AFL-CIO and Nation’s Largest Building Trades Endorse Heinrich’s Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act

Broad coalition of national and local labor organizations representing hundreds of thousands of skilled workers supports legislation projected to create up to 105,600 trades and manufacturing jobs

WASHINGTON - The AFL-CIO has endorsed U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich's (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), joining a broad coalition of national and local labor organizations representing the skilled workers who build, operate, and maintain America's energy infrastructure.

The AFL-CIO's endorsement adds to growing support from across organized labor, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), International Association of Iron Workers, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters,International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU), United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, Pipeliners Local 798, and the New Mexico Building and Construction Trades Council. These organizations represent the electricians, ironworkers, sheet metal workers, boilermakers, Teamsters, operating engineers, laborers, plumbers, pipefitters, and other skilled tradespeople who will build the next generation of America's energy infrastructure.

The labor support comes as an independent analysis from Employ America estimates that BAAJA will create up to 105,600 trades and manufacturing jobs through 2040 by making it easier to build and maintain new energy infrastructure, including wind, solar, battery storage, and transmission projects.

BAAJA will lower energy costs for working families, provide greater certainty for energy infrastructure projects, and help ensure American workers are on the job building the infrastructure our country needs.

Independent analyses find that BAAJA will:

1. Create up to 105,600 trades and manufacturing jobs through 2040;
2. Require data centers to pay for increased grid and energy costs they create, estimated at $55 billion over the next 10 years;
3. Save $19 billion in residential electricity bills over the next 14 years;
4. Nearly double the amount of solar and wind that can connect to the grid; and
5. Avoid 1.5 gigatons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of taking 39 coal plants offline for a decade.

BAAJA will lower energy costs for working families, provide greater certainty for energy infrastructure projects, and help ensure American workers are on the job building the infrastructure our country needs.

A fact sheet on BAAJA is here.

The full text of the bill is here.

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