Labor Unions' Green Efforts Are Cause For Celebration This Labor Day
by Andrea Buffa
Published on Monday, September 7, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/09/07-0
It may seem like labor unions don't have much to
celebrate this Labor Day, considering the ongoing
dismal state of the economy and its impact on their
members' pocketbooks. But when it comes to green
issues, Labor Day 2009 marks a
labor movement. From national initiatives - like the
AFL-CIO's inauguration of the Center for Green Jobs -
to grassroots, member-driven projects like
AFSCME's Environmental Caucus, labor unions have
shifted into a new gear in their efforts to address
climate change and other pressing environmental issues.
The goals of these efforts are a healthier environment
and a groundswell of high-quality green jobs.
"Our members are no different than the rest of the
public. They're concerned about climate change. And as
the issue becomes more talked about out in the world,
our members put more pressure on leaders to step up and
get involved in the policy work," said Barbara Byrd,
who holds positions at the
"Labor unions are also becoming more involved in green
jobs issues, now especially, because it's a question of
economic development and it's a question of jobs. We're
in the middle of a recession...jobs are hard to come
by, and it's becoming more clear that the green jobs
sector is growing faster than traditional jobs," Byrd explained.
National and International Labor Participation in
Climate and Clean Energy Efforts
At the national level, the inauguration of the AFL-CIO
Center for Green Jobs was announced at a press event in
February at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in
AFL-CIO affiliates implement green jobs initiatives
that create and retain good union jobs. At the same
press event, another innovative green labor program was
announced: the Emerald Cities Initiative is a
partnership between the Building and Construction
Trades Department of the AFL-CIO and various social
justice groups to make building and construction trades
union apprenticeship and other training programs
accessible to people of color and other community
members who need a pathway out of poverty and into
green, union construction jobs.
Labor unions were also intimately involved in national
policy negotiations this year around the American Clean
Energy and Security Act, green measures included in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the
new national clean car standards that were announced by
the Obama administration. The AFL-CIO's Bob Baugh, the
United Steelworkers' Leo Gerard, and many other labor
leaders testified before Congress on these and other
green issues. United Auto Workers President Ron
Gettelfinger stood next to President Obama in May as he
announced new national clean car standards that will
improve fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle greenhouse
gas emissions. The UAW had urged the Obama
administration to adopt the new standards.
Labor unions were also involved in international
climate change negotiations this year. Since 2007, when
the Cornell University Global Labor Institute organized
a delegation of
Nations climate talks in Bali,
representatives have been participating in
international meetings, including this year's meeting
in
under the umbrella of the International Trade Union
Commission to promote an international climate
agreement that provides for a "just transition" to a
global green economy. As Bob Baugh, executive director
of the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Council, blogged from
the international talks in
emphasized the need for the U.N. climate change
agreement to address employment and income, the
inclusion of trade unions and other stakeholders in the
decision-making process and a sensitivity to the needs
of the poorest and least-developed nations."
State and Local "Green" Labor Activities Run the Gamut
While the labor movement's national and international
efforts on climate change and other environmental
issues are exciting, it's the local initiatives that
are particularly creative and inspiring. Labor union
members seem to be applying a coat of green to their
activities - from the training programs that unions
offer to the ongoing education that is being provided
to union members and policy makers.
Labor union members are designing and constructing
green buildings from one side of the country to the
other. In
International
Craftworkers helped build an ultra-green building that
will house the
Environmental Studies. Its features include a
rainwater-harvesting system, a 100-kilowatt rooftop
array of photovoltaic panels, an energy-saving
displacement ventilation system, and glass facades that
enable daylight to provide much of the interior
building illumination.
In
New York City Parks Department's first green building,
a community center that features a vegetative roof with
plants and solar panels, a bike path and bike racks,
proximity to public transit, and a system of light
controls and sensors to increase energy efficiency. All
of the materials used to construct the building, many
of them recyclable, will come from local suppliers
within 500 miles of the community center. Members of
Local 375 also developed a New York City Green Schools
Guide, which sets sustainable design requirements for
new school construction and major remodeling projects
and awards points for features like low-water-use
plumbing fixtures, high-efficiency boilers, and
selection of sites that are near public transportation.
