NJ’s Union Tradespeople Know How to Build Data Centers Responsibly

New Jersey’s union tradespeople will live with the data centers they build alongside their neighbors. Their skills help ensure these facilities are built correctly. Their stake in the community gives them reason to insist on responsible development.

New Jersey should expect both before the first shovel goes into the ground.

When residents hear about a proposed data center, many question whether it belongs in their community. What will it mean for their utility bills, water supplies, and neighborhoods? Those concerns deserve serious answers before any project moves forward.

Union tradespeople have every reason to ask the same questions. Their families pay utility bills and rely on the same water supplies as their neighbors. Will a project strain the grid, shift costs onto households, or disrupt the community? Their interest in getting these projects right follows them home.

As a pipe trades union leader, I believe data centers can be built responsibly, and trusted union labor can help. Our members bring expertise in complex infrastructure and a personal stake in protecting their communities.

The “cloud” has a physical address. Skilled workers must build the facility, install its systems, and ensure they function safely and reliably. It depends on electrical power, sophisticated cooling, and professionals who can put those systems together.

New Jersey has those professionals. They coach our kids’ sports teams and volunteer for the PTA. They are building careers and raising families here. Our digital future should benefit their hometowns, too.

Plumbers, pipefitters, and HVAC technicians build and maintain the mechanical and cooling systems that keep data centers operating. This requires precision, coordination, and specialized training. Union apprenticeships develop that expertise through classroom instruction and supervised, on-the-job experience.

Even the best-trained workforce cannot substitute for sound planning or strong public protections. A facility must fit its location, with credible plans addressing energy demand, water use, and neighborhood impacts.

Developers should pay the costs attributable to serving their facilities. Residents should have a voice before decisions are final. Commitments concerning utility infrastructure, water use, noise, and other community impacts should be specific and enforceable after construction crews leave.

If a proposal cannot meet those expectations, promises of jobs should not move it forward. Labor should insist on these standards, too. A paycheck does not erase concerns about higher utility bills or strained local resources. Our members want good careers and healthy communities. Responsible development must deliver both.

Major data center projects should use project labor agreements that establish standards for wages, benefits, training, safety, and coordination before construction begins. Local hiring and apprenticeship commitments should be measurable, with recruitment that opens doors to residents too often excluded from economic opportunities.

Union apprenticeships offer pathways to good careers. Apprentices earn while they learn, gaining skills that can lead to middle-class stability. For young New Jerseyans, veterans entering civilian life, and people from underserved and underrepresented communities, these programs offer a future close to home.

Construction positions differ from permanent operating positions. Still, dismissing construction work as “temporary” overlooks how careers in the building trades develop. A succession of well-planned projects can sustain careers, prepare workers for future infrastructure needs, and support local businesses where their families spend their paychecks.

Communities should evaluate those benefits alongside a proposal’s full costs and impacts. Developers and public officials must demonstrate how residents will be protected.

As a statewide labor leader, I want unions helping shape that approach now. We bring practical knowledge of complex infrastructure, training programs that prepare the next generation, and deep community ties.

New Jersey should judge proposed data centers by how responsibly they will be built and operated, how they will protect residents, and whether their benefits will reach local workers and families. Our unions are ready to do our part. Developers and public officials must match that commitment with enforceable standards and a willingness to listen.

Union tradespeople’s responsibility to their communities does not end when construction does. They go home to the neighborhoods affected by these decisions. Put their skills to work and insist on protections for the communities they call home. That is how New Jersey should build its digital future.

Michael Tranberg is the Business Manager of UA Local 9 and President of the New Jersey State Association of Pipe Trades.