Executive Council Welcomes New Vice Presidents
Of the 51 vice presidents elected today to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, there are nine new additions, who are expanding the range of voices that will be heard. We congratulate the following new vice presidents of the AFL-CIO:
- Patrick D. Finley, Plasterers and Cement Masons (OP&CMIA)
- M.B. “Mike” Futhey, United Transportation Union (UTU)
- Newton Jones, Boilermakers (IBB)
- D. Michael Langford, Utility Workers (UWUA)
- Robert McEllrath, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
- Roberta Reardon, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
- John Ryan, Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Works (GMP)
- DeMaurice Smith, Professional Athletes
- Baldemar Velasquez, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
Union Sportsmen: Dedicated Funding Needed to Safeguard Fish and Wildlife
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Union sportsmen see firsthand how climate change has harmed the woods, streams and lakes, even as the rest of us are aware of the planet heating up from reports of shrinking ice shelves to holes in the Earth’s ozone layer.
In a letter to congressional leaders from 20 of the unions in the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and the Union Sportsmen Alliance (USA), the unions write:
Union sportsmen do not need to read reports in the press to know climate change is already affecting the ways they pursue game and fish, the success of their days afield and the timing of their hunting and fishing trips.
The 20 unions urge the leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to include dedicated funding to safeguard fish, wildlife and ecosystems important to sportsmen be in Senate climate change legislation.
500 Workers Cancel Raises to Help Massachusetts’ Budget, and More Bargaining News
Some 500 workers in Massachusetts cancel raises to help state budget deficit, and more updates from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
MULTIPLE, MBTA: Four unions representing 500 workers at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU), the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Boilermakers (IBB), agreed to cancel raises set to take effect this summer to help close an estimated $160 million budget deficit. The largest MBTA union, the Boston Carmen’s Union/ATU, represents 3,200 workers and has not yet reached agreement.
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.
Report: Clean Coal Could Create Millions of Jobs
President Obama’s economic recovery plan sets aside $50 billion in grants and tax incentives to promote efficient, clean and renewable energy. Several unions are reminding policymakers that the nation already has a huge and available supply of fuel that could be harnessed to provide green jobs and promote energy independence.
The Mine Workers (UMWA), Boilermakers (IBB), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC) are aggressively promoting the use of coal-generated electricity to provide jobs and help clean up the environment.
Along with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the unions recently released a study showing that using advanced clean coal technologies that capture and safely store carbon dioxide will create millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs for U.S. workers. Using this “clean coal” technology will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, generate $1 trillion of economic output and create up to 7 million work-years of employment, according to the study.
Parade Marchers Display Diversity, Strength of America’s Workers
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For Maria Somma, it was a dream come true. The native of Vietnam and naturalized citizen was one of the 265 union members who braved freezing temperatures today to join representatives from across the country and our armed forces to participate in the official inaugural parade for President Obama. The contingent of union members taking part in the parade included members from the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association.
With 15 union members riding a union-made float and 250 marchers alongside, the workers’ contingent was one of the largest groups in the parade. This is the first time in recent memory that workers have participated in the parade.
Following the ‘Green Jobs’ Road from Bali to Poznan
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Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, is in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The meeting, which was scheduled to conclude Dec. 12, is building upon the framework negotiated last year in Bali, Indonesia, and includes nearly 100 union delegates.
What a difference a year can make.
Poznan is not Bali, nor were these meetings meant to be. As Harlan Watson, the chief U.S. negotiator, told our delegation:
This year is a way station between the Bali framework and the drive to a final agreement in Copenhagen.
What this round of talks will look for is a statement that shows some progress. There are also indications that major advanced developing economies such as China, South Korea, Brazil and others are, for the first time, identifying measurable steps for climate change mitigation, but financing will be a major issue. Major negotiating papers are scheduled for March and June meetings.
AFL-CIO Unions in Poland for U.N. Climate Change Conference
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Some 8,000 delegates and observers from around the world are gathered in Poznan, Poland, for the 12-day United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC). This ministerial meeting will build upon the framework negotiated in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago. Of the nearly 100 union delegates, more than 20 are from North America, including Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force. Baugh sends us the first of a series of posts by members of the labor delegation.
The December 2007 climate change meeting in Bali marked the first time the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) achieved nongovernmental organization (NGO) status for the ongoing climate change negotiations.
With NGO status, ITUC representatives were recognized as official delegates and could participate directly in key working sessions of the conference. The Bali meetings helped put a negotiating framework in place for developing a new set of strategies to replace the current agreement on reducing global warming—known as the Kyoto Protocol—which expires in 2012. The target for achieving a new international agreement is 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
