney, Deputy Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and other officials to discuss $5.5 million in federal funding to expand reliable, high-speed fiber Internet to underserved communities in Maine.

Maine recently became the first state to receive the funding from President Biden’s Internet for All Initiative to provide every American access to high-speed internet service. The initiative is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that earmarks $65 billion for broadband improvements.

“We are so fortunate to be getting this money into Maine at the time that we are,” said IBEW Business Manager Julie Dawkins, who attended the roundtable. "Not only do we have the opportunity to provide excellent quality Internet service to our friends and neighbors, but the Biden administration has insisted that unions have a strong voice in how this money is invested. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration understands that union members are the people on the ground doing the day-to-day work and they are more in touch with what people need.”

Maine has already received funding to expand broadband access, including $28 million in federal funding in the 2020 federal coronavirus relief package. Thanks to previous rounds of federal funding, IBEW 2327 members who work for the telephone and Internet provider Consolidated Communications have already been busy building out a high-speed fiber optic network throughout the state this year.

The new project, Fidium Fiber, has already connected customers in about 30 Maine towns and cities, from Portland, Biddeford, Augusta, Waterville and Bangor to Rockland, Blue Hill, Rangeley, Orono and Veazie. The massive broadband expansion has been compared to New Deal policies that brought electrification to rural America in the 1930s.

“This is also an excellent opportunity to organize and train workers in the communities where we’re expanding service so they earn good wages and benefits,” Dawkins added. “We’re going to make sure everyone is working, making a decent wage installing high-speed Internet for undeserved communities in Maine.”