Washington, D.C. –July 23, 2025 – Today, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) President Sean McGarvey issued the following statement:

“Mr. President, we need your help. You’re a builder. You’ve forgotten more about what it takes to develop and build a project than practically anybody in the world ever knew. You are working hard, attempting to make deals and bring jobs back. But right now, some people around you are canceling job-creating projects — and with them, thousands and thousands of good-paying, blue-collar construction jobs. We’re starting to see a softening in the construction job market.

“We’ve seen real backsliding on infrastructure, energy, and labor standards. And, as every builder knows, uncertainty is a death blow. And week after week, the hits keep coming:

– The Department of Transportation canceled funding for a high-speed rail project in California, putting 1,500 construction jobs a day at risk.
– Federal funding was pulled for the $2 billion Allston Multimodal infrastructure project in Massachusetts — the cornerstone of $25 billion more in development in the area — eliminating 3,000 new transportation construction jobs.
– The loss of a billion-dollar gas plant in Tennessee will result in the loss of another 2,000 construction jobs.
– A CHIPS plant in Michigan was canceled, wiping out 5,000 construction jobs.
– The Department of Energy withdrew a major loan supporting the $11 billion Grain Belt Express transmission project from Kansas to Indiana, killing over 22,000 construction jobs.
– Congress cut short critical energy tax credits, threatening hundreds of thousands of next-generation energy construction jobs.
– Prevailing wage rates at NASA’s Cape Canaveral were rolled back, slashing wages for Florida’s skilled construction workers.
– Labor and immigration rights are being violated daily at the Arizona TSMC project, which ICE should investigate and send buses immediately.

“These aren’t isolated incidents. $17 billion in energy projects have been canceled just this year, costing some 19,000 real, existing, good-paying American jobs due to policy uncertainty in Washington. To name a few:
Multiple South Carolina energy projects, worth approximately $2.8 billion, were eliminated, destroying thousands of skilled construction jobs in the South.

– Three manufacturing energy plants, totaling nearly $3 billion in Georgia, were canceled, abolishing over 1,000 construction jobs.
– A $1.4 billion battery plant in North Carolina has been paused, jeopardizing over 1,000 jobs.
– Four projects have been halted in Arizona, killing over 3,800 construction jobs.
– Seven major NY projects closed or canceled, ruining job opportunities for thousands of skilled building trades workers.

“This is just a small sampling. While the media chases other stories, construction workers are being left behind. Although you and your administration are working on massive deals, these jobs would carry construction workers through until those larger projects come to fruition, years from now. Mr. President, please help blue-collar construction workers and their families.”

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Media Contact: Betsy Barrett, (202) 997-3266 | bbarrett@nabtu.org

About NABTU: North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry collectively representing over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and signatory contractor partners invest almost $2 billion in private-sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained, and most productive, skilled craft workers found anywhere in the world. NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for its construction workers by safeguarding wage and benefits standards, promoting responsible private capital investments, investing in renowned apprenticeship and training, and creating more construction career pathways to the middle class for women, communities of color, Indigenous people, veterans, and the justice-involved. For more information, please visit nabtu.org.