Building the Solar Workforce: Union Labor's Role in the Energy Transition | EP221

In this episode of the Clean Power Hour, host Tim Montague sits down with Dane Simpson, Director of LECET (Laborers' and Employers' Cooperation and Education Trust), to explore the vital role of labor unions in constructing the gigawatts of solar needed for the energy transition. Dane elucidates how organizations like LECET and LIUNA (Laborers' International Union of North America) are fostering the growth of the solar industry in the Midwest. The conversation delves into the significance of project labor agreements and apprenticeship programs, highlighting how union contractors can benefit from ready access to skilled labor and valuable industry connections. 

Dane and Tim discuss the challenges of meeting labor demands in a rapidly expanding industry, particularly in light of the Inflation Reduction Act and state-level initiatives like Illinois' Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Dane shares insights on LECET's multifaceted approach to bringing more people into the trades, including pre-apprenticeship programs, career fairs, and innovative recruitment strategies. The episode provides listeners with valuable information on the advantages of becoming a union contractor, the specific roles laborers play in solar projects, and how LECET supports both contractors and developers.

Throughout the discussion, Dane emphasizes LECET's crucial role in providing project leads, education, outreach, and industry advancement for union contractors. He also touches on their advocacy work in supporting renewable energy projects during zoning and approval processes. The conversation includes mention of upcoming solar projects, such as the Collins Aerospace installation in Rockford, IL. This comprehensive episode offers important insights into the intersection of organized labor and the clean energy transition, making it a valuable resource for developers, EPCs, and anyone interested in the future of solar construction.

Social Media Handles
Dane Simpson
Great Plains LECET

Transcript

Dane Simpson: 0:38

A signatory contractor would be bound by a contract with a local labor local that is collectively bargained and negotiated with other contractors and their members to predetermine working conditions, wages, safety, working hours, work stoppages, if necessary. It really is, in my opinion, the most purest way to ensure that both the workers are getting their fair shake, but also the contractors are getting their fair shake as well.

intro: 1:13

Are you speeding the energy transition? Here at the Clean Power Hour? Our hosts, Tim Montague and John Weaver bring you the best in solar batteries and clean technologies every week? Want to go deeper into decarbonisation? We do too. We're here to help you understand and command the commercial, residential and utility, solar, wind and storage industries. So let's get to it. Together, we can speed the energy transition.

Tim Montague: 1:41

Today on the Clean Power Hour, how are we going to build the gigawatts and terawatts of solar that we need to meet the energy transition? The answer lies in a myriad of things like the inflation Reduction Act, and here in Illinois Seija, the clean the climate and equitable JOBS Act, but behind all this at the grassroots level, there are these organizations. Today, my guest is Dane Simpson, he is the director of LECET, the laborers, and employers cooperation and education trust LECET. And they are a partner of law unit, the laborers union, and we are going to talk about all the things that LECET and Leon are doing to grow the solar industry here in the Midwest. Welcome to the show, Dane.

Dane Simpson: 2:32

Thanks for having me, Tim,

Tim Montague: 2:33

I've really enjoyed getting to know you and learn about all the work that you're doing across the state. And it is heady days, the energy transition is full on right. And but there are challenges, unemployment is very low, we need more skilled labor to come into the energy transition. And this includes laborers, operators, electricians, and various and sundry technicians. But tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. How did you come to be the Director of LECET? Sure.

Dane Simpson: 3:10

My name is Dane Simpson, I'm based here in Peoria, Illinois, our organization Great Plains LECETit is a 501 C five Labor Management Trust. We represent 10,000 construction professionals in north central Illinois, and over 3000, signatory union contractors. We do everything from utility scale to community solar projects, but much, much more than that. But today, in that space that you mentioned, we are becoming advocates and partners with lots of developers and like you mentioned at that grassroots level, our members are literally coaches there. They sit in the same pew as a lot of our elected officials on Sunday mornings. They are Boy Scout, den leaders. They're literally part of our community, where these developers are coming in from out of state wanting to build their projects. We're wanting to partner with those developers right out the gates, when it comes to connecting dots, to putting them in touch with community leaders, to put them in touch with contractors to do that type of work to put them in touch to the elected officials that may be zoning their projects, when it comes time to advocate for those community projects were the right phone call? Well, we ask is that on the back in our construction professionals do that perform that work? Right along with the IBEW and the operators union. We've created a try trade labor agreement that really is streamlining our industry to make sure that there's harmony on the project that everything's done as professional and smoothly as absolutely possible when it comes to those projects. Let's