Labor unions are also training building superintendents
and residential managers to maintain these new green
facilities in a way that uses less energy, conserves
water, reduces operating costs, and minimizes
environmental impacts. SEIU's Local 32BJ participates
in a joint labor-management training program, the
Thomas Shortman Training Program, which has been
teaching green building maintenance skills since 2005.
32BJ recently announced its intentions to dramatically
expand this training as part of a "1,000 Supers"
program to train 1,000 green superintendents in New
bulbs, fixing leaky toilets, installing motion sensors,
and weather-stripping doors. "In some cases, where
trained building service workers have put these
state-of-the-art techniques into practice alongside
retrofits, energy bills can drop by 20 percent," said
James Barry, manager of program development of the 32BJ
training program.
Some unions are taking advantage of new trends in
renewable energy and energy efficiency that are being
created by state and government policies. In
which has a renewable energy standard requiring that 20
percent of the state's energy come from renewable
sources by 2015, members of Local 357 of the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
recently helped install the largest solar photovoltaic
power system in
140 acres of desert just outside of Nellis Air Force
Base and is now providing 30 percent of the base's power.
Many IBEW locals are doing renewable energy system
installation work and incorporating solar PV training
into their apprenticeship programs. According to Tom
Bowes of IBEW Local 58, who is the assistant director
of the Electrical
develops curriculum for local IBEW training programs
started incorporating information about photovoltaics
into the apprenticeship curriculum about 10 years ago.
In the
journeyman-level PV training for the past four years.
Nearly 500 people have attended the trainings, and 100
people have earned entry-level certificates in PV
systems from the North American Board of Certified
Energy Practitioners. Bowes says it's not difficult for
a person who already has thousands of hours of
experience doing electrical work to learn the nuances
of photovoltaics systems. "This fits very well with
traditional skills, and it's had a huge interest from
our members who are looking for new job opportunities," Bowes said.
Just as the IBEW is putting its expertise in electrical
work to use to take advantage of new job opportunities
created by renewable energy policies, LIUNA-the
Laborers International Union of
capitalizing on opportunities resulting from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's support for
residential weatherization. ARRA will invest $5 billion
in weatherizing
and emit fewer greenhouse gases, and LIUNA is working
to ensure that jobs in weatherization are high-quality
and that weatherization training is done by qualified,
experienced training entities and is accessible to
communities that have experienced barriers to
employment. At the local level, this looks like a
program that LIUNA's Local 55 is involved with in
Newark, N.J., in partnership with the city of
and an economic justice group called the
who have formerly been excluded from the workforce in
green construction and weatherization and gives them
hands-on experience weatherizing the homes of seniors
and low-income families. According to the
Department of Energy, weatherization reduces home
energy use by 32 percent, on average.
Another green program that is developing within unions
is the environmental committee or caucus. These tend to
be driven by environmentally conscious union members,
especially ones who work in government environmental
agencies. The Environmental Committee of SEIU's Local
1000 in
2004 at the urging of committee chair and Local 1000
member Mike Roskey. Roskey asked Local 1000's governing
council to inaugurate a committee that would work on
reducing resource consumption, networking with labor
organizations, and initiating programs and legislation.
Roskey, who works at the California Department of Fish
and Game, says the Committee has focused on educating
labor unions and the general public about environmental
issues and on developing green bargaining language.
Their proposed bargaining language was used by SEIU for
its national "Negotiating Green" handbook.
