MILWAUKEE — We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) have been honored by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for signing a first-of-its-kind pledge to use unionized labor in the construction of renewable energy projects.
We Energies and WPS, along with the state’s other major electric utilities and the Wisconsin Building Trades, received the prestigious Lurie Labor-Management Cooperation Prize during a ceremony Sept. 30.
Mike Hooper, president — We Energies and WPS, accepted the award on behalf of his companies, as well as Alliant Energy, Madison Gas and Electric, and Xcel Energy. He said the partnership is critical to the success of getting billions of dollars of clean energy projects built in the coming years.
“Utilities partnering with the building trades is the most efficient and effective way to do it. It drives cost out; it drives quality up. We can do it because the training and the standards that the building trades are built on,” Hooper told the crowd at the ceremony.
Emily Pritzkow, executive director of the Wisconsin Building Trades Council said the partnership will benefit workers across the state.
“This commitment could ultimately mean 20,000 good paying, union jobs in the years to come,” Pritzkow said. “That means these new, cleaner domestic sources of energy will be constructed by members of the community in which they live.”
The Melvin Lurie Memorial Prize honors members of the Wisconsin labor-management community for outstanding service in the cause of promoting, creating or researching labor-management cooperation.