Kent Miller:
The conversations we're having with our members is, "Hey, look, you know, inflation's real. You know, we feel strongly, some of that is corporate greed too." Folks were showing that they're willing to pay a little bit more during the pandemic. And corporations were like, "OK, well, "let's keep the prices there." And so I think this administration's been doing everything they can by making investments in workers and in the middle class. We always hear from the bottom up and the middle out, these policies and because of these investments, we have been able to secure some unprecedented collective bargaining agreements, right? Nineteen percent increases over three years. So because of the investments in these policies, that is helping us negotiate better contracts for our union members and, therefore, helping them with inflation.

Nathan Denzin:
So what kind of jobs have been created because of the IRA and the IRS? How far out do some of these jobs go?

Kent Miller:
Yeah, so we have some projects that have gotten grant monies that are in planning stages, but will be multi-year jobs on the highway side. We have a lot of investments in clean water infrastructure and lead laterals. Wisconsin is one of four states in the country that are deemed EPA accelerator states. Wisconsin has a lot of lead in its drinking infrastructure. And, you know, we've got to address that, and this administration has prioritized that. These utility scaled solar projects, as I said, there's a decade-plus worth of work on the books already. I think that there's an estimate on just the IRA component in Wisconsin of, like, almost 19,000 jobs. That is huge. So, you know, we are seeing an increase in our apprenticeship for the need to invest in workforce development and Wisconsin workers for these projects. And these will be careers for our current members and future members.