High Road or Low Road in Renewable Energy Manufacturing?
This is a cross-post from the Daily Kos blog.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created in renewable energy manufacturing. Will these employment opportunities be “high-road,” decent-paying union jobs, or will employers take the “low road”—tapping into the desperation of unemployed workers who have already seen too much pain?” The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is not giving up on bringing organized labor’s opportunities to workers in the sector, despite a recent setback.
In early 2008, some workers at California-based Clipper Windpower’s two-year-old turbine assembly plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, reached out to the IBEW seeking representation. Matthew Fisher, assistant business manager, Cedar Rapids Local 204, says job safety, training, respect on the job and the lack of a seniority system topped the list of worker concerns.