Tim Montague: 5:00

set the table a little bit for our listeners, because with the advent of the IRA, the inflation Reduction Act, there are significant requirements for apprenticeships, and prevailing wages. And that's at the federal level. And then every state has their own programs here in Illinois, we have something called Seija. The the climate inequitable JOBS Act, which has some very specific requirements and incentives. It's a combination of things. It's a carrot and a stick. And sometimes it's difficult for EPCs and divide dopers to understand the landscape. And so I really hope that this can this interview can be a reference point for our listeners, both at the federal and the state level. So from your perspective, though, Dane, what do developers and EPCs absolutely need to know about the requirements of meeting the requirements of the IRA, and let's just talk Illinois because that is where we live and work with Seija. So,

Dane Simpson: 6:10

right out the gates with CJ, we were adamant with our legislators to ensure that there was labor protections and equitable justice components in the bill. And we wanted to make sure that only citizens got an opportunity to work on these projects. And once that bill was signed, and the ink dried, we went through with a fine tooth comb and made sure that when it comes time to pre apprenticeship programs, like we have here in Peoria, that were advocating for those programs and utilizing those students to in the pre apprenticeship program to get into our apprenticeship program to actually perform the work on these projects, we were advocates of prevailing wage. So the union rates in Illinois are the prevailing wage, wage rates that are in these contracts. So if you utilize one of our contractors, you're completely in compliance with prevailing wage standards. You're also going to be in compliance with all the apprenticeship program standards. Our apprenticeship program is federally recognized by the US Department of Labor Employment Training, we are also utilizing all the pre apprenticeship programs, so you're getting additional tax credits for those pre apprenticeship programs as well. What we're also doing is in the Seija, there's components for the E, CS and E PS. Our labor, locals match our communities. So when it comes time to employing minority participation and minority employees, the laborers are able to fulfill those goals. When it comes time to making sure your projects have the appropriate rates and goals for the AEC components. We are doing our best to fulfill that it's a little difficult, because there's just not that many contractors in so much capacity that's coming our way. But we're really working hard to cultivate new E C's to ensure that those contractors are getting opportunities as well.

Tim Montague: 8:16

So you've mentioned e c, equity eligible contractor and E P, I'm not sure what an EP is equity eligible personnel, okay. And just for those of our listeners who do not know what that is, what is an EC, so

Dane Simpson: 8:32

an EC is minority, or person who went through the correctional facility or foster care facility, or there's a now a new component that regarding their census tracts for pollution, so if a contractor lived in one of those census tracts that was had air pollution due to dirty coal, or some of those types of things, there's there's opponent there as well.

Tim Montague: 9:01

So it's a way of lifting up disadvantaged populations, yes, and providing an incentive for contractors to either become an ECE or employ people from those populations. Exactly. So this is a good thing. It does present challenges, right? The number of qualified eath, or solar installers in Illinois is very small. And so there are a lot of developers and EPCs, who are looking for partners that meet those qualifications.

Dane Simpson: 9:31

We're working to cultivate new contractors that fit that bill every day.

Tim Montague: 9:38

I think it would be wonderful if we could paint a picture for both our developer listeners, but also our EPCs, who may or may not know what it means to be a union contractor, and how organizations like LECET supporting contractors, so paint a picture for our listeners, Dane, what exactly does les it do day in and day out? And what does it mean to be part of Leona?

