FRI AM News: WisBusiness: the Podcast with Emily Pritzkow, Wisconsin Building Trades Council; UW survey explores child care concerns

June 20, 2025

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Emily Pritzkow, executive director of the Wisconsin Building Trades Council.

The discussion ranges from federal policy changes affecting the industry to the ongoing uncertainty around tariffs, with Pritzkow noting “it’s never a dull moment in the building trades.”

She noted the construction industry and the U.S. economy overall “relies heavily” on imports. While she said “tariffs are not a bad thing to discuss” when it comes to reshoring domestic jobs and advocating for pro-worker policies, she raised concerns about possible impacts.

“Tariffs without a plan are going to lead to economic harm,” she said.

The construction sector is used to managing uncertainty to some degree, she added, as some businesses wait to see if materials markets stabilize and others stockpile inventory to ride out the storm.

“But at some point, there will be consequences and we will see it play out, again, with projects moving forward, with putting people to work,” she said. “We’re all in a waiting game right now with that, to see exactly how it may play out.”

Pritzkow highlights some possible changes to clean energy tax credits that were created in the Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act, as GOP members of Congress have proposed rolling them back under the Trump administration.

“They’re not just numbers out there to us, our members are doing this work right now,” she said. “We are hiring people for these projects. They created an incredible opportunity across the country but particularly here in Wisconsin.”

She argues the uncertainty around this federal funding is “not helpful” as partners get underway on supported projects.

“It’s just been the general back-and-forth that is creating a lot of problems, I think, for people trying to make long-term decisions, trying to plan,” she said.

Pritzkow also touches on the group’s priorities in the ongoing state budget process, pointing to transportation funding as a key provision the council is watching.

And she references a recent Midwest Economic Policy Institute study focused on Wisconsin, which found union trades workers in the state make about $41 per hour, above the average for graduates of Universities of Wisconsin institutions.

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

— A recent UW-Madison survey found 60.3% of respondents said access to affordable, high-quality child care in the state is “quite a problem” or an “extremely big problem.”

State officials yesterday touted the results of the survey from the University of Wisconsin Survey Center and the Institute for Research on Poverty. The WisconSays Survey had a total of 2,649 respondents.

When asked how much they would support an increase in state funding for affordable, high-quality child care, 49.3% said “quite a bit” or “a great deal.” Another 28.2% answered “somewhat.”

“Respondents using child care, with children aged 6 or under, who are female, people of color, or have incomes below $30K showed the highest levels of support,” authors noted.

A segment of 475 respondents that were currently using some form of child care were asked a series of questions about various challenges related to access and costs.

On the issue of cost, 30.1% said it’s been “quite a problem” or “an extremely big problem” in the past 12 months. Another 16.2% said it’s been somewhat of a problem, while 13.7% said it’s been a small problem and 40% said it’s not a problem.

And while 49.7% of this segment said it’s “not at all difficult” to cover child care costs in addition to other bills for a given month, 20.3% said it’s “a little difficult,” 14.3% said it’s “somewhat difficult,” 8.2% said it’s “very difficult” and 7.6% said it’s “extremely difficult.”

In a statement on the findings, Gov. Tony Evers yesterday said the survey underscores the fact that “child care is too darnn expensive” and hard to find.

“Whether you have kids or not, the lack of access to quality, affordable care is affecting our workforce and employers, our economy, and our communities statewide,” he said. “Wisconsin has faced generational problems recruiting and retaining workers — we cannot afford more folks leaving their jobs because they can’t access child care. And, yet, this survey shows over 10 percent did. That’s not sustainable for our state.”

Evers’ 2025-27 budget proposal included more than $480 million to continue the state’s Child Care Counts Program, which provides funding to qualifying child care providers in the state, the release notes.

See the release and the survey.

Listen to a recent podcast focused on state support for the child care industry.

— Wisconsin’s unemployment rate in May was unchanged over the month at 3.3%, the state Department of Workforce Development reports.

The agency yesterday announced total employment in the state declined by 20,300 over the year to reach 3,058,300. Job losses were spread across various sectors, with the largest decline over the year in arts, entertainment and recreation with 5,500 fewer jobs compared to May 2024.

State unemployment remains 0.9 percentage points below the national rate of 4.2%, which also remained the same over the month.

Meanwhile, the state’s labor force participation rate fell from 65.5% to 65.3% for the month, but was still 2.9 percentage points above the national rate of 62.4%, DWD’s release shows.

See the release.

— DATCP has announced telecommunications company CenturyLink will pay $450,000 in a settlement resolving alleged violations of state law.

The agency yesterday said Lumen Technologies Service Group LLC and CenturyLink Communications LLC, referred to collectively as CenturyLink, have entered into the settlement with DATCP. It resolves allegations that the company “misrepresented” the monthly price of internet service for customers in the state, though CenturyLink isn’t admitting to breaking any laws, according to the release.

DATCP alleged the business committed 240 violations of state law that bars misrepresentation of subscription terms, after the company advertised deals to consumers in the state from April 1, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2017 but then “failed to honor this promotion.”

While the company promoted a deal to lock in a fixed monthly cost for the internet service, it then allegedly added more monthly fees onto its customers’ bills. This “broadband recovery” fee rose over time from about $2 in April 2015 to about $4 by October 2016.

Under the settlement, CenturyLink will pay a civil forfeiture of $270,000 for the alleged violations as well as $180,000 in fees and other charges. The company has also agreed to stop charging these extra fees, not misrepresent subscription terms in the future and generally follow state laws and regulations around subscription fee disclosures.

See the release.

Wisconsin state budget work hits another snag as deadline nears

Ascension wrongful death trial in Appleton goes to jury after closing arguments

TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Bipartisan bill boosts reliable rail service for farmers

CONSTRUCTION

– Plans to convert historic downtown office building into apartments back in the works

EDUCATION

– Organic Research Field Day at UW-Madison

– UW-Milwaukee chancellor says he’s ‘puzzled’ by GOP lawmakers’ stance on higher education

ENVIRONMENT