Public Employee Press

Part 1 in a series
Labor takes on global warming

Local, national, and international conferences are confronting the crisis of global warming. Labor is expanding its role in the effort to work out the political and technical issues involved in planning for a green future, shaping energy policies and pressing for good, green jobs, said Jon Forster, the 1st vice president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375.

In January Forster represented DC 37 and its parent union, AFSCME, as unionists from around the world got together to compare strategies during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland.

“Poland produces 90 percent of its electricity from coal. Your eyes burn due to the polluted air,” said Forster. The global labor contingent pressed for a “green jobs strategy” to transform such challenges into employment opportunities based on renewable energy sources, such as wind, hydro and solar power.

“As we approach the December UN conference in Copenhagen, where the Kyoto Treaty on global warming will be rewritten, other nations are looking to the United States to get on board,” said Forster.

On Feb. 2, representatives of New York City unions and environmental justice organizations gathered to hear from Jerome Ringo, president of the national Apollo Alliance — a coalition of labor, business, environmental and community groups — about energy issues and President Obama’s economic stimulus package.

Unionists, environmentalists and city agency officials joined in the discussion, which included the issue of ensuring that new green jobs created by Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030 are union jobs.

“While the mayor wants to leave it to the free market and keep the pay as low as possible, a good green job must be a union job, wherever possible,” said Forster, who is a member of the New York City chapter of the Alliance.

The New York forum prepared participants for the Feb. 4-6 “Good Jobs/Green Jobs” national conference in Washington, D.C. About 3,000 activists representing every major union and every major environmental group were at the meeting on “Making a Down Payment on the Green Economy.” Sponsored by the Blue-Green Alliance that was initiated by the Steelworkers Union and the Sierra Club, the conference highlighted the policy changes, and public investments needed to grow the green economy and realize the job-creating potential of global warming solutions.

The coalition that gathered in Washington shows the breadth of the movement to forge a new social agenda that includes a clean, renewable energy economy.

“Like never before, Americans are making the connection between energy, the environment, and the economy,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope. “The conference provided an extraordinary forum for turning those connections into action.”

— Jane LaTour