Dane Simpson: 10:11

Sure. I'll do that language component first. So a signatory contractor would be bound by contract with a local labor local that is collectively bargained and negotiated with other contractors and their members to predetermine working conditions, wages, safety, working hours, work stoppages. If necessary, it really is, in my opinion, the most purest way to ensure that both the workers are getting their fair shake. But also the contractors are getting their fair shake as well, because they're expecting workers to show up on time workers to be trained workers to be drug tested workers to be fit for duty. So there's a component to our collective bargaining agreements that really holds true for our contractors and well as well. The other thing that is great for our contractors that are union or non union that want to sign a agreement to become a union contractor. Your it's very easy for a conch, a union contractor to increase manpower when necessary, and downscale manpower when necessary. This the solar industry is feast or famine, you not all of your work may be in Peoria, Illinois, it may be in Wisconsin, or Indiana, and you can lay off your workers from Peoria. Trans move to your new project location and upskill utilizing local workforce from that project for that area. So that's what it's in a nutshell, what it is to be a union contractor. My role at LECET is marketing project leads, education, outreach, and really industry advancement. A normal day for me we'd our main, one of our main goals is project leads. So we have different services, we provide at no charge for our contractors, that every week, or every day, however you want to set it up, gives you project leads that are your scopes of work that are your location or market that you're interested in. Once we do that in the morning, then we move on to project development. So we will reach out to the different counties then the different zoning boards, the different industry leaders that that we have in our Rolodex to ensure that the projects that are coming to them, that we're reaching out to those developers and those PR firms to make sure that we get an opportunity at the very infant stage of those projects. And that provides our contractors opportunity that provides the labor union members and opportunities as well. So how is Great Plains LECET funded? That's always a question I get. Because we're a free service. For developers. We're a free service. We're really an industry advocate for contractors and alike. For every man hour, a laborer works on a project, our organization gets 10 cents an hour. We represent 10,000 laborers in north central Illinois, we generate roughly 6000 6 million man hours a year that goes into our organization that allows us to advance the industry. And

Tim Montague: 13:41

so if you're a developer, and you have projects that are coming to a point of needing construction, especially like boots on the ground, reach out to Dane Simpson because he can connect you to a shortlist of qualified contractors who can do things for you like pile driving, racking installation, and of course, his partners in the other trades for panel installation. And you mentioned the tri trade agreement that is the operators, the IBEW the electricians and Leona, the laborers, right? Yep. And so together those three unions can perform the entire scope of any solar construction project is my understanding. Is that right? Yeah,

Dane Simpson: 14:26

the trade trade agreement is so streamlined. And what I really liked about it is also a liquid document. We're wanting to partner with EPCs. And developers make sure their projects are done to their parameters. So if there's new technology that comes, there's an opportunity to we don't want to scrap the whole agreement. We want to be able to amend and move forward with that agreement. There's opportunity that if, let's say like right now, in certain areas of this country, we're seeing a mass influx of data centers. Those data centers are employing 1000s 10s of 1000s of IBEW electricians. So in those localities, there may be a strain on finding skilled electricians. So what we've done is with the trade trade agreement partnered with those different unions to allow the laborers to backfill when necessary manpower, same thing with the operators. If the operators couldn't manage a project, they just out of skilled tradesmen that gives an opportunity for the laborers to help backfill or just or to share duties on the project on that It's not solely X and not y, we can do those scopes of work with x and y as what we call a composite group. Yep.

Tim Montague: 15:49

Makes a lot of sense. Yeah. The Clean Power Hour is brought to you by CPS America. The maker of North America's number one three phase string inverter with over six gigawatts shipped in the US. The CPS America product lineup includes three phase string inverters ranging from 25 to 275 kW, their flagship inverter, the CPS 250 to 75 is designed to work with solar plants ranging from two megawatts to two gigawatts, the to 50 to 75. pairs well, with CPS America's exceptional data communication controls and energy storage solutions, go to chintpowersystems.com To find out more. So let's step back again and build this layer cake. We're talking about pre apprenticeship programs. And then apprenticeship programs, making sure that there are standards for the trades, right? So that people can hit the ground with a certain level of proficiency and knowledge in safety in how to use tools, how to perform certain tasks, what it means to show up on time, et cetera, et cetera. And they're getting specific knowledge in some of these preset pre apprenticeship programs like that. Some of them are going through the NABCEP associates, North American board certified energy professionals, and that's the gold standard in the solar industry. But when you look at the landscape, Dane, in terms of labor, I said at the outset of this interview, that unemployment is very low. How are you bringing more people into the trades?

