Broadband

June 29, 2009

 

Alcatel-Lucent wins bid to circumvent "Buy American"

As many of you know, the CWA, through its SPEED MATTERS campaign, was instrumental in making sure that the economic stimulus package includes an effort to expand internet access to all Americans.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocate a total of $7.2 billion for grants for programs to increase the deployment and adoption of high speed Internet.

Since Alcatel-Lucent closed its last factories in 2008, (in Columbus, Ohio and North Andover, Massachusetts) there was a problem for both Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco in meeting the "made in America" requirement for winning these Broadband Contracts.  The CWA reached out to Alcatel-Lucent leadership, to offer that IF they would at least guarantee that all the installation would be done by Union installers, we would work with them to get a waiver.  They refused even that small concession, wanting the ability to use Goodman and other non-Union contractors to do the work.

Unfortunately, today we have learned that the Department of Commerce is giving Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent the waiver to use materials and equipment made outside the US.  Both companies pushed VERY hard to make this happen, since virtually none of this is made here.

Now we will have to keep and eye on where these contracts are being considered and fight to get that installation work on a case-by-case basis.  We'll try to follow up but if you hear about any in your areas, let us know.

In Unity,

 

Ralph V. Maly, Jr., Vice President
Communications and Technologies