The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) can begin training local Virginia residents starting with Union Hill in Buckingham County with full construction on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) now in sight.
Last week, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality provided key approval on ACP’s environmental protection plans.
LIUNA will teach skills needed for pipeline tasks in both a classroom setting and a hand-on controlled work setting. It is anticipated that those who complete this training will begin working on the construction spread in Buckingham County in the beginning of December 2018.
The implementation of training programs throughout Virginia will coincide with the order ACP plans to build the various pipeline spreads that put together will form the full 600-mile line.
“It’s difficult to tell Virginia’s working men and women to be patient when they are depending on these jobs for a family-supporting wage and benefits,” said Dennis Martire, Vice President and Regional Manager. “Now, we can finally tell them what we wanted to from the start, and that is that life-changing jobs are on the way specifically for them.”
LIUNA was forced to delay training because of the consistent back-and-forth between ACP permit approvals and permit revocations.
“If we had held the training earlier in the year, months of time would have passed where these local residents weren’t using what they learned in training,” continued Martire. “To be most effective, work needs to start right after training when the training is fresh.”
LIUNA is currently preparing a location in Union Hill to hold the training program and will be recruiting throughout Union Hill communities starting next week. Training is expected to begin as early as the end of next week or early the following week.
In addition to jobs, the ACP is also expected to bring economic development to communities surrounding the pipeline which will further benefit local residents.
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