US Unions Fight for Clean Energy Jobs
US unions are fighting to protect clean energy jobs amid attacks from the Trump administration
The Trump administration is trying to dismantle gains made in the clean energy sector, but labor leaders say they are ready to fight back. According to Mike Fishman, president and executive director of the Climate Jobs National Resource Center (CJNRC), the organization has spent years working to ensure that workers have the opportunity to develop lifelong, unionized careers in clean energy.
The CJNRC has its origins in New York after Hurricane Sandy, which was a wake-up call for the labor movement. Fishman said that climate change is real and it's only getting worse, and that workers are getting hit first and worst. The organization has been working to build a blueprint for a statewide clean energy transition that puts workers at the center.
'This is going to be union work'
The CJNRC has been pushing for a nine-gigawatt buildout of offshore wind capacity, which is far larger than what other climate groups were demanding. In 2019, the then governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, adopted the coalition's ambitious vision, committing the state to building that much offshore wind capacity by 2035. The legislature later enshrined the target in the landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The group has also secured strong labor and equity provisions for renewable energy, including prevailing wage and project labor agreement requirements for large projects. Lara Skinner, founding executive director of Cornell's Climate Jobs Institute, said that unions were initially skeptical of wind projects, but now see them as an opportunity for unionized work.
A boost from Biden
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by Joe Biden in 2022 provided powerful new incentives for clean-energy projects to meet prevailing-wage and apprenticeship requirements. John Podesta, climate and energy adviser to Biden, said that the IRA was the first time that labor standards were attached to private sector investments. The IRA has helped launch coalitions of unions in nine states to advocate for unionized clean jobs.
The following states have secured support for unionized green jobs:
| State | Organization | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | AFL-CIO | 2021 |
| Connecticut | 2021 | |
| Illinois | 2021 | |
| Rhode Island | 2021 | |
| Maine | 2022 |
Trump's attempts to interfere
The Trump administration has moved to dismantle much of Biden's climate agenda, including targeting the federal incentives that helped drive clean-energy investment. The president has also singled out offshore wind, claiming it causes cancer, kills birds and other wildlife, and destroys property values. In 2025, the administration moved to accelerate the phaseout of the IRA's clean-electricity tax credits for wind and solar projects.
Ryan McElroen, a worker on the Sunrise Wind farm, said that the stop-work order issued by the Trump administration was a crazy, uncertain feeling. His union, the IBEW Local 3, and the rest of Climate Jobs New York set out to mobilize against the order. Chris Erickson, the local's business manager, said that the union had press conferences, rallies, and brought attention to the issue to push back against the Trump administration's attacks.
