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“It’s unfathomable to us. Unfathomable. In the history of our union hall, 134 years, we’ve never even come close to these numbers.” Trent Mauk, a training specialist at the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA) in Michigan, said these words to Washington Post reporter Jeff Stein just over a year ago.
Mauk was referring to the massive growth in membership the union experienced thanks to the construction of two new electric vehicle battery plants. These plants were a direct result of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022. Before the IRA, UA members had to travel for work and experienced long bouts of unemployment. After its implementation, their apprentice program jumped from fifty trainees to almost two hundred.
With its reputation as an ambitious climate bill, it’s easy to overlook the IRA’s role in creating opportunities for unions in the clean energy sector. The building trades, often unfairly portrayed as uniformly opposed to climate action, have seen a substantial number of real jobs materialize for their members. This has translated into more general political support for clean energy development.
Key components of this legislation are now under threat as Republicans close in on their goal to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a $4 trillion tax cut for the rich. Paying for this primarily through cutting social programs like Medicaid is proving politically complicated. Republicans are now setting their sights on IRA tax credits, many of which are directly responsible for creating union jobs, as an area for cuts in the budget reconciliation process.
Building trades unions have started to speak out in favor of maintaining IRA tax credits for clean energy. Salvaging as many of these unionized projects as possible will be important to lay the groundwork for progress in the future under more favorable political conditions. Beyond the bread-and-butter gains for union members, positive experiences on these jobs can garner deeper political buy-in for green jobs going forward.
With roughly 60 percent of proposed IRA projects located in Republican districts, the fight over the IRA presents an opening to build unlikely coalitions in places conventionally viewed as hostile toward progressive environmental policy.
State-level coalition work helped build momentum for the passage of the IRA in the first place, and states will continue to be important battlegrounds over the next four years. Labor unions have an opportunity to aggressively mobilize their membership to defend good jobs, and environmental activists should join them.
The IRA doesn’t represent the leftist dream version of a Green New Deal through direct state investment. Instead, it relies on tax credits to entice private investment in clean energy development. Relying on capital to make investments for the public good is always a shaky gambit.
Despite these limitations, some of the tax credits were cleverly designed to encourage the use of union labor. Companies receive a 30 percent tax credit if they pay their workers a prevailing wage for their region. More importantly for the building trades, companies also need to hire a designated number of union apprentices. These apprentices receive paid classroom instruction and on-the-job training.
It’s hard to deny that the legislation, whatever its limits, has been putting union members to work. Ethan Link, assistant business manager for the Southeast Laborers’ District Council, told Heatmap that it’s been like “night and day” since the passage of the IRA. Solar developers are proactively reaching out to the union about working together on projects. This has set off a virtuous cycle where, as a result, the union is investing in more solar training for apprentices.
The Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council was able to double its apprenticeship program as a result of the IRA. Kent Miller, the union president, believes that IRA incentives made Wisconsin’s four biggest utilities agree to employ union labor on all future clean energy projects.
Similar examples can be found across the country, from the growth of union offshore wind jobs off the coast of New England to a slew of wind and solar projects in Illinois.
The tax credits supported over $220 billion in manufacturing investment, and manufacturing employment increased by about 750,000 during the Biden administration. In March 2025, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that construction job openings were up by 111,000 from last year.
The early drafts of GOP budget proposals reveal a party intent on derailing this progress. The House Ways and Means Committee put forward a plan to begin phasing out the clean energy tax credits in 2029 and have them completely expire in 2032. Under the current IRA law, the tax credits would expire in 2035, but only if greenhouse gas emissions went below 25 percent of 2022 levels.
More perniciously, the proposal essentially kneecaps the tax credits by changing an important provision. Currently, a project only needs to begin construction by a certain year to qualify for the tax credit. But Republican lawmakers want to require that projects be “placed in service” before 2032.
This change will hurt nuclear and geothermal energy development the most, since these projects require long-term planning, investment, and construction. If anything, this proposal will benefit short-term solar developers, the sector Republicans claim to dislike the most. The Trump administration is further destroying its own stated ambitions for nuclear energy (which is heavily unionized) via its Department of Government Efficiency–inspired assault on the Department of Energy.
Divisions over the IRA among Republicans have been brewing for a while, however. Many GOP lawmakers cannot ignore the investment and job growth the bill has already brought to their states. In August, eighteen House Republicans sent a letter to House speaker Mike Johnson imploring him to leave the tax credits in place. Then, in April, four Republican senators wrote to leadership cautioning “against the full-scale repeal” of IRA tax credits.
As the coalition against the IRA shows cracks, building trades unions have become more outspoken about the good jobs the IRA has already created. Last month, the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council hosted a press conference to highlight the growth of clean energy jobs in the state and demand that Congress hold on to the tax credits.
According to the Maine Labor Climate Council, there are 145 utility-scale projects in operation or development across the state that are eligible for the tax credits. “Mainers across the state have benefited from these important investments, from ironworkers building wind farms in Aroostook County to electricians installing battery plants in Lincoln and Gorham to the many solar fields spread across the state,” said Kilton Webb, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 567.
James Harrison from the Utility Workers of America penned an op-ed in the Detroit News about the development of the region’s largest battery storage facility. The project shows that these jobs can maintain the standards of the fossil fuel jobs that came before them.
“The new clean energy jobs that are coming to our community need to be as good as the coal jobs were, with family-supporting wages and good benefits. I have hope that we can get there due to the historic clean energy investments that are coming through the Inflation Reduction Act,” Harrison wrote.
More union leaders are recognizing that the clean energy transition is not a pipe dream; it’s already creating jobs, and the IRA was the key. “My fellow members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 46 in Western Washington are buying their first homes or getting out of debt after a job on a new clean energy project,” wrote Nicole Grant, IBEW Local 46 political director in Washington, in the Seattle Times.
The IRA became a labor bill almost as much as a climate one. As divisions over the Republican budget continue, a window of opportunity has emerged to build a coalition of labor and environmentalists to defend union jobs. Building trades unions can use the occasion to mobilize members to pressure Republicans reliant on IRA funds for their district.
Through the tireless work of organizations like the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, powerful labor climate coalitions at the state level have formed over the last decade. Despite the unfavorable political environment nationally, states can continue to make progress toward the development of more unionized clean energy jobs. Activists can start now by working to preserve the best of the IRA.
Great Job Paul Prescod & the Team @ Jacobin Source link for sharing this story.
