Gov Cuomo State of the State Priorities Match Digital Fair Repair Act

NEW YORK (01/20/2021) (readMedia)-- Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo released his four-part State of the State to address the pandemic, our climate crisis, and economic recovery. He has laid out an agenda which includes an education "hardship fund", expanded broadband access, revitalization of our environment, and apprenticeship programs to reboot our local economy.

The Digital Fair Repair Act (S6309/A7416 in 2019-2020) would help achieve the Governor's priorities by promoting local businesses, reducing our electronic waste, and creating access to more reliable devices. The bill requires electronic companies to provide diagnostic and repair information and release proprietary parts to consumer and local repair businesses. Senator Neil Breslin and Assemblymember Donna Lupardo will reintroduce the bill later this month.

"As New York families reel from the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Legislature needs to pass the Digital Fair Repair Act so that millions of New Yorkers can stay connected to their digital devices when they need it most," said Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of The Repair Assocation. "As students and working families juggle the demands with online learning and remote jobs, we are becoming more and more reliant on our digital devices- and eventually these devices break. But big electronic corporations make it impossible to repair these devices by withholding manuals, parts and tools all in hopes that consumers throw away these devices and buy new products. This bill will open the doors for new economic and job opportunities, save families precious time and money, lessen our growing digital waste, and ultimately reverse the trend of big tech monopolization."

Related Proposals in the State of the State:

Establish a "Hardship Fund" for Families and Facilitate School District Purchases of Needed Devices: The Governor's proposal will have the Reimagine New York Commission, Schmidt Futures, and the Ford Foundation launch a new hardship fund to subsidize costs for New York students who cannot afford $15/a month for at-home internet during the COVID-19 crisis.

Right to Repair would benefit this initiative. Students need more than just internet access, they need laptops and tablets to attend classes and complete assignments. The Repair Association works with many not-for-profit organizations- like Revivn and Lower East Side Ecology Center- that fix products at a very low cost or for free, however they are unable to fix some products because of the lack of access to parts and tools. With the right tools, these organizations could provide repairs to families in need.

First-in-the-Nation Affordable Internet for All Low-Income Families: Funding affordable internet is an important step to bridging the digital divide. However, keeping it up and running also needs to be considered. Infrastructure breaks and can create massive, widespread issues.

Some of the biggest names in the technology industry are notorious monopolists when it comes to repair. CISCO has been found guilty in venues around the world for illegally blocking repair and support. IBM and Oracle monopolized their servers from being repaired. Even Apple laptops and tablets are impossible to repair outside of Apple.

The "Digital Divide" isn't just the affordability of broadband connectivity - it goes far deeper. Families in disadvantaged communities cannot afford basic technology to make use of broadband. Used equipment, which is often far more affordable, is in short supply because the very same manufacturers that want to sell new products to New Yorkers refuse to sell the essential parts and tools that would make it possible to repair otherwise completely functional equipment.

Even when schools and students are provided adequate technology for distance learning, children are notoriously hard on technology, and will need continuous access to repairs and support. OEMs, particularly Apple, are highly restrictive of repairs and the costs of repairs will overwhelm the very same families that cannot afford the original purchase.

Only Right to Repair legislation has the potential to make repairs more widely affordable and accessible for communities in need not just today, but for decades to come. Right to Repair should return value to municipalities as well through reduced solid waste processing costs. Each cell phone, tablet or computer that stays in use reduces waste.

Partner with New York Businesses to Invest in Workforce Training, Expand Apprenticeships and Mentorships, and Reform Recruitment and Promotion Policies: Repair businesses are among the most accessible to entrepreneurs without advanced education. Passage of Right to Repair will enable businesses to create thousands of jobs that pay above minimum wage, as well as available to veterans, disabled individuals, and those without advanced degrees. Many of our charitable partners provide repair job training to adults coming out of the criminal justice system. Most repair businesses train from within, without a formal apprentice program. High schools and community colleges already provide training on how to pass basic skills tests for repair. This is an area of enormous growth potential.

