SMART Local 55 says the region should not choose between responsible development and protecting its residents. Spokane can demand both.

SPOKANE, Wash. Spokane’s growing debate over data center development is often presented as a choice between accepting massive technology projects without conditions or preventing them from coming to the region entirely.

For SMART Local 55 and other members of the Spokane Building Trades, there is another path. Local governments can establish enforceable standards that protect water, electrical reliability and residential ratepayers while ensuring that projects create lasting opportunities for local workers.

That position is gaining support from organized labor. IBEW Local 73 and the IBEW Ninth District have launched an online campaign urging union members and community supporters to contact elected officials regarding data center development. The campaign argues that Spokane residents must be actively involved in determining how these facilities are planned, approved and integrated into the community. As of July 21, the campaign had generated approximately 690 letters to elected officials.

The Spokane City Council approved a one-year moratorium on new data center permit applications on June 22. The measure passed 6-1 and directs the city’s Climate Resilience and Sustainability Board and Plan Commission to develop a data center impact review and policy framework. City officials have identified water supply, electrical capacity, environmental impacts and possible effects on utility ratepayers as central concerns.

Spokane County commissioners are also considering a separate pause on certain data center development while the county evaluates water resources, electricity rates, environmental sustainability and economic impacts. The proposed county moratorium would extend into April 2027 if adopted.

Those concerns are legitimate. No company should be allowed to consume enormous amounts of power or water while shifting the cost of infrastructure upgrades onto working families. A data center should not receive public incentives, favorable utility arrangements or expedited approvals unless the public receives a measurable return.

But protecting the community does not require Spokane to permanently close the door on an industry that could provide thousands of construction hours, apprenticeship opportunities and middle-class careers.

Data centers require extensive cooling, ventilation, air-handling, fabrication and mechanical systems. SMART identifies data centers among the major facilities constructed and maintained by union sheet metal workers, while the sheet metal industry has reported increasing demand for large-scale air-cooled systems and fabricated metal components on data center projects.

For Local 55, that work represents more than a temporary construction boom. Properly structured projects could expand apprenticeship opportunities, support local contractors, create organizing opportunities and provide Spokane-area residents with a direct pathway into family-supporting careers.

The question is not simply whether a data center creates jobs. The question is what kind of jobs it creates, who receives those jobs and whether the economic benefits remain in the community after construction is complete.

A responsible Spokane data center policy should require:

• Prevailing wages and area-standard wages and benefits.
• Project labor agreements or community workforce agreements.
• Use of registered union apprenticeship programs.
• Enforceable local hiring and apprenticeship goals.
• Strong safety, training and workforce-reporting requirements.
• Investment in electrical, water and transportation infrastructure.
• Utility protections preventing costs from being transferred to residential customers.
• Clear environmental, water-use and emergency-response standards.
• Accountability provisions for companies receiving tax incentives or public assistance.

The IBEW’s national data center principles follow a similar framework. They call for prevailing wages, project labor agreements, apprenticeship utilization and strong safety standards. They also state that data center owners should pay their fair share of energy and grid-modernization costs, rather than leaving those expenses to residential ratepayers.

Those principles recognize that environmental protections and labor standards are not competing priorities. Both are necessary if data center development is going to produce shared prosperity instead of private profit at public expense.

A temporary moratorium may provide local officials with time to establish those rules. But a pause should be used to build a responsible development framework, not to avoid making difficult policy decisions.

Spokane should not hand unrestricted control of its resources to multinational technology corporations. It also should not surrender potential construction work, apprenticeship opportunities and economic growth without first determining whether those projects can be developed responsibly.

SMART Local 55’s position is straightforward: Companies seeking access to Spokane’s land, power, water and public infrastructure must provide something substantial in return. That means good union jobs, local apprenticeship opportunities, responsible resource use and enforceable protections for the people who already live here.

The future of data center development should not be decided only by technology companies, utilities or political officials. The workers who would build these facilities, and the communities that would host them, deserve a seat at the table.

Send your letter of support here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ibew73jobs/