Infrastructure bill provides free broadband access to the underserved

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Local Union America's Work Force Union Podcast Communications Workers of America Government Affairs and Policy

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Frank Mathews

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Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 4 Administrative Director Frank Mathews joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the Affordable Connectivity Program and how it could improve educational and economic opportunities for millions of qualified Americans.

Funded through the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, the Affordable Connectivity Program provides $30 vouchers for qualified households. As part of the program, the federal government has partnered with 20 major internet carriers who have agreed to offer broadband internet for $30. When the vouchers are factored in, this would provide free broadband access to millions of families.

Another portion of the Infrastructure bill will furnish broadband access to rural areas. Mathews compared this to the efforts of the Rural Electric Authority that brought electricity to rural America in the 1930s. He talked about how affordable and accessible broadband will create educational and economic opportunities for millions of underserved households.

Mathews then spoke about how he believes the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductor (CHIPS) for America Act will revitalize domestic manufacturing, and then finished his appearance talking about a CWA campaign against Frontier Communications for using outside labor rather than the company’s own employees to build out its fiber optic network.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

Infrastructure bill provides free broadband access to the underserved

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