Building trades unions, long fashioned as the voice of the American worker, are now deeply intertwined with the richest companies in the world as they speed construction of the data centers powering the artificial intelligence economy, according to union officials, tech executives and a review of public meetings across the country.
The alliance places unions in a novel and occasionally contentious position. Union members and leaders are showing up at packed municipal meetings, in statehouses and at press conferences to advocate for projects that are facing a fierce backlash from residents and environmental groups. Their argument is both economic and geopolitical: the projects deliver a once-in-a-generation boom in well-paying construction jobs, and they are essential to beating China in the race for AI.
“When people say, you know, ‘data centers are the root of all evil,’ we’re just saying, ‘look, they do create a hell of a lot of construction jobs, which we live and work in your communities,’” Rob Bair, president of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council, told The Associated Press.
Instead of a “blunt ‘no,’” Bair said, communities should negotiate with tech companies for concessions such as project improvements or millions of dollars for local schools. “If you don’t ask, you’re never gonna get,” he said.
The jobs figures illustrate why unions are leaning in. Data centers account for at least 40% of all work hours done by members of the Columbus-Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, according to a top official, Dorsey Hager. For the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26 in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the figure is at least 50%, spokesperson Don Slaiman said.
The umbrella North America’s Building Trades Unions reported it hit a record number of members and apprentices in 2025. Its president, Sean McGarvey, compared the expansion to the build trades’ growth spurt in the 1950s and attributed today’s boom to data centers, power plants and legislation under former President Joe Biden that subsidized the construction of advanced manufacturing facilities.
The unprecedented demand for electricity from data centers is also triggering a surge in power plant construction, delivering a second windfall for unions whose members build and maintain boilers, pipelines and other power infrastructure. The Boilermakers Local 154 in southwestern Pennsylvania, which watched power plants shut down for years, went from recruiting zero apprentices for four consecutive years to assembling a class of more than 200 — and still needs more, union official Shawn Steffee said.
Tech companies, for their part, say they need to train hundreds of thousands more skilled trades workers and are pouring tens of millions of dollars into training programs, often in partnership with the unions they hire.
“Across the country, highly skilled union construction workers are laying the foundation for the AI economy,” Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, said in a joint statement in March with McGarvey’s organization.
Google said a majority of the labor on its data center projects is unionized and highlighted a $10 million grant to a union-backed electrician training program that it said would expand the electrician workforce pipeline by 70%.
Union leaders are candid about the criticism they face for collaborating with the world’s most powerful corporations.
Mark McManus, general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, acknowledged that organized labor is accused of getting “in bed” with the tech giants. He called the idea of a union-led moratorium on data center construction unrealistic.
“If we chose as a union to have a moratorium on building the data centers because we didn’t believe it was right for America, the data centers would still be getting built,” McManus said. “They’re not stopping because of organized labor.”
His union has members working on more than 90% of data center projects in the United States, he added.
The union presence is being felt in legislative chambers and local government meetings. In Maine, unions worked against a since-vetoed proposal for a statewide data center moratorium. In Virginia, they opposed ending a sales tax exemption that helped make the state the world’s largest data center destination. In Illinois, they fought proposed standards that would require data centers to supply their own energy.
Pennsylvania state Sen. Katie Muth, a Democrat, said it has been difficult to rally support from fellow Democrats for her data-center regulation bill when it competes with union-backed legislation she considers weaker.
“The unions don’t want to promote anything that would impede data center development,” Muth said.
In Joliet, Illinois, resident Alicia Morales complained to the City Council that union members holding “vote yes for union jobs” signs had been “disrespectful” and “bullied a lot of people” entering the meeting. In Hobart, Indiana, union representatives were the only people in a packed municipal meeting room to speak in support of an Amazon data center project.
“I just want to commend you guys, thanks for being the adults in the room,” Chuck Curry, president of Ironworkers Local 395, told the City Council. “Knowing the tax structure, knowing business, that most of the people here don’t know.”
When Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro stood with Amazon executives to announce the company would spend $20 billion on two data center projects in eastern Pennsylvania, Bair stood alongside them. “This is really unique, what we’re building here in this commonwealth. People coming together with common purpose to get stuff done,” Shapiro said.