WASHINGTON, D.C. – August 24, 2026 – Today, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) President Sean McGarvey issued the following statement: 

“Data centers are critical infrastructure that underpin America’s digital economy, data security, and national security. NABTU supports the GRID principles outlined by Governor Josh Shapiro and applauds his reasonable, measured approach to responsible data center development. Community benefits, environmental safeguards, energy affordability, and family-sustaining construction careers are essential, and we do not have to choose among them. Governor Shapiro’s approach shows that clear standards, transparency, and accountability are the right and responsible way forward to ensure communities benefit, not the blanket moratoriums imposed in other states. 

“Responsible development requires responsible actors and firm commitments from the start. It means meaningful community engagement and requiring data centers to invest in the new power generation, grid upgrades, and water infrastructure their projects require without shifting those costs onto working families. It means deploying the latest technology to conserve energy and water, planning early for workforce needs, establishing strong labor standards through project labor agreements, prioritizing local hiring, and utilizing rigorous, multi-year building trades Registered Apprenticeship programs that provide proven pathways to family-sustaining skilled trades careers.  

“NABTU and our affiliates look forward to working with Governor Shapiro, other forward-thinking elected officials, and responsible developers to strengthen communities and America’s skilled trades workforce and responsibly build the critical infrastructure our nation needs to remain globally competitive.” 

 

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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 more than 3.2 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and signatory contractor partners invest in excess of $3 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 anywhere in the world. NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for construction workers by safeguarding wage and benefit standards, promoting responsible private capital investment, 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.