If the snow falls, all eyes can be on plow drivers.
That’s what Gov. Maura Healey admitted when she acknowledged staffing ranges for positions like plow drivers are nonetheless an issue for state and native businesses.
“It’s a real issue,” Gov. Maura Healey stated in Framingham Wednesday. “We know that numbers are down. Numbers are down in the state and I’m sure there are struggles, too, on the local level hiring folks.”
Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, together with Senate President Karen Spilka, joined Executive Office of Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy and different Cabinet members on the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s Framingham bunker Wednesday for what her workers described as a “winter and emergency preparedness briefing.”
The appointment of Lauren Jones as the brand new Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, introduced Wednesday, will function a chance to handle worker shortages, Healey stated after the assembly.
“She will be responsible for, among other things, making sure that we are driving that pipeline, that we are recruiting, that we are training, that we are retraining, that we are holding on to workers and supplying extra assets to support the workforce, the great workforce, that we have here in the state,” she stated.
“But I think workforce is an issue that many states are struggling with right now, certainly we know we are in Massachusetts, and we’re going to do everything we can to put our best foot forward to grow those ranks,” she continued.
According to Healey, the morning assembly on the bunker was meant to assist her and Driscoll find out how the numerous state emergency response businesses cooperate with each other and native departments to deal with climate and safety operations.
“Really it was an overview, to make sure that we have a full understanding of how all of our systems work” Healey defined later on the Framingham DPW. “I think people came away very appreciative of the tremendous amount of coordination that goes on in the state of Massachusetts when it comes to preparedness.”
Healey spent most of her time on the DPW Wednesday talking to the employees that have been available for the go to, thanking them for his or her half in protecting the state shifting.
“Fortunately we have a situation where people are working, not just throughout the winter when it comes to emergency preparedness around winter storms, but all year long. All year long that work is happening on so many fronts, by so many workers — public workers — across the state to make the health and safety and wellbeing of our communities possible,” she stated.
Healey’s go to to the bunker Wednesday could also be pushed partially by historical past.
Her predecessor, former Gov. Charlie Baker, confronted what many referred to as the primary take a look at of his new administration in 2015 when the state noticed record-breaking snowfall. Baker, only a month into his first time period, ordered a statewide journey ban and despatched state tools to assist municipalities take care of snow drifts.
Political watchers on the time stated the brand new governor handed the take a look at. There isn’t a serious snowstorm within the forecast — simply extra rain, for now — nevertheless it seems Healey could also be finding out for her eventual first examination.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”