Today the Committee on Workforce, Labor, and Economic Development Finance and Policy heard more about: HF47(Schultz) Provisions governing the certification of underground telecommunications installers modified. There was a lot of discussion before it was moved onto Ag. 

Notes:

From Rep Schultz

• Wants to move it onto Ag Committee
• Bipartisan bill to help fix the certification program for underground telecommunications installers that passed in 2024.
• MN has good broadband. We are close to closing the digital divide. We’re also set to received $652M in federal funds.
• The certification program set to start this year could bring broadband deployment to a halt. It is nearly impossible to get it running and students through the program in time. Especially in metro community.
• The law intent is good – but doesn’t recognize experience in the field and time to develop training. We won’t have enough people to do the work. And workers will go to other projects without restrictions.
• We can make it work together.

Melissa Wolf from MN Cable

• We support this bill
• We have been meeting with stakeholders
• MN are close to universal access; the law from last year could derail our progress. The deadline of July 1, 2025 is too quick. Workers need to have completed 40 hours or training before that date to work after that date.
• The timing is terrible because we want to get building for BEAD funded projects. There are deadlines related to that funding as well.
• There is confusion in the bill.
• We need to change the law from last year:
  • Training timeline is impossible.
  • A portion of the training must be hands on. Weather alone makes the job more difficult.
  • Providers and contractors will have difficult decisions when this happens. They can shut down projects, be in noncompliance, lose permits.
  • Training requirements and confusing and contradictory.
  • We are working with energy companies on their concerns

Brent Christensen from MN Telecom Alliance

• We support the bill
• This bill is not anti-union, not a repeal of last year’s bill, not about safety – it’s about training.
• We have a telecom training program already. We have had a hard time getting 40 hours of training for what’s required here.

Mark Muller – Telecom Construction

• We build broadband
• We support the bill
• We think this new law wasn’t actually target companies but companies that come into MN from outside. But this law would push MN contractors to work in other states.
• We have up to 1000 personnel working at any one time. We had 17 issues last year.
• We need a grandfather clause for existing employees.
• We need an extension to deadline to July 2026.

Derek Leffert for Gateway Fiber

• Apparently we were called out, I want to defend those allegations.
• Our damage prevention process is a third party auditing process. It has been pioneering. It cost more than a million dollars last year. We had only 34 damages last year – due to shovel incidents. That’s one per everyone 9 miles.
• The added cost of these provisions, might cause us to look outside of Minnesota for work.
• Our workforce is transient – that’s going to be a burden on small businesses

Joel Hanson from Association Builder of MN

• We support the bill
• We are developing a new training. We assume we will need 1000 people to go through the program and that’s hard to do by July 2025. We’d like Jan 2026.
• There’s a lot of confusion about who need this training.
• We would support a grandfathering clause. Maybe need a DOLI certified test
• We do not wasn’t to share our training through data practices

Mishelle Benson – MN Chamber of Commerce

• We support the bill
• We need to reduce regulation

Toby Sunderland from Arvig

• Supports the bill
• The existing regulation is largely redundant.
• Extending the training to 40 hours will have minimal impact. I can get a pilot license in that time.
• 60 percent of accidents in 2024 – related errors in locates

Nick Anderson from Anderson Underground

• Support the bill.
• There are issues in the current regulation – although we support the focus on safety.
• We are in the apprenticeship program.
• We use the CGA program for damage reduction and it has been successful – maybe we could use that instead.

Kevin Prentice – LiUna

• There are times that we need to set a standard.
• We researched last year’s bill for a year.
• We found high turnover and too may accidents. It’s hard to read that cities hire people to check broadband installation rather than have an industry standard.
• There are OSHA requirements for workers – but nothing for the consumers. So if a house blows up – that’s not OSHA.
• It’s great to hear that we are all developing training. There’s time to get it all done.
• There are lots of problems with excavator errors.
• The problem here is that when there’s an error – it can be very dangerous.
• We had a hard time getting our training into 40 hours there was so much.

Aaron Rosenthal – North Star Policy

• We researched damage done due to broadband deployment
• Broadband deployment cause one strike per day in MN. Way more than other utilities.
• 60 percent of all problems with directional drilling came from broadband/telecom deployment
• They will publish analysis soon. They problem has been getting worse.
• We appreciate the regulation created last year. We don’t want to see it undone.

Jason Claire – STF Services

• 95 percent of issues come from bad locates – we need the utilities to better track that.
• The MTA classes will be $800 per person.
• We have lots of people who work a few days or a week and then they quit. We can’t afford 40 hours of training and then they quit.
• There are issues with having to train everyone

Questions:

Q: I’m a flight attendant. I am certified to do that work. The training I’ve done is what helped the issues in the recent Toronto flight. Certification is essential. What would you eliminate from the training?
What training is required to drill a hole? We don’t know how the damages are created. Why are only the hold diggers asked to do training. We just don’t know 40 hours – 10 might be too much. This belong in the Office of Pipeline Safety.

Q: Anyone in a skilled train will understand the importance of certification. This doesn’t lack clarity. We need to take safety seriously.

Q: This isn’t 40 hours on how to use a shovel. That’s discrediting workers. It’s an insult to the workers. It seems like there’s plenty need to fill the time.
I apologize if you think I was degraded the work. I started with that job. I’m not saying eliminate all of the training. We just don’t need 40 hours.
We take safety seriously.

Sean O’Neill From DOLI

• We have given consistent guidance in interpreting the regulation
• We are trying to stay flexible with interpretations
• In the training we address a number of topics that are included in curriculum. We want to get curriculum approved.
• So far, we’ve approved 7 programs to date. And got another one today.

Q: Last year, we heard there wasn’t a problem. That seems to be a popular choir in this room – but folks are on the frontlines seem to tell a different story. DO you think we have a problem? DO you think 40 hours is too much?
With such transient workers, we need to have flexibility to ensure that we’re still getting broadband installed in this state. If transient workers need 40 hours or training, it’s going to be touch for contractors to want to work in MN.

Q: To me, having a transient work base is a sign that we need better training. Do you think 10 hours is enough for the training?
We need to ask the industry folks in the room. It sounds like time off plus $800 for the class sounds expensive.

Q: It’s hard to counter cost with safety. We can’t put profit over safety.
We are working on the right balance – especially the people who need broadband access.

Q: We do have a problem. We need to look at the North Star Policy pack. We hear about safety in this room – but also hear about folks in the field without training.

Q: This is the wrong time to claw back last year’s regulation. I didn’t have technology as a kid while my cohorts did. Yet, this isn’t just a cost of doing business. Are there hurdles in the process in making sure this program is rolled out and implements?
From DOI’s point of view  – no.

Q: what steps are you guys taking to meet the July deadline?
(MN Cable) We reached out to contractors and members. We talked to DOLI in august. We have had task force meetings. We had preliminary approval in November. We have developing a curriculum now. We need to train trainers and they train the workers. We have 1000-1500 people who need to do this training.

Roll call to move to Ag committee: bill moves on.