Unions Applaud Strong Labor Standards on Proposal to Build Energy Storage Facility Project in Lincoln

Maine’s Building and Construction Unions are celebrating the good union jobs that will be created with the construction of a proposed multi-day energy storage facility project at the former paper mill site in Lincoln, Maine. Today, state and federally elected officials announced that the U.S. Department of Energy has selected the New England states’ Power Up New England proposal to receive $389 million in funding for regional electric infrastructure. As part of the grant, Maine will receive $147 million in funding to build what will be New England's largest long-duration energy facility to modernize and strengthen the electrical grid and optimize the delivery of clean renewable energy, including thousands of megawatts of offshore wind. 

Prior to the awarding of the DOE grant, the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council quickly established a mutual agreement with the developer to use a project labor agreement (PLA) on the construction of the facility. PLA’s are pre-hire collective bargaining agreements with contractors that establish the labor and wage standards for construction projects. PLAs, which are open for bidding from both non-union and union contractors alike, ensure projects are built safely on time and under budget using a well-trained, skilled labor force paid living wages with great benefits.

“We are very pleased that the three-state partnership has won this critical funding because of what this will mean for working Maine families and our climate,” said Jason J. Shedlock, President of the Maine Building and Construction Trades Council and Regional Organizer and Secretary Treasurer of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 327. “The Biden/Harris administration has made strong labor standards and project labor agreements a priority when awarding these federal grants and this $389 million award underscores that it pays off when we follow the administration’s guidance it comes to including PLAs in our bids for competitive grants. Once again, we have shown that we can walk and chew gum at the same time — that supporting working Mainers and protecting the environment must never be mutually exclusive. I want to thank Governor Maura Healey and her staff, who took the lead on this effort, as well as my fellow Building Trades Presidents in Massachusetts and Connecticut for showing that solidarity doesn’t stop at the Maine border.”

The award is funded through President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to strengthen the regional electric grid and advance the deployment of clean energy. It will be the first former mill site in New England to be repurposed for a battery storage system. The loss good union manufacturing jobs following the closure of the Lincoln and Paper Mill in 2015 devastated working class families in the region, but the development of clean energy and the infrastructure needed to store and transfer it, presents a tremendous opportunity to build our new clean energy economy with quality, skilled union labor.