Job Quality in New Green Economy

by James Parks, Feb 25, 2009

As the nation increasingly focuses on the need to create green jobs, a new report reminds us that such jobs do not always measure up in terms of wages and working conditions.

High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in the New Green Economy, released earlier this month by the grassroots community organization Good Jobs First, outlines strategies to ensure that green jobs are good jobs.

The report found that many wind and solar manufacturing plants are receiving large economic-development subsidies from state and local governments.

Says Greg LeRoy, Good Jobs First executive director:

This use of taxpayer money provides an opportunity to raise wages and other working conditions. Many states and localities already apply job quality standards to companies receiving job subsidies or public contracts. In the report, we urge wider and more aggressive use of such standards by federal as well as state and local agencies.

The report looks at companies that manufacture components for wind and solar energy generation, as well as those that build green buildings and those that handle recycling. In each sector, Good Jobs First found examples of employers that pay their workers a decent wage and treat them with respect. But the study also found a company where workers were subjected to an anti-union campaign when they tried to form a union to get a safer workplace.

Some U.S. wind and solar manufacturing firms are weakening the job security of their workers, the report notes, by opening parallel plants in foreign low-wage havens such as China and Mexico. Click here to read the report.

The report reaffirms what AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told a high-level forum this week that included Obama administration cabinet members, congressional leaders, former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore.

Sweeney said:

A new U.S. energy strategy can be the foundation of rebuilding the middle class if we ensure that the jobs we create are good, innovative jobs here in our country—and that can then become the foundation of a strong new economy.

The nation also must invest in the materials and equipment needed for green technology, Sweeney said. Investments should include job standards so federally funded programs support good living standards, he said, with health care, worker safety programs, apprenticeship and training programs, and respect for workers’ rights.

Sweeney pointed out the new AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs will expand the research, training and policy work in support of good green jobs.

And, most critically he said, Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act to allow workers the freedom to bargain with their employers to make their jobs good jobs—workers will organize to make their jobs better if we protect their right to do so.

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