BlueGreen Alliance Comments on Commercial Leasing for Wind Power Development on the Central Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf
Maximizing the use of union labor for offshore wind development can ensure the best return on investment for taxpayers and support the administration’s equity goals—union households earn up to 20% more than nonunion households. Workers of color and workers with less formal education see even greater advantages.
The White House has identified the offshore wind industry as a catalyst for spawning new supply chains, strengthening existing capabilities, and creating tens of thousands of good-paying union jobs. Additionally, a 2022 White House Report on Worker Organizing and Empowerment states that public support for a union in their workplace is higher than it’s been since 1965, with 68% of people supporting labor unions. Support rises to 74% for workers aged 18 to 24, 75% for Hispanic workers, 80% for Black workers, and 82% for Black women workers. And, if all these workers had the union representation that they say they want, union membership would be four to five times higher than it is right now.
Although manufacturing has the proven ability to provide pathways into the middle class for millions of workers and families and support millions of high-skill, high-wage jobs, it has not always delivered on that promise. Today, those opportunities are increasingly unavailable for too many Americans, and the stakes are high.