Exclusive: Microsoft partners with construction unions on AI boom
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Microsoft and North America's Building Trades Unions are supercharging efforts to train workers for the AI economy, according to an announcement shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: AI infrastructure and data centers are expected to create new jobs, and companies are partnering with unions to ensure the workforce is ready.
Driving the news: NABTU and Microsoft will now offer free AI literacy courses and industry-recognized credentials to millions of skilled craft professionals across North America.
- The partnership also includes TradesFutures, a nonprofit that connects people to union construction apprenticeships and careers in 34 states.
Context: This announcement builds on work Microsoft and NABTU have already been doing to prepare for AI.
- The company also has partnerships with the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers.
Between the lines: Union leaders say their involvement could help ease skepticism across the country about AI projects, particularly concerns about the electricity and water demands of data centers.
- "If communities are going to be comfortable having this infrastructure built where they live ... having advocates from those communities who have been in those communities for generations and are respected goes a long way," NABTU President Sean McGarvey told Axios.
- He pushed back against the idea that construction jobs tied to data centers are temporary.
- "There'll be scores of people, if not hundreds of people, maintaining and upgrading those data centers for as long as those data centers are in operation."
What they're saying: Data center moratorium efforts across the country aren't hindering construction, Microsoft President Brad Smith told Axios, adding they have instead sparked greater community involvement.
- "What I would point to is a different and broader public climate where local communities have a lot more questions than they did two or three years ago," Smith said.
- "From my perspective, the questions that people are asking are not only reasonable — they're good — and it's our responsibility to do a good job of responding."
The bottom line: Union involvement may be key to ensuring workers see the massive projected benefits of AI.
