Good union jobs are on the way now that ground has been broken for a factory at the Port of Paulsboro Marine Terminal in Gloucester County to manufacture key components for offshore wind farms that will generate megawatts of electricity up and down our Eastern seaboard.
Not only will the New Jersey facility be constructed by union tradespeople, but the ongoing manufacture of monopiles – the undersea foundations for wind turbines – will be done by union workers employed in permanent positions at the largest industrial offshore wind manufacturing facility in the United States.
The project was spearheaded by New Jersey State Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney and is led by Ocean Wind, a joint venture among New Jersey utility PSEG, Danish wind farm developer Ørsted, and steel pipe manufacturer EEW.
Construction will be completed under a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with the South Jersey Building Trades Council, ensuring that jobs created during the construction phase will be filled by New Jersey union workers who will use the highest level of industry standards. EEW has contracted with more than 30 New Jersey companies for all phases of work to build the plant.
“Senate President Sweeney has been a leader in advocating for wind energy for well over a decade, including his visionary Offshore Wind Economic Development Act in 2010,” New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said. “Through his partnership with Gov. Phil Murphy over the last three years, New Jersey is now seeing the economic and environmental benefit of wind and is now positioned as a national leader in this rapidly growing sector.”
The monopile plant is expected to create as many as 260 jobs during the first phase of construction and manufacturing.
Once completed, the plant will supply monopiles to Ocean Wind and many other ventures along the entire Eastern seaboard as the offshore electricity-generating wind industry skyrockets for years to come.