Dane Simpson: 17:33

Great question. So what we're doing we are literally kicking every rock, and in searching every part of our state to ensure that our youth have opportunities to go to work, whether that is through our pre apprenticeship programs that we have throughout Illinois, or like my organization, we have career fairs, through FFA programs, through high school counselors, associations, high school, we attend dozens, if not almost, we'll probably close to 100 different high school career fairs throughout the year. And we're promoting the renewable energy industry as part of our portfolios as being a skilled and well rounded construction professional. We're creating, we put a QR code with our apprenticeship application in barber shops in Casey's general stores who will blanketing communities with a QR code to get more application, we the last thing we want, and we've been successful, so far, knock on wood is a contractor landing in our communities that we've worked with that we've helped develop projects and not be able to meet their needs. When it comes to manpower. That's the last thing we want. We want to make sure that those contractors are successful there. They leave with a good experience and want to come back to Illinois and do more work with us.

Tim Montague: 19:09

Indeed, it's a frustration of mine, that the trades are downplayed in our educational system. And there's a huge need for tradespeople in construction. I'm more familiar with the electricians union because I worked for an IBEW contractor for five years. We need a million new electricians in the United States and many electricians are aging out of that trade. Now, what is the situation with the laborers in? How do we counteract this? It's a double edge. There's so much growth in you mentioned datacenters. And of course, solar and storage, and the energy transition, we're talking EB infrastructure, there's just a lot of infrastructure needs. And yet we've got this legacy framework. Our educational system is very biased, encouraging people to go to college and I have nothing against college per se. But a lot of what kids do in college has nothing to do with the real world. And here we have this huge need for skilled trades people.

Dane Simpson: 20:18

You know, we talked to students every week, colleges cut out for everybody. And there's an opportunity to be a head of household leader in the trades, with our benefits and wage packages. And our apprenticeship program. I didn't even mention that our pressure program costs nothing. It's free. It's funded through A hourly check off from everybody that participates as labor pays the exact same check off of, I think it's 80 cents an hour. That goes into our apprenticeship program. That's for Illinois. And that is our that's what sets us aside from other other workforces is our skilled training, the efficiency that we provide through our apprenticeship program. But that need that you mentioned, we're bringing in apprentices at unprecedented paces. Most of our locals have tripled their apprenticeship numbers in the last three years, we're doing the best we can possibly do at ensuring that we're providing a solid education when it comes to apprenticeship hands on education for the our youth.

Tim Montague: 21:35

And I'm curious from when you think of taking a high school grad and getting them into the workforce. What is that period of time,

Dane Simpson: 21:43

you have to be 18 years of age with a high school diploma or GED to enter our apprenticeship program? That seems to be the that's the first bar the hurdle you as low as that is, that's the first hurdle. Sure, you have to what we're doing is when we're talking those high school students, there's some there's some kids that graduate high school, they're still 17. So they have to wait until June or July to enroll in our apprenticeship program. But once you're 18 years old, high school diploma or GED, we have a QR code that goes to our website, which is www dot Illinois, Labor's or IO Labor's dot org. And there's an apply now tab there that tabs active the first Tuesday of every month, and you can fill out the application submitted and you'll receive an email, setting up a interview, once you go through that process takes about 30 to 45 days. Once you go through that process, then you go on an apprenticeship list for every local and then when the workload is there. And the need is there, they will activate those folks off of the apprenticeship list into the apprenticeship program. So there is a little bit of a time period there are a timeline period there that from the filling out of the application to the actual activation of apprentice and putting boots on the ground. When you're activated as apprentice you have to go through a one week class and then we'll dispatch you to the work as needed.

