Trade unions threaten to withhold support for politicians, joining the building backlash

By Lindsay Ellis

and Amrith Ramkumar

Aug. 28, 2026 8:00 am ET

Laborers inside a Microsoft data center under construction in Mount Pleasant, Wis., in 2025. Audrey Richardson/Reuters

Much of the public outcry over data-center construction has centered on electricity costs, water consumption and noise. Now, a new battlefront is opening up over jobs, too.

Call it the backlash to the backlash: Nationwide resistance to the construction has grown so broad that politicians on both sides of the aisle have halted approvals or tightened oversight as midterm elections approach. Unions and construction trade groups are now entering the fray from the other side, warning that such actions endanger thousands of building-related jobs. They are threatening to withhold support of candidates opposing the data-center projects.

In some cases, these groups are breaking with longtime political allies to support those who back construction. In a memo circulated to members and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, the Steamfitters UA Local 602, whose members install mechanical piping systems in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., wrote that it is drawing a “clear line” and won’t support politicians who oppose the facilities. “This is an existential moment for Local 602,” it said.

In Kansas, a union representing HVAC and railroad workers broke from decades of precedent to endorse Republican state Sen. Ty Masterson for governor, in part because of the Democratic candidate’s opposition to the construction. In some cases, the unions are working alongside companies building data centers and running artificial-intelligence models in their advocacy.

Sidney Bonilla, treasurer and business manager of Steamfitters UA Local 602, said his members knock on doors for candidates and help finance campaigns. Though the union has historically tended to back Democrats, Bonilla said those dollars and organizational support are on the line.

The union will scrutinize politicians’ records on the data-center issue before offering support, he said, and he expects other unions to follow suit. “We are dependent on these jobs,” he said.

The union support is a welcome development for data-center companies, which are now contending with a slowdown in approvals for new construction. The build-out is key for AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic to support more powerful models and meet growth targets, and it has become a major economic driver.

All of that has made for tricky political terrain ahead of midterm elections. In Wisconsin, Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley, the son of an electrician, has won support from some building trade unions and been attacked by Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany for being in the pocket of labor groups and the companies building data centers. Crowley has supported some restrictions on data centers but stopped short of backing a ban or pause.

In other races, Democrats have criticized their opponents for supporting the data-center boom. Some Republicans are adopting the tactic, even if they previously supported the facilities and their economic benefits.

“You’re not a friend if you’re taking away great career opportunities,” said Don Slaiman, political coordinator of IBEW Local 26, a union representing electricians in Washington, Maryland and Virginia. Many of the jobs pay good wages with benefits, he said. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really get in the upper-middle class.”

Electricians in the union are showing up at public hearings and planning-commission meetings to speak in favor of the projects, he said. At one this week, Slaiman said he arrived at 7:30 p.m. and stayed until just before 1 a.m. The boom has benefited members, who worked 28 million hours last year, compared with 14 million a decade prior, he said.

President Trump has continued to support the build-out despite growing opposition from within his own party, saying that data centers make sense if built in proper locations with appropriate guidelines. “If I were a community, I would want the data center. It means jobs, it means income and it means lower taxes,” he said last week.

During construction, data centers need people who can pour concrete, wire electric panels and install equipment like power generators and chillers to keep servers cool. Once the centers are built, they don’t employ as many workers but provide steady streams of tax revenue to fund local schools and other projects. Some locals have opposed the tax breaks that attract the investment, prompting some states to pause or claw them back.

The build-out has pushed Meta Platforms and other tech companies to invest in training skilled workers. OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft also have partnerships with unions and have highlighted worker shortages as a key bottleneck for the U.S. in the AI race.

Some unions representing white-collar workers, on the other hand, are less supportive of the data-center construction. Bridging the divide between those factions will be challenging for the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S., said Todd Vachon, director of the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University.

The AFL-CIO’s affiliated unions in June passed a resolution that called for guardrails on AI and data centers. It acknowledged that data centers employ tens of thousands of union members while pledging to fight to keep AI from degrading job quality.

Politicians are also in a bind. Many need labor support, but that could require backing the highly unpopular data centers, Vachon said: “How’s that going to come on Election Day?”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5898338&forum_id=2Reputation#50099287)