New Orleans       It was just a matter of time before the divide within labor once again became impossible to ignore.  This time it was about data centers, which have become a full employment program in many areas of the country for the building trades.  For those who thrive on any disagreements within organized labor, one could predict there would be some chortling by some politicians along with news reports in the predicable places, starting with the Wall Street Journal.

Data centers have become hot button issues in community after community.  We’ve listed the issues before:  water depletion, rate passthroughs to electricity consumers, taxpayer funded breaks and subsidies, pollution, noise, and more.  Arguably, this is the biggest jobs creation around for construction workers, potentially hiring thousands in projects, like with the $50-billion Meta complex in north Louisiana.  Some workers are hoping to get up to four years of work on the same job.  In construction that’s huge, especially if you’ve been sitting on the bench, there’s no doubt about that, even if the employment, once completed, is miniscule.

The Journal quotes building trades unions in the Washington-Baltimore area.  They note that workers have showed up at some planning commission meetings to argue for permitting, even as others have increasingly opposed the projects.  The threat from some is that they will not support Democratic candidates who are questioning data centers, even though the questioning now is bipartisan, which they admit when they cite the case of a candidate in Wisconsin who has some building trades support.  With candidates from both parties now dancing, this seems like a minor to nonexistent threat in most markets.

There’s no question that frequently building trades unions will support construction, no matter what, in order to employ their members, but is this a real problem politically or indicative of a real split within organized labor?  In reality, building trades unions are small nationally relative to the whole labor movement, and in most markets are a decreasing force outside of very big projects, downtown work, and any job requiring highly skilled trades, like plumbers and electricians.  If this were a real issue, trade unions would be up in arms at Republican and Democratic politicians that are signing non-disclosure agreements with big tech and spec developers without assuring that labor is at the table with a project labor agreement or any real commitment for their members’ work.  Building trades need to threaten at the front end, not the back end of these projects.

The AFL-CIO position is in middle of the road asking for “guardrails” without taking a position, which means every union is left on its own to represent their own interest.  This weakens the labor movement more than the brushfires at some public hearings.  Unable to come to a unified position, the AFL-CIO can’t lead.  For labor to lead, the building trades should be in a separate federation, distinct from other organized workers, so that rather than splitting the house of labor there could be clear voices for workers, whether pro or con, exposing self-interest for what it is and public and community interest for what it should be.  All the data center mess really exposes is the inability of the federation to speak with one voice, once again, allowing either party and any politician to claim to speak to and for workers, without fear of accountability and with their fingers always crossed behind their backs.