Labor & Employment Law

Union Leaders Praise Obama?s Support for Nuclear Plant

By James Parks

Union leaders praised President Obama’s announcement yesterday of federal loan guarantees for the construction of two advanced reactors at the Plant Vogtle nuclear power station in Georgia. They said it is a major step forward in addressing the nation’s energy needs as well as creating badly needed jobs. And they urged the president to ensure all the components used in the plant are made in America.  

Obama made the announcement during a visit to an apprenticeship training facility in the Washington, D.C., suburbs that is jointly administered by Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 26 and local electrical contractors. Check out a video of the announcement here.

IBEW President Edwin Hill said:

The loan guarantee for construction of a nuclear plant in Georgia is a prime example of what needs to be done to address the jobs crisis in our nation. The public and private sectors must work together. The jobs must go to people in the local areas so that their wages can be pumped back into the local community. And the fact that the project will help address our critical need for clean, reliable, safe energy is a major plus.

The IBEW and the other building trades unions have long supported federal loan guarantees for the construction of nuclear power facilities. Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), said the announcement is “an acknowledgment that our nation is in need of a comprehensive and sensible national energy policy that will strengthen our economic and national security.” 

Our growing needs for affordable energy, combined with price volatility, dependence upon politically unstable regimes that supply much of our oil and gas, and global climate change concerns demands that nuclear power be a central part of the discussion over our national energy policy.

United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard sent a letter to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory B. Jaczko asking that all components for nuclear facilities in the Plant Vogtle project be made in this country. In a statement, Gerard said:

 …at a time of high unemployment and a continuing economic crisis, we need to utilize every policy tool available to create jobs and promote domestic economic growth. Sourcing key components from foreign nations?China, most specifically?could put in jeopardy our citizens’ safety and undermine efforts to promote economic growth and job creation.  

By making the announcement at Local 26’s Joint Apprenticeship Training Center, Obama recognized the important role that skilled craft training programs will play to ensure that a revitalized nuclear industry is coupled with high-road jobs and careers, Ayers said.

Hill added that the Plant Vogtle project will help create jobs in other industries such as construction, manufacturing of parts for these plants as well as skilled personnel needed to run them.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 17, 2010 (boomark / email).