IUOE Project Shows Union Workers Ready for Green Jobs   by James Parks, Jul 31, 2009

Share

Many of the green jobs of “the future” already exist and are performed by union members who make energy-efficient products and teach others how to conserve energy. 

Take Operating Engineers Local 49, which represents workers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Members of the local recently built a wind turbine farm in the small town of Chandler, Minn. Crane operators from the local union hoisted the turbines into place as other members dug trenches for the transmission lines and did the grading.

Glen Johnson, business manager for Local 49, tells the Operating Engineers (IUOE) magazine, International Operating Engineer:

We’re green. We’ve been green a long time. When our operators are building roads and bridges, key environmental factors must be met.

Some of the skills and training union members receive can easily be transferred to green jobs, says Gary Lindbald, Local 49’s training director:

Whether an operator is lifting a column for a wind turbine or raising a high-efficiency heating and cooling system to the roof of a green building, he needs to know how to properly and safely control the crane. That’s something we’ve been teaching for generations.

Boosted by more than $90 billion for green jobs and training in the Obama administration’s economic recovery package, green jobs are growing steadily and present a unique opportunity to help rebuild the middle class. To ensure that the green jobs are good jobs, unions are pushing public policy options and creating new programs to prepare workers for the green revolution.

The AFL-CIO Working for America Institute (WAI), which helps create high-road partnerships among unions, business and government, also is conducting conference calls and webinars for labor leaders on various grants. Through a series of announcements, the institute is keeping the union movement abreast of the opportunities to better educate the nation’s workforce and rebuild the middle class.

The AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs is providing resources to enable labor leaders apply for $500 million in new green jobs training grants.

 Here’s Jeff Rickert, the center’s director:

With green jobs emerging as a top public policy priority, we are all working hard to make sure that green jobs are good jobs that provide decent wages and benefits. That’s a central part of our work. We don’t want these jobs to become dead-end jobs with no chance for advancement.

Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department is leading a national initiative joining their affiliates and 1,100 apprenticeship training centers with community organizations to train workers for the opportunities offered by new energy investment. 

To learn more about what unions are doing to prepare for a green future, click here, here, here and here.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)