This is relevant to r/neoliberal because it highlights how building AI infrastructure is creating unexpected coalitions between big tech and labor unions, driven by job creation and economic growth rather than traditional ideological lines. The article shows unions actively supporting data center expansion and pro-business policies, even pushing back against local opposition and hostile legislations which reflects broader neoliberal policies related to growth, industrial policy, and the trade-offs between innovation, externalities, and political constraints.
Unusual-State1827 on
Key points from the article:
>Unions in a number of states are reporting skyrocketing man hours, apprentice classes doubling in size and training centers undergoing expansions in anticipation of more work coming.
>The umbrella North America’s Building Trades Unions said it hit a record number of members and apprentices in 2025.
>The Boilermakers Local 154, whose members have watched power plants shut down in southwestern Pennsylvania, went from recruiting zero apprentices for four years to now assembling a class of over 200 — and they need more, union official Shawn Steffee said.
>In statehouses, unions have worked against Maine’s since-vetoed proposal for a statewide data center moratorium; standards proposed in Illinois, including requiring data centers to supply their own energy; and an end to Virginia’s sales tax exemption that helped make it the world’s biggest data center destination.
>Unions have aggressively answered complaints about data centers in ways that executives at tech giants and the development firms rarely do, unafraid to bluntly confront concerns about energy and water shortages, rising electric and water bills, or noise and quality-of-life objections.
>For their part, tech giants say they need to train hundreds of thousands more workers in skilled trades. They are spending tens of millions of dollars on training programs, including partnerships with unions that they hire to build their multibillion-dollar projects.
RGS_1994 on
Id say their interests are served by all this capex, no?
Does it mean other sections of the working class cant have issues with data centers? clearly not and its not been a job creator at scale as its use case isnt fully proven.
n00bi3pjs on
Rent seekers who benefit from rent seeking allied with rent seekers who don’t want to care about the environment or their local water or energy infrastructure?
Color me shocked
MemeStarNation on
While I’m for a more nuanced approach to data centers than a lot of my peers, I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into this.
AI data centers create short term jobs, but not as many long term ones, and unions have been known to back bad policy (see: UAW and tariffs) due to shortsighted ideas of personal benefit.
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Submission statement:
This is relevant to r/neoliberal because it highlights how building AI infrastructure is creating unexpected coalitions between big tech and labor unions, driven by job creation and economic growth rather than traditional ideological lines. The article shows unions actively supporting data center expansion and pro-business policies, even pushing back against local opposition and hostile legislations which reflects broader neoliberal policies related to growth, industrial policy, and the trade-offs between innovation, externalities, and political constraints.
Key points from the article:
>Unions in a number of states are reporting skyrocketing man hours, apprentice classes doubling in size and training centers undergoing expansions in anticipation of more work coming.
>The umbrella North America’s Building Trades Unions said it hit a record number of members and apprentices in 2025.
>The Boilermakers Local 154, whose members have watched power plants shut down in southwestern Pennsylvania, went from recruiting zero apprentices for four years to now assembling a class of over 200 — and they need more, union official Shawn Steffee said.
>In statehouses, unions have worked against Maine’s since-vetoed proposal for a statewide data center moratorium; standards proposed in Illinois, including requiring data centers to supply their own energy; and an end to Virginia’s sales tax exemption that helped make it the world’s biggest data center destination.
>Unions have aggressively answered complaints about data centers in ways that executives at tech giants and the development firms rarely do, unafraid to bluntly confront concerns about energy and water shortages, rising electric and water bills, or noise and quality-of-life objections.
>For their part, tech giants say they need to train hundreds of thousands more workers in skilled trades. They are spending tens of millions of dollars on training programs, including partnerships with unions that they hire to build their multibillion-dollar projects.
Id say their interests are served by all this capex, no?
Does it mean other sections of the working class cant have issues with data centers? clearly not and its not been a job creator at scale as its use case isnt fully proven.
Rent seekers who benefit from rent seeking allied with rent seekers who don’t want to care about the environment or their local water or energy infrastructure?
Color me shocked
While I’m for a more nuanced approach to data centers than a lot of my peers, I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into this.
AI data centers create short term jobs, but not as many long term ones, and unions have been known to back bad policy (see: UAW and tariffs) due to shortsighted ideas of personal benefit.