Offshore wind ruling pits union jobs against fishing workers

When a federal judge authorized resuming construction on the Empire Wind offshore project last week, union leaders hailed it as a victory for green jobs. But for commercial fishing workers along the East Coast the ruling marked another step toward losing access to the waters that have sustained their livelihoods for generations.

In an interview with The Chief last week, Robin Shaffer, president of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, said the ruling highlights a deeper conflict between workers where the $5 billion Empire Wind project, while supporting short-term construction work, sacrifices fishing jobs. 

“There are tens of thousands of jobs in the seafood supply chain that are threatened by disruptions to historic fishing grounds,” Shaffer said. “Empire Wind is planned in one of the richest, most biodiverse areas of the ocean, where fishermen have worked for generations.”

Long legal road

The project, which began construction in 2024 after a years-long environmental review process, has had to cease operations twice following stop-work orders.  In December, the Trump administration issued its second stop-work order on the project and several other offshore wind developments along the East Coast.

The ruling last week overturning that order came about due to a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who argued the Interior Department’s action would cause “existential risk” to the project, which would power hundreds of thousands of homes in New York.

Empire Wind, which is located between 15-30 miles south of Long Island, has been a major point of controversy between the unions and commercial fisheries and environmental groups, as well as between state and federal governments. 

Several unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, Dockbuilders and Timbermen Local 1556, and the New York City District Council of Carpenters, support the project, citing job creation and the need to expand renewable energy infrastructure.

The unions did not respond to requests for comment but several of the unions issued statements in May after Trump’s first stop-work order was lifted. 

“Local Union 3 IBEW is thrilled that the administration has decided to allow the Empire Wind 1 Project to proceed. There was so much at stake for the renewable energy industry, the union employees who would be performing the work, and the opportunities for the surrounding communities to participate in the project,” said business manager of Local 3 IBEW Christopher Erikson. 

'Rank and file are being fed lies'

At the same time, a coalition of fishing organizations and environmental groups have mobilized aggressively to stop it.

That coalition filed a class-action lawsuit in June after Gov. Hochul pressured Trump to allow resuming operations. The plaintiffs include Protect Our Coast New Jersey, ACK For Whales, Clean Ocean Action, American Seafood, Belford Seafood Co-op, Miss Belmar Whale Watch, Fisherman’s Dock Cooperative, Heritage Fisheries, the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Seafreeze Shoreside and several other commercial fishing groups.

The lawsuit argues the project violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act by allowing U.S. waters to be effectively controlled by a foreign government, noting that Equinor, the project’s developer, is 67 percent owned by the Kingdom of Norway. The project is also partially financed by major oil and gas MNC, British Petroleum.

While Shaffer said he respects union tradespeople and is open to engaging with them, he argued that rank-and-file members are being misled about the nature of the jobs offshore wind would provide.

“There’s evidence to suggest that the union rank and file are being fed lies from the union leadership, from other politicians and the climate industry,” he said.

Shaffer contrasted what he described as limited permanent employment from the project with the scale of existing fishing jobs that could be displaced.

“By contrast, the jobs associated with Empire Wind are largely short-term construction jobs,” he said. “Even [former] Mayor Adams had acknowledged there would only be a few dozen permanent union jobs. Much of the construction work relies on foreign-flagged vessels with foreign crews who are not U.S. citizens.”

He also criticized offshore wind developers – Equinor in particular – for using their financial resources to build political and institutional support, including what he described as offers to fund schools or municipal projects in exchange for “good neighbor” agreements with host communities.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the kind of money to counter that strategy,” Shaffer said. “But it is highly effective.”

The coalition has also challenged the environmental reviews that cleared the project, arguing they were shaped by a predetermined commitment to offshore wind rather than a neutral scientific process. Shaffer said projections about marine life, including endangered whales, rely too heavily on long-term assumptions in an ocean environment that is constantly changing, and that construction should stop whenever endangered species are present. 

While acknowledging climate change as a serious issue, Shaffer said offshore wind is being sold as a worker-friendly solution without accounting for the workers it would displace. 

“It’s hard to understand why unions wouldn’t be supporting their brothers in the fishing industries,” Shaffer said. “The people who work in commercial fishing are the hardest workers in America.”