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.
Report: Romania Beats U.S. in Internet Connection Speed
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Just as the interstate highway system opened up the nation to fast transportation of goods and services in the 20th century, the road to economic prosperity in the 21st century rides on the Internet highway. But nearly half (49 percent) of U.S. residents have Internet connection speeds that do not meet the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) minimum broadband standards and, more importantly, the United States overall ranks in the bottom half of the world in broadband speed.
The “2010 Report of Internet Speeds in All 50 States” released today by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) found there are wide areas of the nation, both rural and urban, that do not have any broadband access at all. We even trail countries like Romania in broadband speed.
CWA President Larry Cohen told a Washington, D.C., press conference:
Improving broadband deployment, connection speeds, and adoption will help facilitate job and business growth across the nation.
The report shows that the rate of increase in U.S. Internet connection speed is so slow, it will take the United States 60 years to catch up with current Internet speeds in South Korea, the country with the fastest Internet connections.
Blue Green Alliance Reaches Historic Agreement on Climate Legislation
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The Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of four unions and two environmental organizations, today announced support for comprehensive climate change legislation. The legislation is an effective way to rapidly put millions of Americans back to work building a clean energy economy and to reduce global warming emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
The alliance called for a reduction of U.S. carbon emissions by at least 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and is supporting a renewed U.S. effort to forge a global treaty to reduce worldwide emissions by 50 percent by that same date. To meet these goals, domestic climate change legislation should reduce U.S. emissions significantly below 2005 levels by 2020, with individual partners advocating targets ranging from 14 percent to 25 percent.
Biden’s Middle Class Task Force Hears Need for Good Green Jobs
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Green jobs can be a pathway to middle class for millions of Americans, but only if we ensure they come with good wages and benefits, union and environmental leaders told a White House panel.
Speaking to the first meeting of Vice President Biden’s Middle Class Task Force in Philadelphia today, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said any new green jobs also must be good jobs.
To rebuild our middle class, we must also be sure that the jobs created in this new, green economy are good jobs with family-supporting wages and benefits, that we maximize the number of jobs created in this economy, and that these jobs truly contribute to the protection of our environment for future generations of Americans.
Sweeney Praises Nomination of Solis
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney today praised President-elect Obama’s reported plan to appoint Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as secretary of labor. In a statement, Sweeney says:
We’re confident that she will return to the Labor Department one of its core missions—to defend workers’ basic rights in our nation’s workplaces.
She’s proven to be a passionate leader and advocate for all working families. In fact, she’s voted with working men and women 97 percent of the time.
A member of Congress since 2001, Solis co-authored the Green Jobs Act, which later became part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The Green Jobs Act authorized $125 million for workforce training programs targeted to veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth and individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
Employee Free Choice Gains Backing of Broad Range of Groups
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The momentum for the Employee Free Choice Act is growing and the legislation is gaining a broad spectrum of backers. The range of support shows how much the public understands that a strong union movement can benefit the economy and the nation.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, one of the largest environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council, announced its support of the bill, which would level the playing field by allowing workers to choose how to join a union. Also at the conference, the Sierra Club reiterated its support.
