The Communications Workers of America (CWA) recently published an evaluation of 14 BEAD projects. The so-called “report card” found that counties’ performance on the union’s measures of transparency, equity, and high road labor standards ranged widely. CWA said the best performing counties are case studies to emulate, while the lower performing projects present cautionary examples for state governments as they deploy billions more in funding through the Infrastructure Act’s BEAD program. To see the full list of counties, click here.
Of the 14 projects included in this report card, five of them used union labor and nine of them were non-union. Union projects not only scored higher for their labor standards, the broadband providers also made significant matching contributions, enabling federal dollars to go further and giving those projects higher points in the Equity category. All of the projects that contracted with union-represented companies committed to deploying fiber.
Most counties using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to deploy broadband selected fiber-to-the-home as the best, most resilient technology available. The CWA identified only three fixed wireless projects to evaluate. Those projects scored lower on both the Type of Broadband subcategory and other categories not directly tied to technology, including matching contributions, pledges to adhere to high road labor standard measures, and ACP participation.
Kenton County, KY scored the highest marks due to its transparency measures. The county scored 3/3 points in the Public Participation category because the project agreement was available online and the county gave frequent updates on the work in public meetings. There were public discussions of the funding for the project, the timeline, and a public map of affected addresses.
The county also ranked high in its “equity measures” by working with Altafiber. The telecom company contributed more than 100 percent of the county’s ARPA contribution, $30 million to the county’s $10.8 million.
Kenton County also received full points for labor standards as judged by the union. Altafiber is a union-represented company, which means that it negotiated with its workers to use a directly employed workforce for a significant share of the work, pay good wages, according to the CWA, and provide other benefits. Altafiber used a union-represented subcontractor for a significant part of the construction work it outsourced.
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