For all installations, the report calls for project labor agreements, or collective bargaining contracts between a building trade union and a contractor, and labor peace agreements, which make it easier for unions to organize. It also emphasizes using apprenticeships to train the next generation of workers.
Attractive pay and labor protections will help in recruiting committed workers who have previously found reliable jobs in other industries, such as oil and gas, said Jim Pimental, a fourth-generation bricklayer, the vice president of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen Local 3, and the president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Building Trades Council.
“We need to ensure that as this industry takes hold in the U.S., that workers are not left behind, that they can expect to receive the same great wages and benefits they have been receiving traditionally in the energy sector for decades,” he said.
With the incoming Trump administration, the future of offshore wind has become uncertain — even for regions like New England that are committed to the energy source. Since the federal government controls the waters off U.S. coastlines, it has the last word on whether offshore wind projects move forward.
If wind projects are put on pause, it could have a ripple effect. In Somerset, Massachusetts, where Pimental lives, plans are in the works to transform a former coal plant into a $350 million manufacturing facility to build undersea cables, which are needed to bring energy onshore from offshore wind turbines. The facility, partially funded by the federal Inflation Reduction Act, would create around 150 jobs once it’s built, Pimental said. But the land purchase hasn’t been finalized yet.
If it looks like offshore wind farms aren’t going to be built, Pimental worries that the factory developer may back out of this facility — and others like it.
“There’s a lot that hangs in the balance,” of a new administration, he said. “I think and I hope that the industry has gained enough momentum thus far to where you’re not going to be able to put the brakes on it just like that,” he said.
State leadership will play a key role in offshore wind, the report emphasizes. At a press conference last week, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, marveled at the collection of private corporations, research institutions, unions, and environmental advocates all backing offshore wind development.
“I know that 10 years ago, five years ago, nobody was in the same room as one another. What an amazing thing,” Healey said.
Crowley is hopeful that the new federal administration will come around “when we talk to them about the thousands of jobs that are being created and about domestically produced energy for the region and the country,” he said. “In my experience with almost 30 years of service to the labor movement, I’ve never seen an opportunity like this before.”
