Union leaders and Gov. Healey celebrate Vineyard Wind completion, spotlight jobs and apprenticeships

Union leaders and Governor Maura Healey on June 24, 2026, marked completion of Vineyard Wind 1 at a Massachusetts AFL-CIO event in New Bedford, saying the union-built project is now delivering ‘‘hundreds of megawatts’’ of clean power and creating sustained local employment.

Chrissy Lynch, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, opened the event and credited union members for completing the country’s first large-scale offshore wind project. “We built this project. We built the country's first large-scale offshore wind project that is now delivering hundreds of megawatts of clean power to this region,” Lynch said, and thanked IATSE Local 11, UNITE HERE Local 26 and the many trades who worked on the terminal and offshore installation.

Lynch said the project included a project labor agreement that guaranteed family-sustaining wages and training. She noted apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship programs — including Building Pathways South — brought local residents into construction careers and that ‘‘hundreds of apprentices were trained on this project, setting up the next wave of clean energy workers.’’ She also paid tribute to the late Yvonne Tobey, who she said led workforce efforts for Building Pathways South.

Frank Callahan, president of the Mass Building Trades Unions, recounted early efforts that culminated in the 2019 DPU approval and the 2021 project labor agreement. He said those agreements ensured the work was performed by skilled, licensed tradespeople and stressed the long-term maintenance and ancillary jobs a terminal and related facilities will support.

Rodrigo Bedard, president of the North Shore Building Trades Council, and Jim Pimental, president of the Southeastern Massachusetts Building Trades Union, both emphasized the amount of land-side work — substations, redeveloped terminals and onshore manufacturing — that supports offshore wind and creates local jobs. Pimental urged developers to use the local skilled workforce for future operations and maintenance.

Governor Maura Healey called the project ‘‘a big deal’’ for Massachusetts and said the state has invested in workforce training and protections that made the project possible. “This is the first utility-scale offshore wind project in the entire country. The first,” Healey said, praising the project labor agreement and the decision to prioritize union hiring. Healey attributed thousands of jobs and economic impact to the broader offshore-wind program, saying Vineyard Wind supported ‘‘4,000 jobs, 70% of them union jobs’’ and about ‘‘$380 million in direct salaries, wages, and benefits.’’

Speakers underscored training for challenging work conditions (ropes training, helicopter underwater escape) and said specialized instruction, outreach to veterans, Spanish-language career navigation and scholarships broadened access to the sector. The event included a short video highlighting workers’ personal stories and closed with a roll call of crafts and photo opportunities.

Organizers said the project shows a model of combining labor standards, apprenticeship pathways and state partnership to expand clean-energy capacity while supporting family-sustaining work. The event ended with applause and recognition of local partners and project leaders.