![]() ![]() Even so, the installation vessels for South Fork Wind have American union workers on board, the company told the AP. But the larger U.S.-flagged offshore wind vessels aren’t built yet. Ørsted responded that 75% of the vessels supporting South Fork Wind’s offshore construction are U.S.-flagged, including barges, tugs, crew transport vessels and fishing vessels that monitor for safety and marine mammals. ship operators told the AP they have similar vessels that can do this work. But some of the foreign-flagged vessels working in wind development areas along the East Coast are tugs and smaller supply ships. fleet doesn’t yet have massive ships specialized for offshore wind to install foundations and turbines. The Associated Press was the only media outlet aboard. fishing and offshore supply vessels near the turbine bases. commercial-scale wind farm to open.Īpproaching the site Tuesday, Smith saw a large crane ship sailing under the Cyprus flag, smaller Belgian-flagged vessels, and U.S. The Enforcer made several trips to where Danish energy company Ørsted is developing the South Fork Wind project with the utility Eversource. could need roughly 2,000 of the most powerful turbines to meet its goals to ramp up offshore wind to dramatically cut its use of fossil fuels to protect the atmosphere and reduce climate change. Smith said this effort is about securing their future - decades of jobs and investments. ![]() Many of its member companies are already working in it. The Offshore Marine Service Association says it strongly supports the offshore wind industry. “We have a lot of confidence in this president and his ability to turn more than $1 trillion of investments - including in clean energy - into union jobs.The fishing vessel New Horizon motors, with outriggers out for balance, past a monopile structure for an offshore wind farm project, while working with foreign ships, Tuesday, July 11, 2023, off the coast of Rhode Island. “First of all, we do have the most union-friendly president that anyone can remember - that’s why we endorsed him early,” Smith said. Smith said unions have confidence that the manufacturing, infrastructure and energy investments under Biden will lead to more union jobs. Samantha Smith, strategic adviser for clean energy jobs at the AFL-CIO, said it’s important for the shift away from fossil fuels to not come at the expense of workers, arguing the goals of renewable energy and higher pay need to be complementary goals, not competing ones. But there are few union votes in sunbelt states such as Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, where Biden hopes to compete in 2024 and where many of the investments in new computer chip and battery plants are being made. Union votes generally matter more in Northern states with an industrial legacy such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, key states for a Democrat seeking to win the electoral college. But 56% of people in union households backed Biden for president against Trump, a Republican, according to AP VoteCast. Just 16% of voters in 2020 lived in a union household. Unions also aided Biden’s election victory over President Donald Trump in 2020. ![]() Labor Department data shows that workers under age 35 are much less likely to belong to a union than their older peers, meaning that the future of the union movement might depend on bringing in younger generations. On Monday, he met with younger workers trying to unionize at Starbucks, minor league baseball, bus-maker Blue Bird and Sega. When asked if an autoworkers or Teamsters strike could similarly threaten growth, administration officials declined to speculate and said only that the president believes in the right of collective bargaining for workers.īiden spent part of this week focused on efforts to expand unionization into new industries. The tentative deal prevented a strike, but it failed to appease workers, and Congress ultimately had to intervene by imposing an agreement. Last year, the administration hustled to forge a tentative agreement between rail companies and their unionized workers to avoid a strike that could have injured the economy before the midterm elections. The White House says that Biden’s policies have created these conditions.īut a series of strikes could also sink the U.S. Unemployment is a low 3.6%, and job openings are relatively high. Biden administration officials say that unions are empowered to press for more benefits and better pay because of the strong job market. ![]()
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