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Across the country, data centers have hit a nerve. Communities are rallying against them. But just outside D.C., where the data center boom began, a labor union has become one of the nation's most ardent supporters of data centers. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: At a training center run by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 26, fourth-year apprentices practice wiring up devices following a diagram.
JIMMY HERRERA: Plug everything in how it's shown in the picture, make sure that it starts and we're able to stop it.
HSU: Jimmy Herrera and the others here are in class only about two days a month. The other days, they're at job sites. Herrera is working for a contractor in Chantilly, Virginia, in an area known as Data Center Alley.
HERRERA: We just got a lot of the equipment in. We're just going to start tying everything in right now.
HSU: He likes the work, likes how intricate it is. He is aware that what he's building is now controversial.
HERRERA: Yeah, I've seen it online. Some people are opposed to data centers.
HSU: Opposed to the vast amounts of energy and water they consume, the constant hum, the pollution from backup generators, among other issues - but Jimmy Herrera sees a career. He just got bumped up to 60 hours a week.
HERRERA: They're trying to get that job site done as quick as possible.
HSU: So he's pulling in time-and-a-half and double time on top of the $43 an hour he makes as a fourth-year apprentice. With a 7-year-old daughter at home, he's got goals.
HERRERA: Trying to save up to get a home and have something for us.
HSU: So he's really looking forward to his next paycheck.
HERRERA: It's going to look good (laughter).
HSU: The explosion of data centers has meant good times for Herrera's union, Local 26. Close to half of the work its members are doing right now is at data centers.
DON SLAIMAN: We haven't seen this kind of growth for skilled tradespeople in generations.
HSU: Don Slaiman is the union's political coordinator.
SLAIMAN: This is the opportunity now for blue-collar workers to get another crack at getting into the middle class.
HSU: For years, Slaiman says, he ran all kinds of campaigns to try to save union jobs as blue-collar communities were being ravaged.
SLAIMAN: I mean, listen, I would love to bring back all the American industry that was offshored. That's not happening, but this is an industry of tomorrow being formed today.
HSU: The data centers weren't a flashpoint for most of the eight years Slaiman has been with this union. Years ago, Virginia welcomed them with favorable zoning rules and tax breaks. Hundreds have been built, nearly all with union labor.
SLAIMAN: We build 97% of them.
HSU: But these days, Slaiman is spending hours upon hours at local council meetings...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SLAIMAN: Thank you for letting me speak tonight.
HSU: ...Trying to appeal to elected officials and residents who are dead set against new construction. He talks about the new technology designed to save water and energy. He talks about the economic opportunities and not just for electrical workers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SLAIMAN: These things are cash registers, basically.
HSU: He points out in Loudoun County, Virginia, home to Data Center Alley, a tax on the servers and equipment inside those buildings has funded new schools, libraries and rec centers, and a property tax cut for residents. Still, the opposition only seems to grow.
SLAIMAN: It's both parties now. It's the right and the left. It's really a fever that's caught hold.
HSU: According to recent Gallup polling, 7 in 10 Americans said they don't want data centers built for AI in their area. Now, most of the ones Local 26 has built are for things like cloud storage, banking and streaming services. But the union does have a massive upcoming project in southern Virginia that is for AI, a $100 billion investment.
CHRIS BROOKS: I'd rather have a data center in my community than another neighborhood full of people. That's just me. We have enough people around here.
HSU: Chris Brooks, who's now on the business side of the union, first worked on a data center site in 1999. Through the boom, he's seen his union brothers do well. But now?
BROOKS: I don't know because every time I turn on TV, I'm hearing moratoriums have been put in place because people don't want data centers. It's popular not to want a data center now. And not that long ago, no one knew what they were.
HSU: He says nothing lasts forever. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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