Biden Says His Climate Plan Means Jobs. Some Union Members Are Skeptical – By Reid Frazier (NPR) / April 15 2021
President Biden is selling the climate friendly aspects of his $2 trillion infrastructure plan as a chance to create good-paying union jobs. But at a local branch of one of the country’s oldest unions, there are doubts that dealing with climate change will be good for workers here, in the oil-and-gas state of Pennsylvania.
Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh builds and maintains coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. During a training session, a handful of members practice welding behind a thick blue safety curtain, part of preparations to repair and rebuild the boiler in a coal-fired power plant.
“That boiler is 100-some feet high,” explains Shawn Steffee, the business agent for Local 154. “And they go up, way up in that boiler.”
It’s highly skilled work that can pay well, sometimes six figures — the “pinnacle” of blue collar jobs, says Steffee. And it’s exactly the kind of job he worries will disappear if Biden’s climate policies speed up the decline of fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy.
