SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – The man affectionately known as Mayor Pete returned to his hometown of South Bend on Wednesday.
No, Pete Buttigieg wasn’t looking for a repeat term in office. He met with electricians in training to talk about the pipeline of good paying jobs being created by the Biden Administration’s infrastructure package.
“One thing I wanted to do while I’m secretary is to really emphasize the job creation that’s going on because of President Biden’s infrastructure package, and because of the industrial strategy that has led to things like the GM facility being built here,” Buttigieg said. “I would not have believed you if you told me back when I was mayor that there would be a multi-billion-dollar automotive industry investment in St. Joe County, I would have said that’s the kind of thing that ended in 1963, and here we are.”
Joe Gambill with the Joint Apprenticeship Training Center says he now has 38 projects that are the direct result of the infrastructure law, and that the battery plant is the largest.
“We have roughly right now 500 people traveling from other locals to fill these calls for the construction projects, and we’ll triple that number by next year at this time,” Gambill said.
Although Secretary Buttigieg understands that the political climate will be changing next year, he added: “I also know that the importance of this work will not change, and the need for skilled work will not change, and it is my hope that ideology and partisanship will not pollute the importance and the unity we ought to have around getting good things done.”
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