The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 9 hosted a workshop led by a community offshore wind developer on Nov. 20 to expose high school students to opportunities in the trades that intersect with the burgeoning wind power industry.
The National Apprenticeship Week event brought around 400 students into the DC 9 training facility in Long Island City to demonstrate some of the construction trades that offshore wind development projects are using in New York.
The developer, Community Offshore Wind is a joint venture of German-based offshore wind developer RWE and National Grid, which has submitted an ambitious proposal to build out clean offshore wind energy projects off the New York coast along South Brooklyn and Long Island.
“It’s not just about creating a good job, it’s creating a good job in an industry that is helping the planet transition to a new and more sustainable economy,” said Mariah Dignan, a labor manager for Community Offshore Wind. “It was great to see all of the students putting those pieces together and why it’s important to do events like this because you can’t think of your dream job if you’re not exposed to it.”
At the event, students practiced crafts like welding in a virtual welding machine, worked with glazers putting together pieces of glass, and set up harnesses that are used by the bridge painters on their elevated paint jobs.
Of those trades, the one that’s likely to have the most transferable skills to the offshore wind industry is that of the Bridge Painters Local 806, said Dignan. One specialized skill of the bridge painters involves different types of coatings for structural steel, which is important to prevent rust on large wind turbine structures in the ocean.
“We have to be able to trust the different types of coatings and multi-layer coatings that we’re gonna have on the different components of the turbine and the offshore substation,” Dignan said.
New York expects the offshore wind industry to create more than 10,000 jobs in fields like manufacturing, construction, installation, research and development, and operations and maintenance. Community Offshore Wind’s most recent project proposal would create around 700 jobs, a majority of which the developer said would be unionized, with a commitment to utilizing union labor for the construction of the project. As evidenced by the collaboration at this event, the proposal has been embraced by some construction trades unions.
“The opportunities that offshore wind will bring to New York in the years to come will create tremendous job growth, particularly for union workers, and we need to make sure the next generation of hardworking New Yorkers are ready to seize these new opportunities when they become available,” said Joseph Azzopardi, DC 9’s business manager/secretary treasurer. “Community Offshore Wind continues to be a fantastic partner to us as we work to educate young people about the careers available in the trades.”
