Temporary pipeline jobs lead to lifetime careers

A lot has been said about the types of jobs associated with pipeline projects. Opponents of Dakota Access Pipeline have repeatedly tried to downplay and deride the economic and jobs benefits the project will bring to our region.

One of the common themes we hear is that the jobs associated with pipelines are “only temporary jobs.” But the phrase “temporary job” is unfair and demeaning towards the millions of men and women that call the professional building trades their job of choice.

Construction jobs in their very nature are temporary. The Interstate Highway System, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the home you live in were all “temporary jobs.” But while the construction project may be temporary, the long-term effect is that we’re providing a sustainable career path for a lot of individuals that are in the construction industry and the companies who hire them. They may not work in an office tower, but their jobs are critical to our way of life.

It is true that these jobs have a shelf life. Once the project is built, the construction work is over. The same is true of skyscrapers, bridges, roads, houses and schools. And that’s how you build a lifelong career — by stringing together one job after another, building on your hours of hands-on experience and training.

The pipeline is expected to employ up to 12,000 skilled laborers during the construction phase, including about 4,000 Iowans. In addition, up to 40 permanent operating jobs will be created. More important, the pipeline will be built using union labor, providing a lifeline to good jobs with family-supporting pay, with nearly $605 million being paid to construction workers and contractors for their work.

Our trades have been selected to do this work because Energy Transfer Partners knows that we’ll do the work the right way. Unions in our region have been training qualified pipe tradesmen and women longer than anyone else in the industry. We provide the premier training programs, apprenticeship programs, extensive journeyman training, and numerous certification programs. Our involvement ensures a safe, quality installation.

Let’s not forget the regional manufacturers that will benefit by building pipeline-related materials. A majority of the pipe has been manufactured in the United States, all the pump stations will be assembled and packaged in the United States, and the majority of the remaining materials will be purchased, manufactured or assembled here at home contributing nearly $1 billion in direct spending to the U.S. economy.

Finally, the pipeline will benefit the four states it runs through, generating an estimated $50 million annually in property taxes and nearly $74 million in sales taxes to the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

Let me sum up by repeating: It’s not a temporary job, it’s a career. Any suggestion that there is little value from the jobs that will be created by pipeline construction are misleading and offensive. Temporary jobs create permanent things that we should all be grateful for.

Mark Cooper is president, South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Contact:  mark@scifl.org