Canceled federal funding threatens SMART members’ jobs at port projects

In late August, President Trump’s Department of Transportation canceled $679 million in federal funding for 12 offshore wind projects across the country. That included fully taking back hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money for infrastructure work at Humboldt Bay Harbor District in Northern California — immediately throwing Local 104 members’ work opportunities into question, in the short and long term.

“As long as this administration makes decisions that directly impact our members, I’m going to keep calling balls and strikes. This decision is clearly a ball,” said SMART General President Michael Coleman. “For our members in Northern California, this was a once-in-a-lifetime project — one that was going to create dozens of jobs in the short term, and keep employing Local 104 sheet metal workers for the long haul. Taking back that grant money, which was already awarded, just makes zero sense.”

The DOT had originally awarded a $426 million infrastructure grant to the Humboldt Bay Harbor District, allowing the Harbor District and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Humboldt and Del Norte Counties — which includes Local 104 — to agree to the very first project labor agreement in the region. Around 90% of that grant was earmarked for the development of a heavy-lift marine terminal to support offshore wind; money that has since been pulled back, putting construction in jeopardy.

When SMART members hear “offshore wind,” they may not immediately think “sheet metal jobs.” But the fact is, the Humboldt offshore wind development would have turned a brownfield site into a full-blown, brand-new facility, expected to include multiple new buildings. That means sheet metal work: duct fabrication, facility construction and potentially up to dozens of Local 104 members on-site at various project phases. And that was just the immediate opportunity. The offshore wind company, RWE, had signed a memorandum of understanding that committed to using union labor for long-term operations and maintenance of the facility, guaranteeing work for years to come. 

“In short, this project represented a generational opportunity for our members in an area that doesn’t see many large infrastructure projects,” said Local 104 State Legislative Director Vince Sugrue. “The cuts are a devastating blow to the immediate construction jobs that would have put our members to work, but also to the long-term union maintenance and operations jobs that were guaranteed under the MOU.”

The Humboldt Bay Harbor District is just one example of many jeopardized jobs across the country. In Massachusetts, the DOT canceled $34 million in federal funding for the Salem Wind Port Project, where work had already started. The project was expected to create 800 construction jobs over the next couple years.

“Our government leaders have the power to do things that directly benefit our members. Federal funding for these port projects is a great example of that,” General President Coleman said. “Taking that funding away, and threatening our members’ jobs by doing so, is just not the right thing to do for members, our families or our country.”

Additional projects impacted:

Withdrawn funding:

• Sparrows Point Steel Marshalling Port Project (Maryland)
• Bridgeport Port Authority Operations and Maintenance Wind Port Project (Connecticut)
• Wind Port at Paulsboro (New Jersey)
• Arthur Kill Terminal (Staten Island, New York)
• Gateway Upgrades for Access, Resiliency & Development at the Port of Davisville Project (Rhode Island)
• Norfolk Offshore Wind Logistics Port (Virginia)

Terminated funding:

• Redwood Marine Terminal Project Planning (Northern California)
• Lake Erie Renewable Energy Resilience Project (Michigan)
• Radio Island Rail Improvements in Support of Offshore Wind (Maryland)
• PMT Offshore Wind Development (Virginia)