The National Wireless Safety Alliance (NWSA) said Monday that it’s offering a new specialty certification exam, “Advanced Rigging Concepts,” starting April 7. “This advanced certification is designed to provide assurance to certificate holders, employers, carriers, and tower owners that lifting operations on-site are executed safely and effectively,” the group said. Richard Cullum, chair of the NWSA Specialty Exam Management Committee, added: “Based on my experience and the number of rigging incidents I have seen over the years, a specialty credential such as this is needed to ensure tower technicians properly grasp and understand not only the fundamentals, but some of the more complex aspects of rigging.”
The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents FCC staff, has sued President Donald Trump, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and the leaders of numerous other federal agencies over Thursday’s executive order ending collective bargaining for many federal employees (see 2503280044). Under that order, federal agencies will cease recognizing NTEU as representatives for their employees and will stop the payroll deductions federal workers have requested to pay their union dues, “cutting off more than half of NTEU’s revenue stream,” the group said in the complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (docket 1:25-cv-00935). The order eliminates union rights “for two-thirds of the entire federal workforce” and “is in direct conflict” with laws passed by Congress to facilitate collective bargaining for federal workers, NTEU said in a news release Monday. The national security exemptions to the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act cited in the order have never before been used to deny entire Cabinet-level agencies collective bargaining rights, “only discrete offices within agencies that clearly perform primarily security or intelligence work,” NTEU said. “NTEU-represented employees at FCC do not primarily perform security, investigative, or intelligence work,” it said. “They review and act on license applications for radio, enforce FCC rules regarding construction and operation of communications systems, and respond to consumer inquiries.” The FCC didn’t comment. NTEU has represented FCC employees since 1978. Their current collective bargaining agreement took effect in March 2023 and wasn’t set to expire until March 2030.
Instead of alternatives to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), the GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) prefers discussing “complementary PNT,” Executive Director Lisa Dyer said in an interview. The FCC, meanwhile, released the final version of its notice of inquiry, approved 4-0 by commissioners on Thursday (see 2503270042), adding questions not proposed in the draft.
Pioneer Telephone Cooperative launched its first two projects in rural Oklahoma, the state Broadband Office announced Friday (see 2503250035). The projects, totaling $878,000, were funded by the Department of Treasury's Capital Projects Fund and will connect 86 homes and businesses with fiber. A third infrastructure expansion program will be awarded "in late summer," the Oklahoma Broadband Office said. "Today’s launch is about more than just laying fiber -- we’re laying the foundation of opportunity, growth and connection for the entire state of Oklahoma,” said Executive Director Mike Sanders. “Rural Oklahomans are no longer being left behind, and we’re getting it done one community at a time.”
Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild expressed confidence after the U.S. Supreme Court heard the group’s challenge of the USF contribution factor in lengthy oral arguments Wednesday (see 2503260061).
Telecom carriers are under pressure from the FCC to end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, with Chairman Brendan Carr saying last week that the FCC won’t bless mergers by companies that have DEI policies in place. Carr sent a warning letter Friday to Disney on its DEI programs. Industry officials say companies have no choice to comply, though the FCC moves have created regulatory uncertainty. T-Mobile explained in a letter to the FCC how it’s getting rid of DEI.
A White House executive order issued Thursday ends federal employee union bargaining rights at a host of federal agencies, including the FCC, citing national security concerns. Laws that allow for collective bargaining enable “hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities,” said a White House fact sheet on the order.
FCC commissioners on Thursday approved by 4-0 votes a notice of inquiry on alternatives to GPS, a Further NPRM on 911 wireless location accuracy and an FNPRM on next-generation 911. FCC officials said that while the GPS item saw some tweaks that reflect outreach to the commission (see 2503240043), there were no significant changes to the 911-related items.
A wave of retirements has hit the FCC, likely owing to a combination of early retirement offers, the transition in administrations, return-to-office requirements and increased pressure on federal workers, according to interviews with FCC employees and union officials.
President Donald Trump’s executive order putting independent regulatory agencies under greater White House control (see 2502190075) should result in stronger regulatory analysis by those agencies and better evidence supporting their arguments, said George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center Director Susan Dudley. Speaking Wednesday at an administrative law panel discussion by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Program of Regulation, Dudley said the order also should lead to those independent agencies better coordinating their work across the government.