Climate Jobs Institute Leads New York Legislators on Tour of Steamfitters’ Union Facilities
On Friday, January 30th, the Climate Jobs Institute (CJI) facilitated an educational tour of the Enterprise Association of Steamfitters Local 638’s Training Center in Long Island City, Queens, with New York City and state legislators and their staff. Present on the tour were State Senator John Liu and State Assemblymember Karines Reyes, as well as staff representatives from the offices of State Senator Jessica Ramos and Councilmember Tiffany Cabán. Also present were Local 638 Education Director Daniel Knights, CJI Training & Education Associate Katie Hayden, and various other labor education and policy staff from CJI, Climate Jobs New York, and Local 638.
Local 638 represents unionized workers throughout New York City and Long Island. Their members assemble, install, service, and repair pipes in commercial, residential, and industrial settings. Representatives of the local union shared the technical complexities and challenges of their work, and the critical importance of high-road labor standards to ensure a well-trained, safe, and fairly compensated workforce. Local 638 education staff provided a comprehensive tour of their multimillion-dollar, joint labor-management-supported training center, including NYSERDA-funded clean-energy technology equipment for hands-on learning. Legislators learned about welding and steamfitting techniques, the requirements of apprenticeship and pipefitting education, and the safety risks and rigorous safety standards inherent to this work. Union steamfitters, along with their union siblings in the rest of the building trades, are key partners in a just transition toward viable, worker-friendly, clean-energy jobs in New York State. Local 638 trains its members in the skills needed to build thermal energy networks and retrofit buildings, thereby reducing carbon emissions and increasing the utilization of carbon-free energy sources. Local 638 has also recently received a grant from NYSERDA that will allow them to upgrade their training center and continue to provide state-of-the art training to apprentices and members to use new technologies and keep up with the demand for a well-trained clean energy workforce in New York.
