Consumers Win as Rialto Council Rejects Water Privatization Scheme
Consumers and the working men and women in Rialto, Calif., won a major victory last night as the City Council rejected a proposed 30-year lease of the c ity’s water and wastewater system to American Water. The Utility Workers (UWUA), which represents 2,500 American Water employees across the country, mobilized community opposition to the proposed scheme.
More than 300 Rialto citizens packed the City Council chambers and two overflow rooms to speak out against the deal, which would have increased water rates in the city by more than 84 percent in only two years. The defeated proposal also would have required the city to pay American Water more than $23 million every year in service fees and capital charges.
“This is a huge victory for Rialto ratepayers,” said UWUA President Michael Langford.
We believe that turning over the community’s public water system to American Water would clearly have been a bad deal for working families in Rialto.
The UWUA worked with Rialto residents over the past month to mobilize opposition to the privatization scheme. Many UWUA members live in Rialto and in nearby communities.
The action in Rialto is part of a major commitment by the union members at American Water to partner with community groups and others to oppose company conduct that is harmful to consumers. UWUA members and community activists have helped defeat the company’s takeover of a suburban system in Trenton, N.J., and blocked the layoff of 10 percent of the water workforce in West Virginia.
Blue Green Alliance Bus Tour to Demand Action on Clean Energy Jobs
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To remind lawmakers that Congress has stalled on legislation that would create and save millions of jobs across the country by building a clean energy economy—while nations like China are forging ahead—the Blue Green Alliance today kicked off a three-week, 17-state, 30-city bus tour. The “Job’s Not Done Tour” began in Los Angeles and will end Sept. 3 in Richmond, Va.
Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), says:
By failing to take action on these important clean energy policies, we are missing a huge opportunity to create good jobs now. Currently we are 16th in the world in the percentage of citizens with access to broadband. Expansion will not only create jobs, save Americans money and make our country more efficient, it will lead to the sustainable communities that are such an important part of our future.
Clean Energy Could Create 850,000 New Jobs
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With more than 2 million U.S. manufacturing jobs lost since the beginning of this recession in December 2007, a new report says developing a clean energy economy in the United States could create some 850,000 new manufacturing jobs.
The report, “Building the Clean Energy Assembly Line: How Renewable Energy Can Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing and the American Middle Class,” by the Blue Green Alliance, recommends major policy changes to build markets for clean energy and provide the financing and capacity building to create clean energy jobs.
Speaking at a telephone press conference today, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said federal policies gave a boost to the auto, medical and other industries, and they can do the same for clean energy.
Clean energy can revitalize U.S. manufacturing. Clean energy technology utilizes many of the same components manufactured for the auto industry. Done right, clean energy policy will create new demand for…manufacturing.
