Labor & Employment Law

Green Labor Journal Highlights Clean Energy Strategies

By James Parks

An ironworker installs a solar-air heating system.

Clean energy is essential to the future of the planet and the Ironworkers is making sure its members can take advantage of the new opportunities for green jobs. The union has developed an installation training program for commercial and industrial applications of the solar-air heating product SolarWall®.

The latest online edition of Green Labor Journal explains how the Ironworkers joined with SolarWall® to help workers become a key part of the solar air heating sector in the United States and Canada, while at the same time providing clients with the highest quality installation. The Green Labor Journal is a collaboration between the National Labor College and the AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs. Check out the latest online edition here.

Ironworkers President Joseph Hunt says:

Adding this new technology to existing buildings and erecting it on new construction projects will not only help put Americans back to work but it can also help this country in the battle to achieve energy independence and reduce the greenhouse gases produced by using conventional means to heat buildings. The Iron Workers have the training in place across North America and we are positioned as the workforce which is trained to properly install this new technology.

Also in the Green Labor Journal, energy expert Amory Lovins outlines a new strategy to move the United States off fossil fuels by 2050, led by for-profit businesses. Check out his essay, ?Reinventing Fire: A New Vision,? here.

The journal also includes an article by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of the clean energy advocacy group Green for All, who looks at how New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are rebounding after Hurricane Katrina in a way that ensures the area will lead the country in creating a green economy, one that uses renewable energy as fuel and green jobs as an opportunity to put people back to work.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 29, 2010 (boomark / email).