Jeff Plaisted lives in Massachusetts and has been a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) as an electrician for 25 years: 14 years with IBEW Local 490 and 11 years with IBEW Local 223. Jeff is now a business agent for IBEW Local 223, which represents workers across Southeastern Massachusetts.
You worked on the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project for about ten months, laying cable and connecting it to the onshore substation on Cape Cod. Once completed this project will generate clean and affordable energy for over 400,000 homes in Massachusetts. What was it like working on that project?
When you think about offshore wind, all you think about is the offshore portion of it. It’s not until I got on that job hauling the cable to the substation that you realize that a lot of that work actually takes place onshore, building the infrastructure to carry that power to our grid. The portion I was on, pulling the cable, that’s not a job that you see very often. I loved pulling cable for Vineyard Wind. I loved the uniqueness of it. Some commercial jobs can be monotonous at times. You’re wiring light fixture after light fixture, or whatever it is that you’re doing. It’s a rinse and repeat situation. To deal with something on the magnitude of pulling [a transmission] cable, we’re talking about wire reels that are 15 feet high and 12 feet wide. It can be nerve wracking and stressful when you’re dealing with things of that size. The pressure and weight involved, it’s not anything to take lightly and that’s where our safety standards come into play. It’s just not a typical job. I enjoyed it. I would do it again.
Was there anything about working in offshore wind that surprised you?
I didn’t expect to see the level [anti-offshore wind sentiment] that I did on Cape Cod. I live on the Cape and I know the people there. The misinformation campaigns against offshore wind and renewable energy in general are pretty aggressive and they do a very good job at spreading misinformation. To hear people say that they’re against offshore wind when I know that we have a common viewpoint on reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is surprising. Everything needs to be on the table, including offshore wind.
What do you want local communities, like Cape Cod, to know about cable laying for offshore wind projects that they may not understand or see the benefits of?
Nobody likes construction if you’re not participating in it. I do understand that. It’s a massive disruption, but this is infrastructure. This is stuff that needs to happen, no matter what’s going on with offshore wind, our power grid needs work. It needs help. Plus, the reality for us in New England is that we’re shutting down power plants and we’re not building new ones. Where are you going to make up that demand [for electricity]? Solar, wind, battery storage.
What have the effects of climate change looked like for you, your coworkers, your family, and your community?
It used to be that for most of New England, everybody got snow. I grew up in New Hampshire and I’ve lived on Cape Cod for 16 years. I don’t have to shovel my driveway anymore. It just doesn’t snow like it used to snow. Even if it does, within a couple days, it’s melted. It’s gone. Winters are changing. It’s a lot hotter in the summer too and anybody that works construction outside can tell you that. It gets a lot hotter in the Northeast than it ever did when I was a kid. You could ask any farmer in the Midwest, they’re going to tell you that things aren’t the same. You can talk to the fishermen off the coast of New England, they’re going to tell you that the water is changing and that it’s affecting everything. Year in and year out you see that things are changing.
Where do you hope to see the clean energy sector in the future?
I hope to see this sector taken seriously. At this point, it’s an industry that I don’t think is taken seriously as a viable option to produce power to the grid beyond just supplemental. We’re trying to produce clean power. How can you say no to an industry that creates thousands of jobs for local communities and has solar and wind energy stored in batteries and ready to go when needed? It doesn’t really matter what your political stance is when you look at it that way.
Can you tell me about your role with IBEW Local 223 as a business agent?
My job is to organize new members or contractors to sign on as union electricians and contractors. As a business agent, we’re here to fill the needs of our members. That could be anything from job referrals, assigning people to jobs, or [dealing with] healthcare, pension, or any other issue they may have. Mostly it’s about the jobs. At the end of the day, the most important thing is referring our members to jobs and doing whatever we can to make that possible. I’m a 25-year electrician and I just got in the office here [as a business agent] at the end of August in 2024. It’s a career change at 50. It’s a job that I knew as an apprentice that I would love to have. It suits me.
How did you get involved in your union?
I was a union laborer first. I worked at Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, which is a good-size power plant in New England on the seacoast of New Hampshire and I was working with pipefitters. One day, I met a long-time IBEW member and father of a life-long friend of mine at the IBEW Local 490 union hall after work and got signed up. I didn’t know anything about electrical work, but I knew early on what the union did for people. I saw the life my buddy and his father had and what IBEW Local 490 did for them. I didn’t need any convincing that a position as an IBEW electrician was the path that I needed to take to get to the life that I wanted. I’ve made some bad decisions throughout the years, but I never fought this. I always knew that this was where I needed to be.
Why is being a union member important to you?
I wanted the opportunity to retire later on in life. I saw that it was possible with [union] jobs to have a life in retirement where you didn’t need to struggle to survive. Plus, I just always kind of knew that college wasn’t in the cards for me. I quit high school and followed the Grateful Dead all around the country. At that time, I would have done that forever if I could have. After that, I knew that the trades were the way to go and that if I was going to be in any trade, especially as an electrician, that being a union electrician was the best option.
What’s something that you wish people in general understood about unions?
When you’re talking about a reliable and properly trained workforce, we’re unmatched in the industry. The attention that we put on training and job site safety, are the things that we’re taught from day one as apprentices. Being a dependable, well-rounded electrician is what you become as an IBEW electrician.
This interview has been condensed and edited for content and clarity.