Tim Montague: 23:17

And but so if you're interested in becoming a laborer, it's not a it's not a Super Extended training period. Is that what I'm hearing.

Dane Simpson: 23:26

So it is a three year process. It's three years and you take four classes every year. So you have four weeks in class training, and then 1000 hours on job training where we that you'd be job shadowed and mentored with a journeyman. After the first four weeks in classroom training in 1000 hours, then you move up to level two, same process, then you move up to a level three, same process and you're a full blown journeyman after three years, once you're a journeyman, you can work in any state in the country, along with the provinces of Canada, we have labor locals, throughout Canada and in North America

Tim Montague: 24:09

and specific to the solar industry. What are the scopes of work that that the laborers are performing? Sure.

Dane Simpson: 24:16

So that's all laid out in the try trade. But specifics, we would assist the operator and doing the postponing, we would do a lot of the site prep and civil. We do a lot of silt, fences, the racking, we partner with the IBEW to set the panels handle the panels rigging of the panels cleaning of the panels. I always say on any project the laborers do, we're usually the first ones on the jobsite, because we do all the site prep civil GPS. And then we're the last ones typically to leave the project because we do all the cleaning and final prep and those types of things. And then we're the ones that hand the keys over to the owner.

Tim Montague: 25:02

And from the contractors perspective. One of the things that really strikes me about the opportunity of being a union contractor is getting qualified leads from you. You just came back from Minnesota American clean power conference. And the Midwest. solar industry is truly exploding there. There gigawatts and gigawatts of solar being installed in the Midwest. And that means developers are looking for EPC He's This is engineering, procurement and construction. Who can who know how to build solar farms. And behind behind the meter large rooftop solar projects. It's a spectrum, large CNI community solar and utility solar. If I'm a contractor, though, and I don't know much about the union, tell me, what are some of the advantages of becoming a union contractor? Sure.

Dane Simpson: 26:04

So we're in Illinois, we're checking all the boxes to make sure that our contractors are set up for success. We're making sure that prevailing wage Davis Bacon wages are adhered to. We're making sure that jobsite safety is adhered to, we're making sure that equably inclusive standards are adhered to. The apprenticeship program is federally recognized, we're bringing in those pre apprentice folks, they're already sitting on our bench ready to be activated. We went through the seizure bill, all the parameters in that, were prepped, we've done the prep work, to making sure that when our contractors get that opportunity, that we're able to ring the bell, but ready to be active? The I think that answer I hope that answers, I think

Tim Montague: 26:53

there's two, two really important things that stand out for me, it's, you get a ready supply of labor, both at the very early stage, and then at the more experienced stage, right, and gives you this fluidity, like you said, of being able to scale up and scale down, if you get a big utility scale project, you need manpower, and you can scale up. And then you're gonna move to some other site in some distant geography, and you can scale down and scale up in that other geography. But then there's also this back office that you're providing to contractors of interfacing with developers and industry professionals, and helping those companies find their way to qualified contractors. That's not easy. And this is something that developers come to me for, because I have such a good overview of the solar industry here in the Midwest. And it's good, bad, ugly, it's there are some very good contractors out there. And there are some not so good contractors, and you want to find the good ones. And in a way you're a filter to help them have greater success with and less friction, which is something we all need, right? There's just a ton of opportunity out there, and not enough qualified people to perform that work. So what else? What else should we talk about, though, with regards to Lyanna, both challenges and opportunities during the opportunities

Dane Simpson: 28:22

that we want to help with, and I think I mentioned it is that early stage zoning application, we've seen a dwell of opposition for some of these projects, and orchestrated swell of opposition, we will make sure that the we're there to offset that. We want to be industry advocate to talk about local job creations and what these types of projects mean for our community. And when we're brought in at the early stages of these projects, we're like 95 98% zoning approval rates. We've we really haven't been denied a zoning application when we sit down and put and look our elected officials in the eyes and say, this means that I'm not able to pay my property taxes. This means that I'm able to put food on the table for my kids or to buy them a new book bag when it comes time to start the new school year. That story plays well, we're willing to do that for our developers that are willing to commit to try trade agreement. That's a big success story that I want to make sure that we get out of this.

