Thinking Globally, Acting Domestically in Copenhagen

Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, sends us this report from the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 40 U.S. union members are part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Read our previous blogs on the climate change talks here, here, here, here, here and here.

In the time-compressed atmosphere of Copenhagen, it is difficult to have an opportunity to meet with key government officials and to be able to use an international message as a bridge to discussing our real issues at home.

During an unusual day off, our trade union delegation joined an ITUC briefing session followed by our own delegation meeting in a union office near the city center. We reviewed the current status of negotiations and reported on our earlier meetings with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.

Locke spoke about the need to address climate change and the Obama administration’s push for job creation in a clean energy economy. He also discussed the need for energy efficiency solutions and the role Commerce could play in this agenda.

Locke’s comments helped us illustrate our idea of a just transition to a green economy by creating and retaining good jobs through aggressive investment in industry modernization, technology development and deployment and worker training and education. We challenged Locke on the role of the Commerce by telling him that while we “appreciate the agency promoting exports our greater concern was in having industries that actually make things and there is another role for commerce in industry development.” 

We made the point that the country needs to think differently about critical industries and technologies. The recent announcement by Ron Bloom, President Obama’s manufacturing adviser, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, on the formation of a manufacturing consortium for high-speed rail is a good example of the role of government. We encouraged Locke to think in a similar fashion telling him:

The unions of the AFL-CIO want to partner with you to develop these industries.

It was a positive meeting, one we all intend to follow up on upon our return.

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