The Big K Morning Show
An Hour With Rich Fitzgerald
All right. Every Wednesday and our seven o'clock hour, we welcome the executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, Rich Fitzgerald, Rich. Good morning. Good morning. A lot going on. Fresh off of your award. Let's start there. The 51st annual Art Rooney Awards last night, and you were among the recipients. Congrats. Thank you. It was a little bit of Duquesne night with Coach Gamrod and Ken Gormley receiving awards Diane Hupp, the Children's Hospital CEO, also on the board of Duquesne. It was an honor to be part of that. I won the John McGrady Award, and John McGrady was somebody when I grew up, it was across the alley. He was the kind of commissioner of the job that I ultimately somewhat had moving on, but yeah, it was quite an honor. And, you know, Catholic Youth Charity does such a services for seniors, for children, for so many people around this region. It's a big fundraiser. And it was a great night. Sister Pat and her teams, and of course, Marty's wife, Christine Soonarti's wife TV anchor woman. It even dragged Marty out for the night. He had to go out and get dressed up. He had to go out and put on a suit and tie, and it was great to see. And Christine was touched and, you know, delighted to win the Bill Burns Award, obviously another legendary name in this town, and so it's, it recognizes the history, Keith Cameron won the Bob Prince Award. Ken Gormley won the Art Rooney the Chief Award, and it was great to see, you know, young Dan Rooney, the next generation, given a nice welcoming for everybody, so it was a great night. Yeah, he's the son of Art Rooney the second, and Greta. And he is the fourth generation, yes, of Steelers ownership that goes back to, of course, the Chief. Yes, yes. You know, and the family, you know, not, I mean, we all celebrate the success of the football team, but, you know, when you see what the Rooney family has done, the extended family in service to this community and the things they've done in this region, it was a great night. And it was good to see a lot of friends last night, and it was, it was interesting. Another beautiful night in Pittsburgh, and it looks like, yeah, we're not going to get much rain today. We're going to have a big weekend speaking of the Steelers, the home opener, when you're coming off to road winds, you can feel kind of the excitement, can't you? I'm sure Mr. Rooney was smiling all night. It's always nice to have this event, which is an annual event after a win. It comes. It's a little more uplifting that way, but boy, number one, the weather, we can't very complain about September has just been absolutely beautiful. And for this weekend to have obviously the pit game, what an exciting win that with the last two wins exciting. And then the Steelers coming off of two road victories, which is always tough to do and coming home. And the other thing I mentioned this earlier, the pit women's volleyball team, number one in the country in a big rivalry game coming up with Penn State tonight, two of the, it knows it tonight. It's tonight. Two of the best, best over the last number of years. So it's going to be quite a battle pit Penn State tonight. Yeah, the volleyball team has been very successful. Their coach Dan Fisher has done a tremendous job and they are ranked number one in the nation. We'll see what happens tonight. Meanwhile, while you're here, I just want one opportunity to clarify this because two weeks at the end of this month, people can mail in their ballots in Allegheny County. And so that's a confusion for some people, Rich, as you know, to clarify an application for one or people trying to get you to apply for one is different than the ballot itself. You will only get a ballot if you, a mail in ballot, if you apply for one and you can go online and apply, there's different ways to doing it, but they will not, no county, not Allegheny, not any other county will be sending you a ballot unless you have applied for that ballot signed and all that kind of good stuff. All right. Coming up in the next half hour to another first for Pittsburgh, this electric vehicle technology that's been here for a long time in many different ways. There's going to be an opportunity that's going to be very unique. The future of automotive we can see is electric vehicles. We see all three of the major manufacturers in this country ramping up their EV electric vehicle manufacturing capabilities. And when you talk to people that are in the automotive industry, Department of Transportation, they will tell you as time goes on over the next decade, decade and a half, you'll be able to get more and more places that you can charge your electric vehicle as you'll have less and less places where you'll be able to get gasoline fill up. So the trend is coming. Obviously, we not hit that critical mass, but we've got to train automotive technicians who are able to service and work on these vehicles and the fact that Pittsburgh was picked as the first place in the country by the federal government to put an apprentice program to train workers is something we should be very, very happy about. And we've got a lot more to talk about coming up next to want to talk about your visit to Washington, D.C. with the and you'll be with all these elected officials in the region. And we'll talk about the purpose of that visit, American airline jobs coming to the Burg and