Green Labor Journal - Working for a Substainable Future

AFL-CIO Establishes Center for Green Jobs

Launched with $1 million from Working for America Institute, the Center champions the green economy.

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In February 2009, the AFL-CIO established the Center for Green Jobs - a ground-breaking resource to help working Americans prepare for the next generation of jobs.  

In recent months, the Center has become the cornerstone of a major AFL-CIO commitment to ensure that America's workforce is well prepared to serve as the backbone of the emerging green economy. 

In one of its initial actions, the Center has partnered with the National Labor College to develop a Green Workplace Certificate Program for union members. Modeled after the program that has successfully certified Health and Safety workplace representatives, the green workplace program will train union members to advocate for greener processes in the workplace, form joint labor management committees, and negotiate greening provisions in collective bargaining agreements.

“The AFL-CIO created the Center in response to growing concerns about energy independence, a declining economy and global climate change,” said Jeff Rickert, the Center’s new director, who also serves as the deputy director of the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute.

Rickert says the Center is reaching out to labor organizations across a broad array of industry sectors ─ to help build a new green economy to create clean fuels and ultra efficient vehicles, to revitalize manufacturing and rebuild downtowns, to launch clean coal technology and build a smarter power grid, among many other projects. Besides engaging unions at all levels in setting standards for green jobs and educating them about public policy issues, Rickert says the Center also is providing guidance to labor groups on green jobs training opportunities. 

Adds Rickert: “The Center acts as a resource hub, sharing the lessons and programs of AFL-CIO affiliates who are successfully implementing green workplace programs.”  The Center is developing a Green Jobs Google Map, for example, that will highlight union successes in creating green jobs in communities across the country.
The AFL-CIO’s new leadership, elected in Pittsburgh last month, has shown strong support for the Center and its efforts to help forge a strong coalition among environmental and labor groups in support of green jobs. 

During the G-20 meetings that followed the AFL-CIO’s own convention in Pittsburgh in September, the federation’s new president Richard Trumka challenged the heads of state attending the G-20 conference to build a new economic order that protects the dignity of workers and the planet.

"The world cannot afford to continue with a globalization that works only for the very richest and leaves workers and the communities they live in behind," Trumka said at an event featuring former Vice President Al Gore and a broad coalition of environmental and union leaders.

"Together, the labor movement and the environmental movement are a fighting force for change. This is our time—time to let the powers gathered here this week know exactly what we want, and exactly what we won’t stand for. We want a clean energy economy that creates good jobs, and we want a safe and healthy planet," Trumka said.  "We need a new economic order that demands respect for both workers and the planet."

Many international labor leaders have echoed Trumka’s comments. As United Steel Workers International President Leo W. Gerard put it, "We have once and for all smashed the myth that you can't have both good jobs and a clean environment." 
 
A large part of ensuring that green jobs will be good jobs lies in education.  Addressing the A. Phillip Randolph Institute (APRI) education conference in August, incoming AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker expressed excitement about the advances she had seen in green jobs training and education by unions and affiliates.
 
She applauded the efforts of the Center for Green Jobs and the APRI as prime examples of labor groups preparing American workers to be at the forefront of the green economy, saying “We’re especially proud that APRI is working with the Center for Green Jobs to get additional federal support for creating pathways out of poverty for low-income and under-served communities.”

Baker praised new stimulus funding for green jobs initiatives and the potential generation of 5 million jobs over the next 10 years.  One of the Center’s primary goals is the training of a green workforce as an integral step to creating a sustainable environment economy. With $150 billion in federal funding going to green programs, Baker noted,  "That is real money, to help solve problems, and help put real people to work."

At the AFL-CIO’s convention, the federation’s new Secretary Treasurer Liz Shuler also praised the mission of the Center as she urged delegates to adopt a strong resolution in support of green jobs and a clean energy economy.  The resolution, which passed unanimously, calls for the following:

• Adequate funding for energy-efficiency efforts and long-term investments in public transit,
• Tightening of domestic content regulations and other incentives to encourage manufacturing in the U.S.,
• Inclusion of strong labor standards for publicly funded construction and manufacturing projects and
• Continued involvement of the US labor movement with the international labor community involved in UN climate treaty discussions.

Mark Ayers, President of the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, spoke in support of the resolution, pointing out to the delegates that in addressing this crisis, unions can also create good, green jobs for their members and future members.

Dave Johnson, Executive Secretary of the Washington Building and Construction Trades Council, talked about the major green building projects and strong union apprenticeship programs in Washington, and Lorena Gonzales, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Diego Labor Council, praised her county’s union apprenticeship programs, not only for their green careers training, but also for their efforts to work with low-income communities to build pathways out of poverty.

Barbara Byrd, Oregon AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, noted that good green jobs have become a major part of the Oregon AFL-CIO’s economic development efforts and offered a number of examples, including Oregon Ironworks’ streetcar manufacturing work and the newly enacted Clean Energy Works Program in Portland.

“The resolution, coupled with the work of unions across the country, will do more than simply create green jobs; they will ensure that green jobs are good jobs, providing family-sustaining wages and long term career paths,” said Rickert. “We want to become a one-stop shop for our affiliates and partners, providing information and technical assistance on public policy, consortium development, workforce and economic development programs, economic analysis and even curriculum development.”

For more information, go to www.workingforamerica.org

Mike Kiernan is Communications Director for the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute.