China and Its U.S. Wind Farm Partner Promise More American Jobs
After a public outcry over China’s plan to seek $450 million in economic recovery funds to build a wind farm in Texas that would create only 30 U.S. jobs, the companies involved are now promising to put more Americans to work.
USA Today reports the companies—a U.S. private equity firm and a Chinese turbine maker—also will build a plant in the United States that will make wind turbines while employing 1,000 people. The companies did not indicate the timeframe for building the plant, which would be one of the biggest in the nation for wind turbines.
Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, says:
It’s a start, but it just shows how far we have to go [to catch up in the production of wind turbines and other clean-energy products.]
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.
U.N. Climate Change Programs Must Be Funded
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Roger Toussaint, president of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 in New York City, was in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which concluded Dec. 12. Toussaint, who was among 100 union delegates, offers his observations on the 12-day event held to build upon the framework negotiated last year in Bali, Indonesia. Read the full series of posts here.
This event brings us one step closer to the eventual adoption of a new treaty (the successor to the Kyoto Protocol) to be signed in Copenhagen in 2009. While many of participants in the trade union delegation attended the climate change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007, the expansion and diversification of the delegation continues. This year’s broad representation includes both AFL-CIO and Change to Win affiliates, such as AFSCME, ATU, IUE-CWA, IBB, IBEW, SEIU, TWU, USW, Utility Workers, UMWA and the Industrial Union Council.
Reflections on U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poznan
Jon Forster, first vice president of AFSCME Local 375/DC37 in New York, was in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which concluded Dec. 12. Forster, who was among 100 union delegates, offers his observations on the 12-day event held to build upon the framework negotiated last year in Bali, Indonesia.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Poznan, Poland, provided an important opportunity for trade unions to be present and weigh in on critical climate change issues. As a public service union, AFSCME was able to bring some different perspectives, and a different set of experiences to the table. Working within the meetings convened by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the AFL-CIO, it was exciting to hear the different viewpoints brought by other trade unions from around the world, including Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, Poland, India, Egypt, Russia, Kenya, Germany, France, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, among others.
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.
