Inflation Reduction Act delivers ironworker jobs

From The Ironworker Magazine — April 2024 Cover Story —

News coverage during an election year focuses too much on the political horse race. In The Ironworker, we focus instead on the issues that matter to ironworkers — like clean energy jobs. Clean energy is a booming industry, and laws our union fought to pass are delivering jobs to ironworkers.

One of the most significant wins of the last few years is the huge shift in union power in the clean energy industry. It’s also the victory that most of us don’t know much about. Many people know about the roads and bridges built by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) but don’t realize the law also has considerable investments in clean energy construction. And even fewer folks know much about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the biggest clean energy investment in world history.

But we can’t afford not to understand this clean energy revolution or sit back and watch it happen. Without us seizing the opportunity of the BIL and IRA, nonunion corporations will lock us out of the industry. And powerful interest groups are already working to claw back our hard-won victories.

The long fight

Clean energy comes in many forms and has been growing for decades. Renewables like wind and solar have become a low-cost source of power and are getting built faster than any other source of electricity. Nuclear remains a reliable source of both clean energy and jobs. New technologies like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and hydrogen are taking off. And electric vehicles (EVs) are now all over the place — and so are their new factories.

During all this time, the industry has fought to keep it nonunion. Labor negotiated with the renewable companies early on to get Davis-Bacon prevailing wage on the tax credits that support wind and solar, but developers refused to make a deal. Year after year, their lobbyists blocked our push for labor standards in energy legislation. This came to a head in the last year of the Trump administration when these interest groups killed the labor standards we had fought for in the latest round of energy tax credits — and Donald Trump signed that anti-union bill into law.

From defeat to victory

The Iron Workers negotiated hard with Joe Biden’s campaign before we endorsed it in 2020. Biden offered this deal to labor: He wouldn’t agree with us on every project and permit, but he wouldn’t throw in with the build-nothing environmental interest groups either. He would support every type of clean energy, including carbon capture and nuclear, and would fight to get projects built union.

Biden kept that promise. First, his signature Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was the largest expansion of the Department of Energy since the agency was created. BIL programs fund every type of clean energy project and include prevailing wages. The president can’t legally force projects to be built union, but his administration does everything it can to choose union projects and push companies to the table.

Second, and even more important, is the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA is legislation that lowers energy costs by building more clean energy. Past presidents knuckled under to industry on prevailing wage for energy tax credits, but Biden steamrolled the opposition. IRA tax credits have the prevailing wage we’ve fought for and go further by requiring registered apprentices and American-made materials on these renewable projects. IRA massively boosted the funding in BIL clean energy programs. The credits have boosted the nuclear, hydrogen and CCS industries and turbocharged the construction of EV and battery factories across the U.S.

Opportunity — and threats

The IRA and BIL have put us in the driver’s seat of this rising economy. Ironworkers build energy across the United States; clean energy is the lion’s share of those projects. New EVs and battery plants are the megaprojects driving work for many locals. More IRA funding hits the streets every month, more projects get announced every day — and most ironworkers on these projects don’t realize they’re built union because of Joe Biden’s legislation.

We need to arm ourselves with knowledge. The IRA is the greatest tool we’ve ever had to secure clean energy jobs, but it’s not a magic wand. We must understand and leverage these programs to bring developers to the table. If the opportunity passes us by, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.

We also need to know these wins are under serious threat. The BIL and IRA are Joe Biden’s signature legislative achievements. They are squarely in the bullseye of partisan politics, and our opponents will do anything they can to repeal, defund and undercut them. What they don’t get rid of outright can be redirected to the nonunion sector.

Every Republican in the House of Representatives has voted for legislation that would gut the IRA. The party’s infrastructure proposal would strip away the most essential parts of the BIL. Every Republican presidential candidate, including Donald Trump, has campaigned against this legislation and the projects we’re working on. If they win this November, there is nothing our union can do to hold on to our gains.

The next fight

It is essential to stay up-to-date and advocate for the protection of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, critical pieces of legislation needed for securing union clean energy jobs. Your support and informed decision-making in the upcoming election can make a difference in preserving these legislative achievements.

This is our moment. Past generations of ironworkers recognized opportunities like the Inflation Reduction Act and used them to organize whole industries. They also stuck together to defend what they built and pass it on to us. The IRA is our opportunity in clean energy, and this election is our only chance to protect it.

Everyone’s vote is their choice, but we should all go to the polling booth informed about what’s at stake for us as union ironworkers.

The Ironworker Magazine is an official publication of the International Association Of Bridge,  Structural, Ornamental And Reinforcing Iron Workers.

Ironworker Magazine Photo (above) caption: William Collins Jr., of Local 704 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) working at the Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Unit Plant project.