We surveyed our members pre-COVID and have documented that existing repair shops plan to hire 15% more employees immediately upon passage of R2R. The full potential of job growth is more than 400% as businesses currently limited to a handful of repair-accessible brands can quickly expand their service offerings to cover similar, but repair-monopolized, products.

For example there are roughly 1,200 different makes and models of cell phones available in the US today. Most of these lower-cost devices cannot be repaired at all due to lack of access to any parts, manuals, diagnostics tools or firmware. Any repair shop fixing Apple or Samsung phones already has more than enough skill to fix these less common brands.

The same job expansion potential exists for all other consumer electronics including TVs, HVAC, vacuum cleaners, major and small appliances and anything else with a chip. In any area of the state-urban or rural- repair shops will open or expand to meet the need. Given the disappearance of the local TV or appliance repair shop over the past 20 years, we project widespread employment gains in repair.

Provide Scholarships to Low-Income Workers for Workforce Training Programs: These programs can offer more repair training to augment the offerings already common in community colleges, K-12 education, and private training programs. Community colleges already play a major role in repair training, and by providing more scholarships, we can increase that role.

Electronics repair is being taught at all levels of education, but job growth has lagged due to manufacturer created repair monopolies. We know that training exists but repair employment for computers, cell phones and consumer electronics has been in steady decline (IBIS World Stats) by 2% a year for over a decade. Passage of Right to Repair legislation will restore growth to the job market and provide more opportunities within our workforce.

Support to Incubate Minority- and Women-Owned Technology Startups: Repair businesses are highly entrepreneurial and already attractive to immigrant small businesses and small businesses of color. Women are under-represented in traditional repair businesses, but there are fewer gender barriers for electronics repair.

Support New York Farmers: Governor Cuomo will continue supporting the Nourish NY Initiative to ensure that no New Yorker goes hungry, keep the food system resilient, protect the stability of our agricultural economy, and help New York residents continue to have access to local nutritious foods.

Right to Repair would help farmers immensely as they often are unable to fix their tractors, haying and milking equipment. Repairs by agricultural manufacturers often take a long time and can come at a great cost to farmers whose profit margins are already slim. Breaking the farming equipment repair monopoly would benefit New York's agricultural community and also help keep the food system resilient in the state.

Codify and Expand Common Sense COVID Era Reforms: Governor Cuomo is seeking to codify many common sense COVID reforms allowing for more things to be done electronically and virtually. We already heavily rely on our personal computers, phones and tablets. As the digital age continues to grow we will continue our dependency on our consumer devices which will inevitably break down. Repair would help consumers stay connected to the world, to work, to school, and to family.

Background

Earlier this month, consumer protection organization USPIRG released a study that found New York families would save big if they had the right and access to repair their electronics.

Key New York findings from the study include:

• By repairing electronics, New York consumers would save a collective $2.4 billion per year.
• The average New York family would save approximately $330 per year and reduce household spending on electronics and appliances by 22%.
• New York would reduce its electronic waste. New York currently generates 655,000 tons per year.

Other key findings include:

• American households spend about $1,480 purchasing new electronic products per year.
• $1042 on consumer devices i.e. smartphones, laptops, etc.
• $319 on major household appliances i.e. refrigerators, washing machines, etc.
• $120 on small appliances i.e. microwaves, blenders, etc.
• On average, Americans have 24 pieces of electronics in their homes.

US PIRG also highlighted that passing digital right to repair laws can strengthen local economies, give greater access to education, and save jobs- especially during this pandemic:

• A robust repair ecosystem with more people in our neighborhoods working repair jobs, results in lower repair costs quicker and service.
• Manufacturer backlogs caused millions of students to go without a laptop for remote learning.
• Appliance repair [jobs] will decline 6.9 percent by 2029, decreasing from 38,400 to 35,800 workers.

ABOUT THE REPAIR ASSOCIATION: The Repair Association, officially the Digital Right to Repair Coalition, was formed in 2013 to serve the combined interests of the technology aftermarket. Our members span the interests of individuals, non-profits, and for-profits engaged in the repair, resale, recycling, and re-commerce of technology driven equipment. Our mission is to advocate for repair-friendly policies, regulations, statutes and standards.