BlueGreen Alliance, Apollo Alliance Merge To Strengthen Push for Green Jobs
The BlueGreen Alliance and Apollo Alliance today announced a merger to strengthen and unify the movement to build a clean energy, good jobs economy to fuel U.S. job creation. The newly unified organization will call on Washington to focus anew on creating good jobs, securing America’s energy future and preserving the environment for future generations.
Beginning July 1, the two organizations will combine to become the BlueGreen Alliance, which will be home to the Apollo Alliance project. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Sierra Club Chair Carl Pope will continue as co-chairs, and David Foster will continue as executive director.
Earlier this year, the BlueGreen Alliance launched Jobs21!, a nine-state grassroots campaign calling for a national jobs plan to put America back to work building the industries of the 21st century here in the United States. This initiative will be strengthened through coordination with the Apollo Alliance’s strong network of state and local affiliates–now dubbed BlueGreen Apollo Alliances. It will also be enhanced by Apollo’s recently-launched Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) project that calls for federal investment in clean transportation that will create 3.7 million direct and indirect jobs over six years and will save Americans up to $5,000 per family each year in commuting costs.
Wisconsin Fight Goes to Core of ‘Who We Are as a People and Country’
Michael Peck, a board member of the Apollo Alliance, writes that the Wisconsin workers who have been in the streets and the Capitol Rotunda in Madison for more than a week:
are fighting for more than balancing a budget and even more than the right to bargain collectively for our own welfare. Indeed, the stakes are much, much higher and go to the core of who we are as a people and country.
Click here to read his entire post on the Alliance’s Clean Energy and Good Jobs blog.
The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of labor, business, environmental and community leaders working to start a clean energy revolution that will put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of high-quality, green-collar jobs.
Transportation Dept. Launches Buy American Website
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When the Apollo Alliance released its Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) in October (click here for detailed coverage) one of its key job-creating recommendations was ensuring that American manufacturers and U.S. workers supply the rail cars, tracks and other mass transit equipment to modernize the nation’s mass transportation system.
But since 2005, U.S. companies and governments have spent more than $10 billion to purchase mass transit equipment overseas, even though the United States is home to five public transit bus manufacturers, a dozen railcar builders and a wide range of other transportation equipment makers.
Now the U.S. Department of Transportation, following a TMAP recommendation, has launched a new website that will post all Buy American waiver requests in one central location so that any American company can see easily if they can fill a particular need.
Political Climate Can’t Stop Climate Change Initiatives
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AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh is a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) attending the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. This is the second of a series of blogs on the talks. Read the first blog here.
Congress’ failure to pass climate change legislation and the election of a conservative majority in the next House have led many delegates from other countries to ask if the United States can meet the commitments it made in Copenhagen to reduce carbon emissions.
Apollo Alliance Honors AFL-CIO’s Baugh
The Apollo Alliance’s Right Stuff Award honors outstanding individuals whose work exemplifies the group’s mission to catalyze the new clean energy economy. Last night in San Francisco, Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, joined the list of Right Stuff honorees whose work is creating a new green economy.
The Alliance said Baugh received the award because:
As leader of the AFL-CIO’s manufacturing policy and legislative initiatives, Bob has had a life-long commitment to labor and the environment and has never believed in the false choice between jobs and the environment.
Rebuilding U.S. Transportation Could Create 3.7 Million Jobs
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By rebuilding our nation’s transportation infrastructure, we could create 3.7 million jobs, 600,000 alone in manufacturing, according to a new action plan released today by the Apollo Alliance.
The Clean Transportation Manufacturing Action Plan (TMAP) calls for an investment of $40 billion a year over the next six years to modernize and shore up our nation’s roads, bridges, mass transportation and advanced vehicles. The plan was developed by a bipartisan group of union members, business owners, environmental and community activists and political leaders.
For decades, the United States has all but ignored mass transit. In fact, since 2005, U.S. companies and governments have spent more than $10 billion to purchase rail cars, tracks and other mass transit equipment overseas, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said during a telephone press conference today. That $10 billion is money that should have been spent here.
IBEW Institute Graduates First ‘Green Technicians’ Class
To ensure union members are well trained to compete for the new opportunities in solar, wind and other renewable energy projects, the Electrical Workers has woven green training into its apprenticeship program. Last week, the first 14 certified “green technicians” graduated from the Electrical Training Institute electrical apprenticeship program in Indianapolis. The institute is a joint partnership between IBEW Local 481 and the National Electrical Contractors Association of Central Indiana.
The “green” technicians displayed an array of solar panels and a wind turbine they recently installed at the institute as examples of how they will put their new skills to work in advancing the development of a clean energy economy.
Good Jobs First Keeps Eye on Economic Recovery Spending
Good Jobs First today launched a new website, www.AccountableRecovery.org, as part of its new States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery (STAR) Coalition. STAR is a network, which promotes state and local activism to ensure the $787 billion in spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is transparent, accountable, fair and effective.
The new site breaks down economic recovery information for each state and the District of Columbia:
- An evaluation of each state’s Recovery Act website, especially with regard to disclosure of contractor information.
- Details on Recovery Act oversight policies and structures.
- A synopsis of policy debates on the issues of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act occurring in the state.
- Key data such as total funding the state is expected to receive.
- Listings of watchdog organizations, their Recovery Act publications and other resources.
Earth Day 2009: Green Jobs Can Be Good Jobs
On Earth Day 2009, there is a growing recognition that green jobs will play a key role in fighting global warming, creating energy self-sufficiency, helping the nation recover from the current recession and moving workers into stable middle-class jobs.
During a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing this morning, David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of four unions and two environmental organizations, said in this economic crisis, creating jobs is a priority, and by passing climate change legislation this year, we can start putting America’s workers back to work building the clean energy economy.
To protect the environment and increase our energy independence, climate change legislation must focus on creating and retaining good, family-sustaining green jobs across the United States.
On Earth Day, AFL-CIO Launches Green Initiative
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To celebrate Earth Day, the AFL-CIO, together with the leadership of its new Center for Green Jobs, announced a plan to reduce energy consumption, cut down waste and reduce the carbon footprint of its national headquarters.
With green jobs emerging as a top public policy priority, the AFL-CIO is pushing to ensure that the new green jobs created are also good jobs that provide a decent wage and benefits.
Says Jeff Rickert, director of the Working for America Institute’s Center for Green Jobs:
It’s like the old saying goes, the AFL-CIO is thinking globally and acting locally, but doing so in a way that demonstrates how to use strategic investments that help the environment while relying on high-skilled work.