the Fed rate cut all coming up with Rich Fitzgerald in the Big K morning show. Continue our conversation with Rich Fitzgerald. No stranger to go into Washington, but in your role now as executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, maybe a little bit of a different mission for the region, 10 counties in the city. It is. And you know, the Allegheny Conference schedules this these visits, this visit every year in mid-September and brings dozens and dozens of businesses and universities and philanthropy. And this year, we're also going to be adding about a dozen county commissioners from around the region, the 10 county region. So as we go visit our entire delegation, meetings with Senator Casey and Congressman Kelly and Russian dollar and Lee and Thompson and Delusio, we'll be taking the asks, if you will. One of those asks we're going to talk about in the next half hour is the EV charging apprenticeship. So some of the things that deal with jobs broadband will be having these visits with our work delegation. And I think it'll be exciting to put Pittsburgh's list, Pittsburgh regional list in front of our friends in Washington. So it's literally for the region a wish list and to make sure that our elected officials have that on their radar for, you know, support. Exactly. Is there going in and doing the deliberation in the budget process and the appropriation process with, and we'll be meeting with the Department of Commerce, we mean with the Department of Labor, we'll be meeting with various secretarial departments. And that's exactly right. It mostly comes around the jobs infrastructure quality of life projects that we would like to see job training is right at the top of the list. And we're talking about that earlier energy, the amount of energy and the amount of energy that's going to be produced. And we've become in southwestern Pennsylvania, the energy capital of the country because of, we do it all. We do solar. We do wind. We do obviously having more solar shale and the renewables and so much of what the technology that's coming out of our great universities, CMU and Pitt in particular, has put us in a real forefront of getting those jobs and getting that economic opportunity. Is our airport the only fully sustained airport by its own power? It is. And that's exactly. That's another, you know, feather in our cap that with Christina Cosotis and her team out there is we are the only self-powered airport that produces our own energy using solar and the natural gas out there so that we're not on the grid so that when these storms come up and some of these weather issues that have shut down airports around the country, they don't happen in Pittsburgh because we can flip a switch. We also heard American Airlines surprised a lot of people by announcing 500 jobs. Some of those will be here. Yes. And American Airlines, which, you know, formerly, you know, had taken over U.S. Air and there was obviously some consternation with the hub, the de-hubbing 20 years ago and all those type of things. But what Americanists continue to do is know that in Pittsburgh that the technicians that can work on their airplanes that can maintain their airplanes are some of the best. So we've had a pretty robust facility already out there and then they made the announcement that they're going to add even more here in Pittsburgh. And that's another big training facility that we have. The PIA, the Pittsburgh International Institute of Aeronology Aeronautics out in West Mifflin trains many, many people and those jobs will high paying jobs for people coming out of that program. As somebody who served as an elected official at a high level, curious. So it sounds like the Fed is going to make a rate cut today. Most likely a quarter percent, it could be as much as a half. That's unlikely. However, this would be the first cut in four years. How will that affect the average working man and woman? Well, I think a couple of different ways. Number one, if you're looking to buy a house or you're looking to finance a car or finance a purchase, lowering that interest rate will make it easier. Housing a little more affordable for people, particularly the first time home buyer. But also on the business side, business investment now gets a little more cost effective. So you could see some more capital investment in equipment and buildings and those type of things. So I think this will be a win-win. They're talking about, as you said, a quarter point today, maybe even as much as a half a point. I don't know if they'll get there today, but they're talking about over the next number of months to see these rates come down, which really hasn't happened in, I guess, about four or five years. We had talked about Charla Roy, suddenly Charla Roy is in the national spotlight. Please explain why. Well, we were ahead of the curve. A couple of months ago, we had Sloane Davidson from Hello Neighbor, which is a non-profit that helps people assimilate from other parts of the world when they're coming to this part of the country, this part of the world. And they were talking about all of the workers from Haiti that had settled in Charla Roy and were doing all these positive things. The business people in Charla Roy were so excited that they've got these workers. The main business district was starting to thrive again. And again, Charla Roy, one of those towns in the Mon Valley in Washington County that had suffered the deindustrialization that we all suffered back in the '80s and '90s and to see an influx of hardworking people coming in, was very, very positive. And obviously, one of the presidential candidates decided to put Charla Roy in the spotlight this week. But these are, to make a point, legal immigrants. