by James Parks, Feb 11, 2008

Building Pittsburgh’s David Lawrence Convention Center provides good union jobs and helps the environment.

The union and environmental movement increasingly are joining together to work on a broad range of issues on our mutually reinforcing goals: moving toward a sustainable environment and creating family-supporting jobs.

At a first-of-its-kind conference next month, “Good Jobs, Green Jobs: A National Green Jobs Conference,” union members, environmental and public health advocates, policymakers, business leaders and others will launch a nationwide discussion on the benefits of a new green economy.  

The location of the March 13–14 conference at Pittsburgh’s David Lawrence Convention Center highlights the group’s commitment: It’s the only entirely green convention center in the country. Participants will share best practices about revitalizing our manufacturing sector, driving green building, promoting safer chemicals and realizing the economic benefits of global warming solutions. Click here to learn more about the conference and register to attend. 

Good Jobs, Green Jobs follows the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Of the 90 union delegates, more than 20 were from North America. The U.S. delegates sent us a series of posts from the conference: here, here, here, here, here and here. 

Speaking at the Bali conference, Roger Toussaint, president of Transport Workers (TWU) Local 100, laid out the issue of climate change and why unions should be involved:

This is not a test. Global warming is real and climate change is happening. We have to rise to the challenge of climate change by making it a key priority for our unions. A trade union agenda, rooted in the organized strength of workers and day to day engagement in affected communities, can help transition our society to a low-carbon future. This will bring “green” employment in such things as public transportation, which is critically important now and in the years ahead.  

The AFL-CIO strongly backs efforts to combat global warming, achieve energy independence and revitalize American manufacturing in the process. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will address the United Nations Foundation on Feb. 14 on climate change and investment. Last year, the Executive Council approved a resolution that said, in part:

It makes sense to seek energy independence through investments in infrastructure, clean coal/carbon sequestration, advanced technology vehicles and their key components, alternative energy resources (solar, thermal, wind, biomass, etc.) and energy efficient buildings and appliances.  Each of these should be linked to domestic investment and production.

Bob Baugh, co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last year that along with fighting global warming, the United States needs an energy policy for the 21st century “that will result in a cleaner planet, greater energy efficiency and the revitalization of our manufacturing base.”

Climate change is a serious environmental threat in need of a prompt legislative response by the U.S. Congress. It is also an opportunity for our nation to prove that economic development and environmental progress can and should go hand-in-hand.

The United Steelworkers (USW) joined with the Sierra Club to form the Blue Green Alliance in 2006 to fight for good jobs and a clean environment.

Says USW President Leo Gerard:

We need to put an end to the lies, the myths, the hysteria, that say you can have either a clean environment or good jobs. You can have both, or you have neither.

Last year, the alliance made the clear connection between global warming and the excesses of the global economy. Gerard said the union movement’s vision of addressing global warming is fundamentally at odds with global policies that allow corporations to make huge profits by buying and trading the rights to emit carbon without ever addressing the basic inequalities in our global economy.

The USW also has joined with the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions to form the Apollo Alliance to create jobs with a public investment in sustainable energy such as hydrogen fuel systems and related transportation, construction and manufacturing.

Meanwhile, Amalgamated Transit Union President Warren George has called on policymakers to invest in mass transit systems to reduce greenhouse gases:

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, or create new infrastructure from scratch (although the infrastructure needs a lot of work). The machinery is in place. We, the skilled workers are in place. All we need is the political will to provide the funding and the insight and incentives.

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