A similar process unfolded in
AFSCME members who worked at the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality exhorted the union to start
addressing matters beyond the usual bread and butter
issues that are at the heart of labor unions'
activities. The group started as a volunteer effort two
years ago and has now received some funding from
AFSME's executive board. Among other projects, they
convened a legislative forum on pending environmental
legislation for environmental groups, AFSMCE members
and policy makers, and they organized a phone bank of
members in key districts to help pass a bill that would
implement a low-carbon fuel standard and other measures
to reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
Steve Hughes, an organizer for Oregon AFSCME, explained
why AFSCME members are concerned about climate change.
Beyond the fact that some AFSCME members work in the
environmental field, "Our union lives and dies by the
public budget," Hughes said. "And if you look at any of
the literature out there about the costs of mitigating
the effects of climate change, there's going to be a
huge strain on public dollars. If we're having to spend
millions and billions mitigating the effects of
something we should have stopped long ago, that's going
to be less budget for all the other services and
infrastructure that people care about."
Byrd of the
AFSCME's Environmental Caucus has drawn in young people
who might not otherwise have become active in the
union: "The issues of the environment and climate
change motivate young workers in a big way. I've seen
this in AFSCME here in
smart, committed young people who were never involved
in the union before get involved because the union is
taking a position on an issue they care about. People
who care about the environment deeply, when they see
the union step up and make it a priority, they say,
whoa, there is something in this union for me. The
opportunity to engage young members [around green
issues] is another opportunity that smart labor leaders
are taking advantage of."
While labor unions' efforts on climate change and
environmental issues have attracted youth, such efforts
also have the potential to draw community groups closer
to unions. A stellar example of potential
community-labor collaboration is the Coalition for
Clean and Safe Ports. The coalition, spearheaded by the
Teamsters and Change to Win, includes labor unions and
environmental, public health and community groups and
is targeting the ports in
Beach,
address the fumes from dirty diesel gas trucks that
pollute port communities and endanger public health. To
fix the system, the campaign recommends that trucking
companies buy cleaner trucks and directly hire the
truck drivers as full-time employees.
"We feel we have a responsibility to the workers for
them to have a clean environment to live in," said
Frederick Potter, port division director for the
Teamsters. "You spend a lot of your life at your job.
The truck drivers are in this pollution all day long,
and they bring it home to their families in the
surrounding communities, because that's where they
live. Essentially they're living next to the factory
that's spouting pollution. The Teamsters looked at this
and said, you know what, we've got to leave something
for our children. We've got a responsibility to address
global warming, and we have an obligation to provide
our workers a clean and safe environment."
The clean ports campaign won a major victory in Los
Angeles when the
sustainable diesel emissions-reduction plan in March
2008. So far, the result has been more than 5,000 new
and cleaner trucks on the road at the
80 percent reduction in harmful emissions. However, a
lawsuit by the American Trucking Association has held
up the adoption of similar clean truck plans at other
ports and has delayed the piece of the
would make port truck drivers employees of the trucking
companies rather than independent contractors.
There are dozens of other examples of labor union
efforts on green issues-from labor unions' leadership
in national coalitions like the Apollo
Blue-Green Alliance, to labor education programs that
are being developed to help union members understand
how climate change will impact their jobs and
industries, to advocacy efforts by western labor unions
in the
regional cap-and-trade program called the Western
Climate Initiative. But United Steelworkers
International President Leo Gerard-whose union has
worked tirelessly on federal clean energy and climate
legislation-summed up the sentiments of the movement
that seems to developing among labor unions from coast
to coast:
"We must make a national commitment to rebuild
clean and green with products built here, to develop
new forms of clean, renewable energy and provide
incentives to further their deployment," Gerard
testified before Congress in March. "We must bring our
power grid and energy infrastructure into the 21st
century and train the American workforce to use these
new technologies. We must create a revolution in our
transportation sector, rebuilding the American auto
industry to produce the best and cleanest vehicles in
the world, and connect
neighborhoods with world class transit systems. And, of
course, we must limit greenhouse gas emissions
consistent with what the best science tells us."
Andrea Buffa is a senior writer and policy associate at
the Apollo
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