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Legal, tax-paying, job abiding, going to work every day. The way many of us in America and our parents and grandparents have done over the decades. All right. One other note before we get the break in our first guest here coming up is Nippon Steel, U.S. Steel. There is a pause now till after the election officially so that it doesn't get more politicized in terms of whether it's a deal, no deal. This is wiggle room to maybe work something out or at least push it beyond November 5th. I think it's exactly right. I think certain people got to the White House and maybe had a discussion and said, maybe this is something we want to take a look at again before we say yay or nay. And rather than have it in a highly charged political environment that we're in, obviously, the next six or seven weeks, let's wait until after the election and see if we can sit down and work something out. I think for most of us, the important thing is we want to preserve those 3,000 jobs that are in the plant and probably another six or seven or 8,000 jobs of people that go in there and work every day as contractors. We now call them 1099 workers as opposed to W2 workers, but there's still an economic impact in those communities that would be devastating if those plants didn't get the investment that we need to keep them, keep them operating. And coming up next, an apprentice opportunity for electric vehicles and we'll get the details of that right after the news with David. This is the big K morning show, Larry Richard with my in studio guest every Wednesday on our seven o'clock hour, the executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, which fits Gerald and got a very special guest from partners for work. We do in a special announcement that was just made a couple of days ago. We have Rob Cherry, the chief executive officer of partner for work and what partner for work is a workforce development program made up of a lot of industry people, labor people, human service folks, educational people like CCAC and others who really try to develop the next generation of workers who are going to be, you know, we need to train them for the jobs that are here and jobs of the future and the labor department made a big announcement last week in which they named Pittsburgh as the very first place to do an apprentice program with electric vehicle charging. Rob, welcome and tell us a little bit about that. First of all, congratulations on this big announcement for you being the person to do this and tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, thank you for having me on the show this morning. So the apprenticeship was registered by the German Chamber of Commerce, the Pittsburgh Chapter and the EV automotive apprenticeship program will help address the growing demand for skilled professionals capable of servicing and maintaining high voltage electric vehicles. So the classroom training, which is called the related technical instruction, will take place at CCAC West Hills Center. After completing that part, the apprentices will continue their training on the job with dealerships in the region. So it's important to note that the apprentices are employed from the first day of the program. Their time spent in the classroom learning these skills is paid and they receive benefits. The apprenticeship model debrets the training for apprentices, making sure that we remove barriers that additional training and jumping into a new career can sometimes pose. So the employers benefit to because getting a worker that's trained in their standards and meet their needs in the growing industry is great for the employers. And the electric vehicle automotive technician program equips them with the skills to safely diagnose service and repair electrical vehicles, plug-ins, including all the intricate tasks involving battery systems and other electrical components components and EV cars. We're with Rob Jerry, CEO, a partner for work. Rob, this is exciting. I know Pittsburghers, Rich, you know this too. We love to be first at anything. So this first apprenticeship, but this for anybody that moves into this field, I think is job security because that skill set is only going to grow. Absolutely. No. Go ahead, Rob. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's definitely job security because what we're seeing is a lot of manufacturers move the EV, the automotive repair into the dealerships. And so big companies like Tesla and other companies right now, a lot of the EV, when there's a problem with your EV car, you're sending them back to the factory. Now a lot of that work is moving to the dealerships and that's going to create jobs for people. And just like you said, create a lot of job security for folks who have this training. And Larry said something exactly right. This is job security because the future really is starting to move toward more and more electric vehicle cars that are going to be out there and the need for these technicians is going to be tremendous. I guess a couple of questions Rob we would ask is number one, how does