Public Employee Press

Planting the seeds for a greener world
Labor can be part of the solution

The central message of a recent conference on labor and global warming was that the U.S. labor movement must become part of the solution in building a sustainable future for our planet.

“The Steelworkers union is setting a great example,” said Gary Goff, 2nd vice president of Electronic Data Processing Personnel Local 2627. “They have joined forces with the Sierra Club to build a blue-green alliance.”

Speaking for the United Steelworkers Union of America, panelist David Foster said the collaboration means, “The Sierra Club won’t talk about the environment without also talking about jobs, and the United Steelworkers won’t talk about jobs without also talking about environmental issues.”

The conference, sponsored by Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute on May 7-8, was titled “North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis: Building a Global Movement for Clean Energy.”

Jon Forster, 1st vice president of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375, was struck by the fact that U.S. unions are so far behind their counterparts in Europe and in other parts of the world, who have pushed for practical solutions to the complex problems bound up in the issue of global warming.

Werner Schneider of the German Trade Union Alliance, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, described their initiative that retrofitted 300,000 houses with solar and anti-pollution gear. As a result, 190,000 jobs were created and carbon dioxide emissions — a major villain in global warming — were reduced by 900,000 tons.

“These other unions are light years ahead of us,” said Lee Clarke, director of DC 37’s Safety and Health Department. “They have structures in place that make collaboration possible, such as works councils. I personally believe that the U.S. labor movement is still in a state of denial,” said Clarke. In spite of these handicaps, it’s vital that labor step up its participation in creating solutions, said Program Director Frances Curtis. She described an advertisement — featuring a polar bear floating on a cube of ice — that effectively captures the crisis.

Melting ice caps prove the need for new measures to change human, corporate and political behavior. However, that message is lost on many policymakers who are still in a state of denial. Currently, the Bush administration is acting to water down any mandates or regulatory timetables on global warming emissions, and the U.S. Congress seems to be afraid to battle the oil and energy interests.

Environmental issues offer labor an opportunity to create a new agenda of solidarity, said Alejandro Villamar, speaking for Mexico’s Frente Autentico del Trabajo. During the conference, models from many countries combined to provide a beacon and a roadmap showing that labor can seize the initiative.

Goff said an organization called the Apollo Alliance for Good Jobs and Clean Energy in New York City, which includes some DC 37 activists, assists unions in defining a green agenda. According to Forster, Local 375’s membership is poised to participate in a number of the new initiatives presented by Mayor Bloomberg’s plan for a green New York. “Thinking in practical terms, it is clear that DC 37 and the labor movement can and should get involved in this struggle for environmental justice,” said Forster.

— Jane LaTour with Gary Goff