CWA Makes FCC Rounds for 'Balanced' Plan on Safe One-Touch, Make-Ready Pole Attachments
The Communications Workers of America pressed a "balanced proposal to safely streamline the pole attachment process" through one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) work. "Pole attachment work is complex and, if done incorrectly, can lead to dangerous conditions for workers and the public,"…
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said CWA filings on meetings with Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Brendan Carr and Wireline Bureau officials, posted Thursday and Friday in docket 17-84 (here, here, here, here, here). "Even so-called 'simple' make-ready work -- as defined by the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) -- is not so simple," it said, citing "dangerous mistakes made by contractors in Louisville, KY, where an OTMR ordinance is in place." CWA joined a Jan. 16 AT&T plan to reduce the timeline for "complex make ready" efforts from 163 to 134 days, but proposed to exclude such work from the OTMR regime. "Transfers and work within the communications space that would reasonably be likely to cause a service outage(s) or facility damage, including work such as splicing, bolting, or grounding of any communication attachment, equipment, or facilities or relocation of existing wireless attachments should be considered complex make-ready work," CWA said. It agreed with BDAC that existing attachers get 30 days with a 30-day extension "if needed for reasons of safety or service interruption before self-help by a new attacher." CWA also proposed to provide "existing attachers a streamlined timeline to complete so-called 'non-complex' make-ready work," giving them 15 days with an additional 15-day extension "to transfer their equipment prior to self-help." It also backed honoring existing attachers' collective bargaining agreements: "Commission OTMR policy should not turn collectively-bargained family-sustaining middle-class jobs into low-wage contractor jobs." Pai recently noted his appreciation for pole-attachment work. "Just three weeks ago, I scaled a utility pole on the side of a highway near Gainesville, Florida, to get an up-close view of how difficult it is to string aerial fiber. While there, I gained an appreciation for the risks posed by things like squirrels," he told a Wireless Infrastructure Association gathering Wednesday in Charlotte. "Earlier that week, I met with MillerCo, a company in Gulfport, Mississippi, that maintains and repairs towers from Wisconsin to Puerto Rico." He tweeted about MillerCo workers climbing towers between 250- and 2,000-feet high: "Great people doing the hard work needed to keep wireless services up and running (esp. after hurricanes)."