Labor & Employment Law

Union Workers Skilled for Clean Energy Jobs

By James Parks

Clean energy manufacturing jobs are the future of the American economy and unions are in the forefront of the movement to make sure these jobs are good jobs.

Union members already have many of the skills in electrical, welding, plumbing and other trades to build clean energy resources that will be needed to move to a green economy.

Speaking at the 2010 “Good Jobs, Green Jobs” National Conference earlier this month,, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said: 

Never before has the need been so urgent to produce clean energy, to use energy more efficiently, to prevent climate change and to protect our natural environment.

And not since the Great Depression have so many Americans needed new and better jobs with secure benefits and promising futures-jobs that can’t be off-shored, downsized or downgraded into temporary or part-time positions.

Trumka’s message is echoed in a new video produced by the Blue Green Alliance. The video, which was screened at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference, rebuts the argument that creating a clean energy economy will cost good jobs.

The video is part of a series of clips touting the value of green jobs and how the skills used in manufacturing can be transferred to a green economy. In it, a worker says the government should listen to workers who are saying that we need more green jobs:

            It’s our government too. They actually work for us. They should listen to us.

See more videos on green jobs, clean energy manufacturing, and the economy here.

The Blue Green Alliance is a partnership of labor and environmental organizations, which include the United Steelworkers (USW), Communications Workers of America CWA, AFT, Utility Workers (UWUA), Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).