Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su touted the ripple effect of Microsoft’s planned $3.3 billion Wisconsin AI datacenter while visiting a mine that will supply materials for its construction.
She spoke yesterday at the Payne & Dolan mine in Franklin after taking a tour of the facilities. It conducts aggregate mining, which is a broad category including gravel, sand, stone and other material used in construction.
The roundtable event highlighted how the Microsoft project in Mount Pleasant will boost demand for these materials while creating thousands of jobs in the state. It’s expected to bring 2,300 union construction jobs to southeastern Wisconsin next year, along with about 4,000 long-term jobs within the datacenter itself.
“Anytime we make investments like this that create new business, it has a ripple effect, right? It has a strong economic development effect,” Su told reporters yesterday. “And we know that when you take good jobs — and you saw this here — where working people can support their families, where they can go home after a hard day’s work and be paid a just day’s pay.”
Brian Endres, vice president of manufacturing for Payne & Dolan parent company the Walbec Group, noted every new home that’s built includes about 500 tons of aggregate. The quarry also provides asphalt and concrete for parking lots and roads, materials for reinforced concrete pipes and more.
“Overall, this type of aggregate is used in almost every facet of life that we all enjoy, and specifically a high-profile job is the Microsoft datacenter that’s coming in,” he said. “And a lot of aggregate for that is coming out of this facility.”
This project could be the “defining point” for many young construction workers’ careers, including apprentices, Wisconsin Building Trades Council Executive Director Emily Pritzkow said yesterday.
“Projects like this are essential,” she said, noting the Microsoft development “will lay the foundation for them to work for their entire career. It’s not just a job.”
Pritzkow also noted the state has seen about $7 billion in federal infrastructure investment under President Biden, including $4 billion for transportation alone. Endres underlined the importance of such investments for long-term planning by private industry.
“Overall, long-term sustainable federal funding in transportation and infrastructure is really key for our business … Mining like this is not a week-to-week thing, it’s a long-term vision,” he said. “We look to make investments in our human capital, our teammates, also in our equipment, based on what we see coming.”
Su said the Franklin mine plays a “key role” in the supply chain needed for infrastructure development in Wisconsin, and praised the work of mine workers in attendance.
“To the operating engineers, to all of the workers who make this place run every single day, know that we see you, that we want to make sure that you are going home healthy and safe … We know that this economy, the local economy, the national economy, does not run without you,” she said.
See more on the Microsoft project and listen to a recent podcast with Pritzkow.
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