U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the nation is counting on tomorrow's road builders, crane operators and other heavy equipment users.
He made that clear Tuesday while visiting a sprawling training site outside the central Wisconsin town of Coloma. The site is run by the statewide Operating Engineers Union Local 139.
It's a place where trainees learn to use equipment to lift big pieces of concrete bridges, bulldoze new roads and do pile-driving.
Buttigieg even sat at the controls of a small excavator and scooped up dirt.
Later, he told hundreds of high school students visiting the training center that billions of dollars in federal infrastructure money is coming to Wisconsin and other states.
Buttigieg says there'll be a need for a lot of new workers, many of them young.
"Does it sound good to enter a career where you can start right out of high school, and make about fifty-thousand bucks, plus? And see your way toward six-figure earnings?" Buttigieg asked the young people.
Buttigieg also told reporters that the infrastructure law calls for local hiring. For places like Milwaukee, he says that means diversity.
"We have a chance to level the playing field, because we're creating so many jobs, that we need everybody's help, talent and participation.''
The Transportation Secretary also made a direct career pitch to two students from Milwaukee Washington High School.
Buttigieg asked: "Pretty interesting, huh, especially when you find out how much it pays?"
The two students, Antonio Wright and Samantha Bonner-Russ offered polite responses to the secretary.
But Wright later told WUWM he's half-yes, half-no about entering the industry, as some of the big equipment is intimidating,
"Something might happen. I'm pretty nervous about that," Wright said.
Bonner-Russ said she mainly came for some insight into the heavy equipment training.
But later, a third Washington student Jesus Howard-Bruce said he's considering the infrastructure industry, out of the hope it would bring financial security.
''They said it has a good retirement plan. They pay real good. If I could get this, I'd have a good house. I could easily pay for my kids, or wife," Howard-Bruce told WUWM.
While Buttigieg promoted job training and low unemployment, his visit to Wisconsin drew the attention of the Republican National Committee. An RNC spokeswoman says "Wisconsinites will ignore Pete Buttigieg's attempts to distract voters from the broken supply chain, skyrocketing inflation, and (Democratic President Joe) Biden's Gas Hike."
