Environmental groups and unions representing construction workers found common ground this summer over President Donald Trump’s blocking of offshore wind projects.
The Revolution Wind offshore turbine farm off the coast of Rhode Island is 80 percent complete, but its fate remains uncertain after the Department of Interior issued a stop-work order on August 22.
“The full thing was finally getting put together and having it stopped like that was out of nowhere,” said Antonio Gianfrancesco, a Laborer from Local 271 who has been working the project for more than two years.
The project’s halt resulted in a fiery statement from Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), an alliance of fourteen construction unions:
Trump just fired 1,000 of our members who had already labored to complete 80 percent of this major energy project. A ‘stop-work order’ is the fancy bureaucratic term, but it means one thing: throwing skilled American workers off the job after they’ve spent a decade training, building, and delivering.
“For the Department of the Interior to come in and put a stop order on the job, it’s just a slap on the face,” said carpenter Tony Vaz, who had been working on Revolution Wind for several months. He was preparing to start another four-week stint on the offshore construction site on August 28.
“I really can’t understand the decision,” said Vaz. “They’re talking about national security. We’re trying to create energy to solve the energy crisis. If you don’t have the energy, you are going…
Auteur: Kari Thompson
