BARTONVILLE, Ill. – Local union leaders are telling one of the state’s representatives in Congress things are going well thanks in part to the federal infrastructure funding the President signed in to law.
But, Senator Tammy Duckworth says she also learned from the West Central Illinois Building and Trades Council during a meeting Thursday at the IBEW hall in Bartonville of a problem caused by all the work unions are now getting.
“Even as they are getting a large number of apprentices into their training programs, they’re working full boar when it comes to infrastructure projects, they are still having issues with people actually having access to good transportation to get to work,” said Duckworth (D-IL).
Duckworth says as a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, she hears a lot about the need for better rural transportation, so she says she can work on that.
(Will Stevenson/1470 & 100.3 WMBD)
As Duckworth says she heard a lot of good news from local union leaders, there are still issues.
“They have as much as they can take up. Now they need to get more apprentices into the program,” said Duckworth. “My concern is that as the money, for example, from the Inflation Reduction Act starts flowing out and we start investing even more in infrastructure, you’re going to start to see people cut corners. Simply, that’s not good enough.”
Especially, since Duckworth says, the infrastructure needs to be as good as it can be in order for the U.S. to compete on a global scale.
Duckworth, fresh from Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair, also traveled to Galesburg Thursday.
