U.S. Building Trades Unions See Record Growth from Data Center Construction Surge

Unionized workers are employed on a huge number of massive data center projects across the United States, as building trades unions intertwine with the world's richest companies to construct the nation's artificial intelligence economy. These unions echo the talking point that the United States is in a critical national security race with China for AI superiority.

Often aligning with traditional Republican pro-business constituencies, the unions have become a visible force in countering community opposition and legislative efforts to restrict data center growth.

"When people say ‘data centers are the root of all evil,’ unions say ‘look, they do create a hell of a lot of construction jobs, which we live and work in your communities,’" said Rob Bair, president of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council.

Bair urged communities to negotiate directly with tech companies for project improvements or funding, such as millions of dollars for local schools. "If you don’t ask, you’re never gonna get," he added.

With data center construction accelerating, unions in a number of states are reporting skyrocketing man hours, apprentice classes doubling in size, and training centers undergoing expansions in anticipation of more work. Data centers consume at least 40% of work hours done by members of the Columbus-Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, estimated Dorsey Hager, a top official.

, data centers account for at least 50% of work hours for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26, said spokesperson Don Slaiman.

North America’s Building Trades Unions hit a record number of members and apprentices in 2025. Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, compared the current expansion to the build trades’ expansion in the 1950s. He attributes today’s growth to data centers, power plants, and legislation under former President Joe Biden that subsidized the construction of semiconductor and electric vehicle battery factories, energy efficiency projects, and grid transmission improvements.

The data centers’ voracious energy needs are driving a power plant construction boom, which delivers new work to unions whose members build and maintain boilers, ductwork, pipelines, and other power infrastructure. The Boilermakers Local 154 went from recruiting zero apprentices for four years to now assembling a class of over 200, said union official Shawn Steffee.

Tech giants need to train hundreds of thousands more workers in skilled trades and are spending tens of millions of dollars on training programs, including partnerships with unions hired to build their multibillion-dollar projects.

"Across the country, highly skilled union construction workers are laying the foundation for the AI economy," said Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, in a joint statement in March with McGarvey’s organization. Google said the majority of labor used to build its data centers is unionized.

The company pointed to a $10 million grant to a union-backed electricians training program that would help expand the electrician workforce pipeline by 70%.

Mark McManus, the general president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, acknowledged criticism of organized labor's ties to powerful tech companies but called a construction moratorium 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.

" McManus's union has a strong relationship with tech companies, is hitting all-time highs in membership, and, based on an internal survey, has members working on over 90% of the data center projects in the United States.

An Associated General Contractors of America survey late last year suggested that the labor composition of data center construction likely mirrors the makeup of commercial construction, which is roughly one-third union, said an AGC spokesperson. National unions have negotiated labor agreements on major projects, including an Oracle and OpenAI Stargate campus in Michigan and the Project Blue data center campus in Arizona.

Gov.

Josh Shapiro stood with Amazon executives and Rob Bair to announce that Amazon would spend $20 billion on two data center projects in eastern Pennsylvania. "This is really unique, what we’re building here in this commonwealth. People coming together with common purpose to get stuff done," Shapiro said.

In statehouses, unions have worked against Maine’s since-vetoed proposal for a statewide data center moratorium, standards proposed in Illinois including requiring data centers to supply their own energy, and an end to Virginia’s sales tax exemption that helped make it the world’s biggest data center destination.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Katie Muth said it has been difficult to collect support from fellow Democrats for her legislation to regulate data centers when it competes with union-backed legislation that she views as weaker.

"The unions don’t want to promote anything that would impede data center development," Muth said. Union representatives have made their presence felt at packed council meetings in municipal buildings from St. Louis to Spring City, Pennsylvania.

In Joliet, Illinois, Alicia Morales complained that union members — who sat in the front row holding ‘vote yes for union jobs’ signs — had been disrespectful and bullied a lot of people entering the meeting. " @FortuneMagazine reported on the unions' expanding role in the data center surge.

The reporting draws from Fortune Brainstorm Tech, which first convened in 2001 as The Smartest People We Know, bringing together CEOs and founders, builders and investors, thinkers and doers.

The event will return to Aspen from June 8–10 to mark 25 years of Brainstorm.