The Labor Day Legacy Of Offshore Wind Workers – CleanTechnica

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Almost one hundred and forty-three years ago, on September 5, 1882, workers in New York City celebrated the first Labor Day holiday with a parade. The occasion became an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of US workers and their contributions to the country’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.

Workers marched this Labor Day, September 1, 2025, in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies that have forced federal employees from their jobs, attempted to weaken collective bargaining, cut the minimum wage, eviscerated Medicaid, and removed legal immigrant workers. Nearly 1,000 “Worker over Billionaire” protests were held in all 50 states as part of a Labor Day week of action organized by labor unions and advocacy groups.

The Enfield, Connecticut group numbered just about 100 persons but seemed to spur a robust response from motorists, large numbers of whom waved and honked as they drove by.

These protests complemented a national poll conducted by the AFL-CIO and David Binder Research, which found trust in labor unions is at 55% – larger than the 36% of respondents who said they trusted the Democratic party and the 35% of respondents who said they trusted the Republican party.

Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, argued, “People are waking up to the fact we don’t have to just sit back and take it, and the labor movement is the place to go to channel that activism, to build what’s next, and we’re putting forward a vision for what the economy can be.”

Offshore Wind Construction Workers are Uncertain of their Next Paychecks

As of December 2024, private companies had announced more than $450 billion in new clean energy investments in almost every state in the US since President Joe Biden had taken office. These new investments helped create more than 400,000 good-paying clean energy jobs during Biden’s term.

In contrast, Trump celebrated Labor Day this year by praising US workers but also enacting a stop-work order that halted construction of a nearly-finished offshore wind farm, sidelining roughly 1,000 workers. The Administration has cancelled $679 million in funding for offshore wind projects.

The Revolution Wind farm off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island was 80% constructed and set to be completed in early 2026. Once online it could power more than 350,000 homes and enable Rhode Island to meet its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2033. Cancellation of this funding places Connecticut and Rhode Island jobs in jeopardy.

Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said his members were caught off-guard by the administration’s move against the Revolution Wind project. “A lot of them voted for Trump, and they didn’t vote to have their jobs cut,” Crowley said. “That’s the level of anger right now.”

The Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut explained that the offshore Wind project is part of a $20 billion investment in “American energy generation, port infrastructure, supply chain, and domestic shipbuilding and manufacturing across over 40 states” by Ørsted, a Danish multinational company. “This move jeopardizes a critical source of clean, reliable energy for our region, along with the vital jobs, infrastructure investments, and energy cost savings it supports.”

As if the halt to the Revolution Wind project wasn’t enough, the Department of Energy also announced it is withdrawing a $716 million loan guarantee to complete infrastructure for an offshore wind project in New Jersey.

Historian and social commentator Heather Cox Richardson stated that the cancellations reflect Trump’s “apparent determination to kill off wind and solar power initiatives and to force the United States to depend on fossil fuels,” unlike former president Joe Biden, who made “investing in clean energy a central pillar of his administration.”

Lou Antonellis, the business manager of the Massachusetts International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103, added that the cuts to renewable energy projects in the US were not just cuts to projects.

“You’re pulling paychecks from working families, you’re pulling apprentices out of training facilities, you’re pulling opportunity straight out of our communities. Every solar panel installed, every wind turbine wired, every EV charger connected, that’s a job with wages, healthcare, and a pension that stands for dignity for the American worker. You don’t kill that kind of progress: you build on it.”

Clean Energy Investment at Odds with the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Costliness

In 2023, clean energy investments powered strong overall growth of jobs in the energy sector. Unionization rates in clean energy grew to their highest level yet, driven by large increases in union-dense construction and utility employment. Energy employers reported less difficulty in hiring qualified workers than in the previous year. US energy sector jobs grew 3% in 2023, outpacing solid overall US employment growth by 50%. Energy sector employment increased by over 250,000 from 8.10 million total energy jobs in 2022 to 8.35 million in 2023.

The Trump policies to prop up the fossil fuel industry fail to take into account the strength and promise of the renewable energy sector. Meanwhile, as Trump pushes misinformation about renewables, electricity prices are steadily rising upward. Across the country, electricity prices have jumped more than twice as fast as the overall cost of living in the last year. July’s fossil generation peak was the highest monthly total in nine years and yielded the largest US monthly power sector emissions toll since August 2021.

The country’s largest grid, which stretches from Virginia to Illinois, depends on electricity that is derived from natural gas, coal, and nuclear reactors. The Energy Department says the cost of gas used to generate power jumped more than 40% in the first half of this year compared to 2024. Another 17% increase is expected next year.

Bappa Sinha writes in People’s Democracy that each energy administration carries “with it the underpinnings of an entire social order. Energy determines the productive forces, which in turn shape the relations of society. The type of power harnessed plays a significant role in shaping society.” Take the sun and wind. They’re free and abundant and free. After their infrastructure is in place, the ongoing cost of production plunges. “Where fossil fuels breed monopolies and imperial rivalries,” Sinha notes, “renewables open the possibility of decentralization, abundance, and long term planning.”

It’s easy to forget how the electricity grid arose from the fossil and nuclear age. Its extensive networks moved electricity from enormous centralized generation facilities located away from end-users and connected to a network of high-voltage transmission lines. It allowed the US to become an electrified economy. But no longer can fossil fuels and nuclear meet the needs of humans — grids must be altered so that vast arrays of solar panels, wind farms, and batteries can proliferate across the world.