this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
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You aren't gonna like hearing this but tons of blue collars in construction and energy love data centers because of how much money they've been getting from all the new contracts
We could be refitting the entire built environment for public transit, accessibility, passive solar, and longevity, but instead we're doing... whatever this is.
Have a few friends in the electrical work field, they're enjoying the pay right now for sure.
Getting housing stipends and per diem, whatever they get paid is going directly into their pockets right now. One of them had 3 car notes he's paying for. Tried to talk sense into him that this isn't gonna last and he should save his money and he nods and agrees with me, until the next time I see him and he shows the new toy he just bought.
Definitely the general contractors like them. For the workers themselves they're usually the only infrastructure being built that will employ at least a couple hundred people and pay prevailing (union) wage. Which is a very decent scale to be fair, higher than average. But the work lasts about 5 years and then maybe the bubble is popping.
Around here the guys I've heard talk about it say that the pay and overtime is about the only good thing, they still understand that they're building big factories that convert water/electricity into a the rs-in-strawberry machine and noise. In extreme cases the centres are one of the few projects that some union halls have for their members too.
The work itself is demeaning as well, it's basically like building Lego. Everything is laid out in the print for you like a big IKEA bedframe,no thinking necessary (so the engineers designing them would like lol)
No one I've met working them specifically wants to build them. Like if there were hospitals, or schools, or solar/wind/nuclear power systems going up,.or anything actually socially useful they would prefer to work on those. But these things aren't profitable like LLM gold rush is.
It's like a century of union subservience to capital is coming up short. I've found that generally speaking at the sites that are unionized the membership is more radical than the union leadership, I've talked to plumbers , electricians and Ironworkers and basically explained falling rate of profit to them and they're like wow so that's why this piece of shit is being built.
Anyway this turned into a rant so oops my bad.
Union leaderships only goal is to take care of their members and in a way, their interests are even more aligned with capital than the members themselves since acquiring contracts like these is what gets them paid by the union, while the members have higher mobility to work elsewhere
Yes this is true and lots.of members know it. I've heard of some locals where the monthly meeting is basically an old boys club, no one shows up because they know leadership isnt on their side and there is very little democratic control, eg recall mechanisms.