Ørsted Pens Offshore Wind Workforce Deal with NABTU

Offshore wind developer Ørsted has signed an agreement with North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the labor organization representing more than 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada.

"The partnership will create a national agreement designed to transition U.S. union construction workers into the offshore wind industry in collaboration with the leadership of the 14 U.S. NABTU affiliates and the AFL-CIO," Ørsted said.

The framework sets a model for labor-management cooperation and workforce development in the budding offshore wind industry, the Danish firm said.

As part of this national framework, Ørsted, along with their 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 Ørsted’s pipeline of projects down the East Coast, creating expansive job opportunities in a brand-new American industry for years to come and raising economics for a just transition in the renewable sector.

83,000 jobs

There are currently 15 active commercial leases for offshore wind development in the U.S. According to a report released by the American Wind Energy Association,  as cited by Ørsted on Wednesday, if fully built, these leases would support up to 30 GW of offshore wind capacity – representing an estimated 83,000 jobs and $25 billion in annual economic output within the next decade.

“Today’s agreement expands career pathways of opportunities for our members to flourish in this transition,” said Sean McGarvey, adding that with the deal, its members will gain new experience in deep-water ocean work. 

Ørsted has the largest footprint of any offshore wind developer operating in U.S. waters, having been awarded 2.9GW of power contracts up and down the Eastern seaboard from Rhode Island to Maryland. 

"This announcement underscores the company’s desire to solidify offshore wind’s position as an incubator for union green-collar job creation and innovation," Ørsted said Wednesday.

Related: New CEO Named for Ørsted Offshore North America

“Ørsted 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,” said David Hardy, CEO of Ørsted Offshore North America. “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.”

"These are the green jobs of the future, and this framework demonstrates that just transition can be accomplished through prioritization of workforce training and middle-class labor standards with family-sustaining wages, healthcare benefits, and pension security," Ørsted's statement released on Wednesday, reads.