Against the wind: despite Trump’s attacks, unions are fighting for good US clean energy jobs

Since Hurricane Sandy in 2012, a growing labor movement has addressed the climate crisis and economic inequality Ryan McElroen had spent years repairing the New York City subway underground when he got the opportunity to work in the middle of the ocean. “I had no views other than the darkness at work,” he said. “Then I went polar opposite.” Two years ago, McElroen began being trained by his union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 3, for a job in the emerging offshore wind industry. Since then, he has completed six one-month-long rotations constructing New York’s first large-scale offshore wind projects: four on Sunrise Wind, roughly 30 miles (48km) east of Montauk Point, and two on Empire Wind in the New York Bight, 30 miles south of Long Island. It was a “welcome change”, McElroen said. Instead of seeing rats, he has watched seals and dolphins swim past his Sunrise work vessel. Their goals received a major boost from Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, they say.

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