By Michael Shepherd - July 13, 2023
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The governor and labor groups come to a deal on offshore wind. A standoff between Gov. Janet Mills and labor groups was solved late Thursday, when the sides inked a deal that will save some of the jobs in the nascent offshore wind industry for unions, assuming they can fill them.

What ended up bringing the sides together was a veto from the Democratic governor that angered organized labor last month. They wanted companies building offshore wind ports and projects to have agreements in hands with unions, something that Mills and business groups argued could hinder the industry's development and leave it reliant on out-of-state workers.

The deal aims to split the difference by leaving half the jobs reserved for non-union companies like Cianbro and half for those with a union workforce. Read it. If the unionized companies cannot fill their share of the jobs, the measure lays out a process by which Maine workers should be prioritized in hiring.

"I think the overarching goal here is to make sure that as this new industry emerges in Maine, ... we're providing good-paying wages and benefits to Maine employees and Maine people," Mills adviser Tom Abello told the Legislature's budget committee.

The deal between the governor's office, labor groups and key Democratic lawmakers cleared the panel with three of the five Republicans dissenting. One of them, Rep. Mark Blier, R-Buxton, said he was doing so because he had not had much time to review the package. The bill, which will effectively allow for eventual port and project construction in Maine, now needs to clear final votes in the Legislature before going to the governor's desk.

Absent from the deal were business groups. While Mills mirrored many of their concerns in the veto letter, they were not completely satisfied with the deal setting aside a certain number of jobs for unions. Ben Lucas, a Maine State Chamber of Commerce lobbyist, said his group appreciated the changes but was still skeptical of the concept and was still reviewing it.

Offshore wind has been a fraught political topic due to concerns from Maine's legacy fishing industry. While there is lots of conservative skepticism on this topic, the debate last night showed some bipartisan effort to set the state up for success in the nascent sector. There is a lot to settle before projects start coming online during the latter part of this decade.