As always, Labor Day is a time for reflection…and a time to reconnect with our heritage, and how the values and principles for which the American labor movement stands are sorely needed today.
It would be an impressive scene even today: 20,000 workers standing together in New York City to demand workers’ rights. The year was 1882, and with a quarter of a million people watching, they marched carrying banners honoring the contribution of workers in making America great.
This was the first Labor Day. Over a century later, Labor Day provides us the opportunity to look back on past accomplishments that have helped build America’s working class. It allows us to honor the sacrifices made by workers who came before us. And, it is a time to renew our commitment to America’s working families; too many of whom continue to struggle.
At a time when gas prices are pinching family budgets, dependence on foreign energy has reached alarming levels, global warming has become a threat to future generations, and America’s manufacturing base is diminishing, Organized Labor and the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO believe an answer may be one on the horizon.
We know that in order for American workers to do well, our economy must also grow – and it must grow in new ways. While it may not take a brain surgeon to figure out, it might very well take a nuclear scientist.
The energy sector is considering building a new generation of nuclear power plants in the United States that have the potential to provide safe, reliable, clean energy needed to fuel America’s economic growth while creating tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of new, good jobs.
And it will have the added benefit of lessening our dependence upon foreign sources of fossil fuels, and reducing the likelihood that American military forces would be needed to intervene and protect the flow of foreign oil. In the eyes of America’s building trades unions, we would rather have our military veterans work to help us build a new generation of domestic renewable fuels, rather than have them risk life and limb fighting an “oil war” in Iraq, Iran, and now possibly in the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union, where Russian military might is being exerted to seize control of prime oil pipeline routes.
That is why the Building Trades is proud to a participant and a sponsor of the “Helmets to Hardhats” program, which is designed to connect military veterans with the careers and training opportunities that will enable them to obtain stable and secure post-military lives for themselves and their families.
Building just one plant will generate thousands of skilled jobs for ironworkers, laborers, pipe fitters, welders, electricians, cement masons and other skilled trades during peak construction. And operating that plant will require several hundred more permanent employees.
In addition, nuclear power plants fuel local and regional economies. According to a report from the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) the average nuclear plant generates approximately $430 million in sales of goods and services in the local community and nearly $40 million in total labor income annually.
This energy solution is gaining traction in the U.S. Today, 17 energy companies are working on licensing applications for more than 30 new nuclear plants. If America reached a goal of generating 30 percent of our electricity through nuclear power by 2030, meeting that mark would require 170,000 new plant employees, 65,000 skilled trades’ workers at the peak construction and 12,500 new nuclear engineers.
New plants have the potential to help rejuvenate America’s sagging manufacturing sector. to build the first eight plants, we will need over 1,800 miles of cable, more than 11,000 nuclear grade valves, 1400 to 2200 pumps, 30 to 150 miles of nuclear grade piping, over three million cubic yards of concrete, 700,000 electrical components and half a million tons of structural and reinforcing steel.
Currently, too many of these parts are manufactured overseas. But a new generation of plants will help spark a return of manufacturing to the United States. In fact, it has already begun. Plants in Indiana and Tennessee are expanding to manufacture new nuclear grade parts. And, the French energy company, AREVA, has committed to building a new uranium enrichment plant in United States.
In Maryland, we are debating a new nuclear power plant at the Calvert Cliffs facility in addition to the two which have been operating safely for more than 30 years. Because our economy and our energy independence are in the balance, we support the expansion of Calvert Cliffs. It will provide Maryland with quality jobs while adding 1,600 megawatts of generating capacity through a safe, secure and reliable source of power that produces no greenhouse gases.
Making this a reality will require more than private sector investment and labor support. It will require federal help. Construction projects of this scale require federal loan guarantees. These are not hand-outs, but rather a government backing of private investment. The necessary federal legislation for providing this assistance was passed three years ago and funding has been provided in both the 2008 and 2009 budgets. The Department of Energy has even set up an office to administer them. Yet the guarantees sit mired in bureaucratic delays, and time is running out while our economy and our budgets feel the sting.
As we consider the next steps in reviving the American economy and developing energy solutions, we would do well to remember those marchers from 1882. Labor creates wealth and it may well help to create a cleaner planet. Congress should seize this opportunity and act on the federal loan guarantees for nuclear power development. And we hope that our neighbors in Maryland join us in the effort at Calvert Cliffs to spark resurgence in American manufacturing and construction while helping us achieve energy independence.