Tim Montague: 29:33

If I'm a developer, and I have any reservations about project labor agreements, for example, explain how P LA's work in why developers should not be so nervous about pls. Sure.

Dane Simpson: 29:51

So a project labor agreement is a one off project labor agreement. It's a an agreement that says that the unions will not provide any stopping Nope. Striking no lockouts for that particular project. And that project has harmony on as far as labor concerns. It's also exclusive. Eric can be exclusive to the locality of that project. You can execute a project labor agreement on the north side of the road, and on the south side of the road, not execute a project labor agreement. We would advocate that you execute a project that we're gonna both obviously but it's that job site specific. Once you execute that P all the contractors are going to check all the boxes for wages and apprenticeship programs. in everything that we already mentioned today, but the other component is it's an, I look at it as an insurance policy. As a developer, if I make sure that my contractors are executing a project under project labor agreement, I can sleep well at night knowing that at the end, after that project is completed all the parameters, I think the scariest thing as a developer would be, to execute a project to have millions of dollars invested in a project expanded be expecting those Ira tax credits, to only have those clawed back because of non compliance of my contractor. And that's a reality that I think we're gonna see going forward is that the IRA going to execute, I'm sorry, the IRS is going to execute penalties for wage theft, they're going to be executing, clawback provisions of tax credits, those those types of things are in in the law and have gone through the process now, to where that could be a reality. So a project labor agreement ensures that if it's executed, that your projects can be done properly, it's got to be done to the highest standard that we possibly provide. And that end the day, those tax credits are going to be adhered to.

Tim Montague: 31:58

Said, once you encourage my listeners to check out all of our content at cleanpowerhour.com Please give us a rating and a review on Apple and Spotify. Check out the YouTube channels, subscribe to that. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, I love hearing from my listeners and tell a friend about the show. I look forward to seeing all of you at the solar farm Summit coming up in July in Chicago, and already plus Midwest in Chicago in November. And of course, the big RV plus in Anaheim. Dane, how can our listeners find you?

Dane Simpson: 32:35

Sure the same thing I'm on LinkedIn as well. I'm also we have a YouTube channel. That highlights a lot of our larger projects. But my website is www. Greatplainslecet.org. And my web, my email address is Dane.simpson@greatplainslecet.org

Tim Montague: 32:58

I want to thank Dane Simpson director at Great Plains LECET for coming on the show today. I'm Tim Montague, let's grow solar and storage. Hey, listeners. This is Tim, I want to give a shout out to all of you. I do this for you twice a week. Thank you for being here. Thank you for giving us your time. I really appreciate you and what you're all about. You are part and parcel of the energy transition whether you're an energy professional today, or an aspiring energy professional. So thank you, I want to let you know that the Clean Power Hour has launched a listener survey. And it would mean so much to me. If you would go to cleanpowerhour.com. Click on the About Us link right there on the main navigation that takes you to the about page. And you'll see a big graphic listener survey, just click on that graphic and it takes just a couple of minutes. If you fill out the survey, I will send you a lovely baseball cap with our logo on it. The other thing I want our listeners to know is that this podcast is made possible by corporate sponsors. We have chin power systems, the leading three phase string inverter manufacturer in North America. So check out CPS America. But we are very actively looking for additional support to make this show work. And you see here our media kit. With all the sponsor benefits and statistics about the show. You know we're dropping two episodes a week. We have now over 320,000 downloads on YouTube. And we're getting about 45,000 downloads per month. So this is a great way to bring your brand to our listeners and our listeners are decision makers in clean energy. This includes projects executives, engineers, finance, project management, and many other professionals who are making decisions about and developing, designing, installing and making possible clean energy projects. So check out cleanpowerhour.com both our listener survey on the about us and our media kit and become a sponsor today. Thank you so much. Let's go solar and storage