How Solar Ironworkers Zapped Tiers

Solar plant installation can involve several union jurisdictions, including IBEW electrical workers, Ironworkers, Laborers, Millwrights and Operating Engineers, but only 10 percent of solar workers have a union. The Ironworkers and other trades are changing that in California, but it is taking time and strategy. Photo: Jim West, jimwestphoto.com.

January 24, 2024 / Keith Brower Brown

California’s solar power plants now rival the scale of any in the world. What stands out most is how they were built: under union contracts.

Across the U.S., nearly 90 percent of solar workers had no union last year. In California, the situation was different—at least on paper. The vast majority of its solar power plants have been wrenched in place by unionized construction workers.

But at first these were union jobs practically in name only, as thousands of unionized solar construction workers toiled on the underside of a two-tier system. Their wages, training, and job security lagged far behind their union siblings. Many questioned if they were members at all.

“As a probationary, pay was $15 an hour or a little less,” said Pablo Perez, an Ironworker on major solar plants near Fresno. “I was one of 100 guys they brought in. When the job was over, you were done.”

FULL story: https://labornotes.org/2024/01/how-solar-ironworkers-zapped-tiers