One of the last official visits by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was to return home for an event at South Bend Local 153’s training center, where he met with apprentices and union leaders in the town he governed as mayor.
“If you would have told me when I was starting out as mayor—when unemployment was in the double digits … that in a few short years we would be seeing a situation where it is taking an enormous amount of effort to find and qualify the skilled workers for all of those jobs, I would not have believed even in my great optimism about our city that that could be achieved so quickly,” Buttigieg said on Dec. 4.
In nearby New Carlisle, construction of the General Motors solar battery factory and data center and a list of other projects have Local 153 scrambling to meet demand for skilled union workers.
“We think we are going to triple the size of our apprenticeship in the next three years,” said Tawny Dowdy, Local 153 assistant training director. Jason Piontek, Local 153 assistant business manager, said they organized more than 50 electricians in 2024 and signed several new contractors.
At the public event, training director Joe Gambill said 38 projects are linked in some way with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the $1.2 trillion law passed in 2021 that makes historic investments in rebuilding America’s transportation networks and infrastructure.
Buttigieg himself, who was mayor of South Bend from 2012 to 2020, is moving to Michigan following the close of the Biden administration.
“While I know a lot of things are about to change in Washington, I also know that the importance of this work will not change, and the need for skilled work will not change,” Buttigieg said.
Photo caption: South Bend, Ind. Mayor James Mueller speaks with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg December 4 at Local 153’s training center.
