Union labor provides skilled workforce for wind farm construction

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Will Cotta

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Mayflower Wind Supply Chain Manager Will Cotta joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed benefits of using union labor to construct an offshore wind farm off the shores of Massachusetts.

The project will be built about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 miles south of Nantucket. Over the course of its life, it will supply 2,400 megawatts of power to several of Massachusetts’ largest public utilities. Mayflower Wind signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with North America’s Building Trades Unions and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters for the onshore and offshore construction work for its SouthCoast Project. The MOU includes commitments to create jobs for local and diverse workers and to comply with the labor requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act, including paying Prevailing Wages and utilizing apprentices.

Cotta explained that working with unions provides three things: A skilled workforce, an existing training structure within the workforce and a commitment to safety. These three items are pivotal, as this is dangerous work. Not only will construction workers build the wind farm, but they will bury a cable on the ocean floor that will carry electricity to land.

He also talked about the challenge of procuring materials made in the U.S. for the project. Currently, the only domestically manufactured component is the turbine tower. The motor and blades are made overseas, he added. Cotta believes this will change in the coming years thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides incentives to increase the domestic supply chain.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

Union labor provides skilled workforce for wind farm construction

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