Rob Bair stands before skeptical town officials and residents worried about power demands and rising bills. The president of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council delivers a straightforward message. Data centers create a hell of a lot of construction jobs.
His words capture a shift few saw coming. As opposition to massive AI infrastructure projects mounts from both environmental activists and local conservatives, building trades unions have emerged as vocal defenders. They stand shoulder to shoulder with Microsoft, Google, Amazon and OpenAI. The alliance redraws old battle lines. It also raises hard questions about who benefits when the computational future arrives in rural America.
Construction on these facilities has accelerated at a pace that strains every measure of capacity. Electricians, pipefitters, ironworkers and boilermakers find themselves in high demand. Unions report man hours on data center projects reaching 40 percent or more of total workload in places like central Ohio and the D.C. suburbs. The United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters claims members appear on over 90 percent of such builds nationwide, according to an internal survey reported by the Associated Press.
Numbers tell part of the story. North America’s Building Trades Unions hit record membership and apprentice counts in 2025. Classes have doubled in size at training centers. Boilermakers Local 154 in southwestern Pennsylvania went from recruiting no apprentices for four straight years to assembling a cohort of more than 200. They still need more. Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, compares the surge to the expansion of the 1950s. Data centers, new power plants, semiconductor factories and grid upgrades all feed the same pipeline.
Tech companies pour tens of millions into these programs. Google committed $10 million to a union-backed electricians training initiative. The investment is projected to expand the available workforce by 70 percent. Microsoft partnered with the same umbrella labor group to offer free AI literacy courses and credentials to craft professionals across the continent. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, joined McGarvey in a March statement praising highly skilled union construction workers for laying the foundation of the AI economy.
Mark McManus, general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, cuts to the pragmatic core. “If we chose as a union to have a moratorium on building the data centers because we didn’t believe it was right for America, the data centers would still be getting built,” he told the Associated Press. “They’re not stopping because of organized labor.”
That reality shapes strategy. Unions negotiate project labor agreements that guarantee union work, set wages and expand apprenticeship slots. The first such deal for a major AI campus covers the Oracle and OpenAI Stargate project in Michigan. Similar pacts appeared for a large campus in Arizona. In Pennsylvania, Bair stood alongside Gov. Josh Shapiro and Amazon executives during the announcement of $20 billion in new data center investment. “This is really unique, what we’re building here in this commonwealth,” Shapiro said. “People coming together with common purpose to get stuff done.”
Yet the partnership carries tension. Permanent staffing at completed data centers remains modest. Most jobs vanish once the concrete cures and servers hum online. Critics point out that communities absorb long-term costs in strained power grids, water consumption and altered landscapes while reaping mostly temporary construction paychecks. Local opposition has hardened in Michigan, Illinois, Maine and Virginia. Residents cite noise, traffic, soaring electricity rates and environmental strain.
Unions counter by showing up at municipal hearings. They carry signs reading “vote yes for union jobs.” In Joliet, Illinois, union members filled council chambers during debate over an Amazon facility. In Hobart, Indiana, Ironworkers Local 395 President Chuck Curry urged approval. The approach sometimes draws charges of bullying from frustrated homeowners. Pennsylvania state Sen. Katie Muth observed that unions resist any measure that might slow development.
The Futurism piece captured the contradiction sharply. Unions, long seen as counterweights to corporate power, now help tech giants overcome grassroots resistance. Bair’s comment about data centers not being “the root of all evil” but instead sources of work for people who live in these towns frames the narrow focus. Short-term gains for trades workers outweigh diffuse costs borne by everyone else. Or so the calculation goes.
Recent developments add layers. A fresh analysis from Construction Owners two days ago notes the boom continues to drive union expansion while reshaping political coalitions. Unions lobby against proposed moratoriums in Congress and statehouses. They argue that bans would simply push projects to non-union states or abroad, costing American workers. In Colorado, labor groups split with environmental organizations over legislation that would impose stricter energy standards on new facilities. Union voices warned that such rules would send jobs to Wyoming.
Electricians remain the clearest bottleneck. Industry estimates place electrical work at 45 to 70 percent of data center construction costs. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers warns of 200,000 retirements over the next decade alongside the need for 300,000 additional skilled workers. Apprenticeship recruitment ads now run constantly on television and radio. The pressure shows no sign of easing.
Tech executives echo national security themes. They frame the buildout as essential to keeping pace with China. Unions adopt the same language. The stance places traditional labor allies in awkward alignment with Republican governors and business-first policymakers. Democrats face pressure to pick sides between progressive constituents demanding tighter regulation and the building trades that deliver votes and campaign muscle.
Outcomes vary by location. Some towns extract concessions. Others watch projects advance with minimal local benefit. In Berwick, Pennsylvania, an Amazon Web Services center rises next to a nuclear plant. The proximity eases some power concerns but does little to quiet worries about water use and grid stability. Similar stories repeat from the Midwest to the Mountain West.
And the scale keeps growing. Hyperscale facilities consume electricity equivalent to small cities. Their thirst for clean, reliable power collides with aging infrastructure and renewable targets. Unions involved in both data center and power plant construction find themselves positioned on both sides of the energy debate. They build the demand drivers and the generation capacity meant to meet it.
Whether this alliance produces durable gains for workers remains uncertain. Construction wages rise during the surge. Training programs expand. Yet the work remains cyclical. Once the initial wave passes, what follows? Unions hope sustained investment in AI infrastructure and related manufacturing will maintain momentum. Skeptics see a repeat of past booms that left hollowed communities and underemployed tradespeople.
Bair’s advice to localities lingers. Instead of saying no, figure out what you need and ask for it. Schools, infrastructure upgrades, community funds. The suggestion assumes tech companies will bargain in good faith when pressed. History offers mixed evidence. Some deals deliver. Many deliver less than promised.
The partnerships deepen. OpenAI formalized ties with North America’s Building Trades Unions earlier this year to accelerate U.S. construction. Microsoft expanded its training commitments in April. These moves signal that the relationship has moved beyond transactional site agreements into strategic workforce planning. For an industry often criticized for hostility to organized labor, the outreach represents calculated pragmatism. Skilled craftspeople have become a scarce resource worth courting.
Communities caught in the middle weigh the tradeoffs daily. Jobs today versus higher bills and altered quality of life tomorrow. Union members who live in these towns must balance paychecks against neighbors’ complaints. The fault lines do not break along simple partisan or class divides. They reflect the messy reality of technological change arriving faster than society can absorb it.
One thing appears clear. Data centers are getting built. The question unions have answered, at least for now, is who builds them. Their bet rests on the belief that capturing construction work today creates leverage for better standards tomorrow. Time will test that wager. The servers, meanwhile, continue to multiply. And the trades keep pouring concrete.
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