somebody get involved in this? How does a young person can sign up for this apprentice program? And what do we estimate that the salary or what the wages will be for somebody who comes through the program and then does go work at a dealership? Another question, listeners can go to WWGACCPIT.com for more information around enrollment and EV technicians have a median salary of around $60,000 a year and that's just median. Wow, good stuff and I think as we see, you know, again, moving into where the technology is going, where electricity is going, we're going to be electrifying so many things in our world from our vehicles to our homes will become more electrified from stoves and heating systems, et cetera. Being an electrician right now and in the future is really going to be tremendous job security. Absolutely. Well, great news and thanks for sharing it with us here. First Rob, we appreciate it and I know you do tremendous work partner for work and it helps a lot of young people and a lot of people just get connected with the work world. There is a lot of demand so we need you. Thank you. And what Rob does also is really all the different jobs and robotics and in the building trades and they've been great partners with, I know, our airport, the Pitt to Work program that Rob and his team have worked on, they're reaching into all the various aspects of where job future is. So Rob, keep up the good work. Thank you for being with us. Thank you so much. Rob Tierra, the CEO partner for work. Coming up with Rich Fitzgerald. We got some final thoughts this hour. Next. Fitzgerald, my in studio guests, by the way, every Wednesday at seven and he brings us up to date on what's going on around the region, 10 counties in the city and Rich, when you think of a chamber of commerce, I think most people think of, okay, the city, the county and some of the municipalities have some too. But you told me something, I was surprised there are chambers of commerce that represent other countries or people that are here from those countries. They're very active chambers and I'm glad Rob Cherry brought up, you know, the German chamber of commerce in Pittsburgh was actually the ones putting the application in. We have very, very active African American chamber of commerce led by Doris Carson Williams. The Asian American chamber has really grown in the last number of years as is the Hispanic chamber of commerce in Pittsburgh. And again, as Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh region does become more of an international, you know, and I know the immigration thing has obviously become in the, in the forefront. But we have seen, you know, this place because of the opportunities, drawing more and more people from around the world. Our Chinese American population is growing and we have these great festivals that we all enjoy, but it's been a big part of our economic growth that's going on in this region. Next week, we also are going to bring in the president of the community college of Beaver County, Dr. Roger Davis and some of the great things that are happening a little bit west of us in Pittsburgh. So there's a lot of activity going on and a lot of reasons for us to be optimistic about the future. Jobs. Jobs. You know better than anybody I know. At one point, we had 50,000 give or take jobs available, but that number, you're chipping away at that number. It's dwindling down. It's in the 17, 18, 19,000 on the Indeed website recently and you're right. We used to see that number 45, 50,000 just a few months ago. So and you're starting to see even employers be a little more forceful, if you will, about bringing people back to work every day. Glad you brought that up. Amazon announced Monday that first of the year, they want all their employees back in the office and it was basically either you're in or you're out. And I think here we are four years later from the pandemic. And a lot of people have kind of, you know, had the workers were able to say, no, I'm good at home, but at some point, what's the importance of that interpersonal interaction in an environment in your opinion? In my opinion, I think it's, it's really great to have mentors and interaction with, you know, maybe older experienced workers and some new young people coming in that interpersonal relationship can't be really replicated by Zoom or by phone or Skype or whatever you're using. So, but there is the, you know, the need sometimes for people to have some flexibility. They can get things done at work, depending on the type of job they have. So I think we're still as a society trying to balance that out. As you mentioned, you know, sometimes the, the workers might have a little more leverage. Sometimes the employers will have a little more leverage and I still think there's a lot of work to be done in that area. There'll be some hybrid situations, no doubt, but there's definitely, with Amazon saying that there's going to be a push, but others will follow suit. Meanwhile, always great and informative to have you in it again, congrats on your art Rooney award. Thank you. That was very, I'm sure fun for you and you've received a lot of awards, but it was pretty cool. It was pretty special. It really was. And now we'll jump in a car and head to Washington DC and try to get more things for Western Pennsylvania. Save travels. Give them our wish list. We'll give it to you. Rich Fitzgerald down the big K morning show.