With all the well-intentioned hooplah that surrounds large-scale wind development in Vermont, people rarely ask developers if they plan to use local workers to install the turbines and then actually hold them to it.  The Associated Press reports the general contractor for the Sheffield and Coos County, New Hampshire, wind projects – Wisconsin-based RMT – may utilize UTAH workers for a large portion of the job.  All the while hundreds of Vermont construction workers are un(der)employed.  Sheffield, developed by FirstWind, will consist of 16 turbines at a $90 million value – a very large project by Vermont standards.

LINK TO THE AP STORY:

http://www.boston.com/news/loc…

According to Ironworkers Local 7 Business Agent Michael Morelli, RMT will pay the UTAH crew approximately $25 per hour, $7.25 in fringe benefits, and a $123 daily per diem for travel expenses.  This is about $48 per hour total package.  To hire a Vermont union ironworker to do the same tower erection work, it would cost $40 per hour total package.

Let’s be clear – it’s apparently cheaper for RMT to do the right thing by hiring a local union ironworker (or even an open shop Vermonter!) rather than importing a presumably non-union worker from 2,000-plus miles away.  Union ironworkers, and most union craftspeople from other trades for that matter, all have or can gain access to the necessary training in wind technology and tower erection to get the job done on time and on budget.  Heck, there are Vermonters from the “open shop” who would be more than capable, too.

So what gives?  And will Vermont politicians, community activists and environmentalists stick up for their neighbors if this is indeed true?