Orsted is partnering with North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) in a deal aimed at transitioning US union construction workers into the offshore wind industry.
NABTU represents over 3 million skilled craft professionals and will also collaborate with the leadership of the 14 US NABTU affiliates and the AFL-CIO on the plan.
The framework sets a model for labour-management cooperation and workforce development in the offshore wind industry, Orsted said.
Orsted and its partners will work together with the building trades’ unions to identify the skills necessary to accelerate an offshore wind construction workforce.
The groups will match those needs against the available workforce, timelines, scopes of work, and certification requirements to fulfill Orsted’s pipeline of projects off the East Coast.
The company said there are currently 15 active commercial leases for offshore wind development in the US, which, according to a report released by the American Wind Energy Association, if fully built, would support up to 30GW of offshore wind capacity, an estimated 83,000 jobs and $25bn in annual economic output within the next decade.
NABTU president Sean McGarvey said: “Today’s agreement expands career pathways of opportunities for our members to flourish in this transition
“Our highly trained men and women professionals have the best craft skills in the world, and now will gain new experience in deep-water ocean work.
“Our agreement is based on a successful model developed by the Rhode Island Building Trades for the Block Island wind farm.
“We commend Orsted for coming to the table to work in partnership with us and our membership, and we also thank AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler for her help and support throughout the process.”
Orsted Offshore North America chief executive David Hardy said: “Orsted believes the best workers are always the best-trained workers, and we are proud to have earned a strong record of working with skilled union labor to build the country’s first offshore wind farm, the Block Island wind farm, where more than 300 union workers were employed.
“We appreciate NABTU’s cooperation and the collaborative approach our union partners have brought to this endeavor and look forward to learning from and working with them on this groundbreaking partnership.”