TRADE WINDS: Chris Hannan is steering California’s largest construction worker advocacy organization at one of the trickiest moments in its history.
He was elected president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council in July, putting him in the position of navigating a renewable energy transition that’s expected to eliminate thousands of fossil fuel jobs in the future.
Hannan earned a reputation for supporting clean energy projects in his previous role as leader of the Trades council in Los Angeles and Orange County. But he’s already made it clear that the state Building Trades, with more than 450,000 members, won’t easily give up on fossil fuel jobs that have offered well-paying careers to union workers for decades.
Hannan spoke with POLITICO about the energy transition, state legislation and the unions’ goals in the near term.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
California has ambitious goals to slash emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2045. That has intensified a discussion about how we transition workers in fossil fuel-intensive industries to new jobs. Where are your thoughts on this transition?
We do have thousands of members who are working in refineries. We have thousands of members who work on the contracted construction maintenance in those refineries, the turnarounds and the upgrades. Right now, there are millions of cars on the road in California alone. And we believe those resources are still going to be used for some time, and we believe that you can do them in California with the highest standards, not only for labor, but also the highest standards for the environment and air quality.
On renewables, we’re marching towards those 2030 goals. Our building trades are leading the way to deliver those renewables to meet those goals, as well as the 2045 goals. We have thousands and thousands of members working on clean energy projects, and we believe that we have to have a broad portfolio to be able to get there.
You’ve seen a lot of lead-up in the California Legislature towards offshore wind. Our members, we’re preparing the framework for that with the passage of AB 1373.
There have been efforts to open some projects to non-union workers, amid concerns that there aren’t enough workers to build out renewable energy infrastructure. Are there enough union workers for California to reach its goals?
There’s no doubt in my mind we’re not going to have any shortages. Our building trade unions have over 450,000 of the best trained members in construction, period. Right now, we’re training over 65,000 union construction apprentices in the state of California. That’s more than the next three largest states combined. And we could train more if we had more opportunities to put people to work. We would be talking about 85,000 apprentices if we had the opportunities to put those members to work.
We believe we’re still going to be working in the oil and gas space for the foreseeable future, but we do see the trend towards renewables, and we’re fighting to make sure California workers have a place building out that renewable portfolio.
Some renewable energy companies, most notably in rooftop solar, have balked at the idea of using union workers for decades. How do you deal with that opposition?
Companies that say there’s not enough workforce, that’s a complete lie. There were companies saying we didn’t have enough workers during the Great Recession, and that’s because of greed. We can see through that, and our building trades unions, the labor movement, we’re gonna fight and we’re gonna open their eyes.
Workers who work on rooftop solar, they deserve to have the same things that I’ve had in my career. They deserve to get the training to work not just on one roof, not just on a project this year, they deserve the training for their whole career. And they deserve a wage they can be proud of, they deserve health care that keeps their family healthy and they deserve to retire with dignity and not have to leave the state. — AN
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