Workers and Sustainability

American Labor: A Sustainable Path by Joe Uehlein

This Labor Day, as union membership falls to a mere seven percent of private sector workers and bargaining and political clout shrink to match, two roads diverge for American labor. One is to attempt to find a niche within an economic-political system that is ever more shaped by short-term greed and is therefore ever more unsustainable economically, socially, and environmentally. The other is to align with the long-term interest of workers in transforming that system to provide for a sustainable future for the planet and its people. Organized labor will have a better future if it chooses the second road.
....

To have a future itself, organized labor needs to reorient itself around the objective of providing a sustainable future for all working people and the world we inhabit. That means putting millions of people to work creating a sustainable economy, society, and environment.

Nothing is more threatening to our long-term sustainability than climate change. It is affecting American workers here and now through forest fires, dust storms, rising sea levels, and extreme weather events like floods, droughts, tornados, blizzards and hurricanes. So far this year there have been an unprecedented eight weather-related disasters that have each done more than a billion dollars worth of damage to states from Texas to Maine.

The Great Recession represented the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Even during the so-called recovery, American workers continued to face unemployment rates unprecedented since the Great Depression. Now as that recovery falters, the private sector appears to have little to offer besides more unemployment, more insecurity, more wage cuts, and more misery.

It will take the labor of millions of people to reconstruct our economy on a climate safe basis. The solution for labor, as for America and indeed for the world, lies in a Green New Deal to mobilize our unused human resources to meet our increasingly desperate needs.

....read rest of article at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/01-13

Joe Uehlein is the former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department and former director of the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Campaigns. Joe is the Executive Director of Voices for a Sustainable Future. He spent over 30 years doing organizing, bargaining, and strategic campaign work in the labor movement. He also performs regularly with his roots-rock revival band The U-Liners.
[He is also on the Advisory Board of the National Jobs for All Coalition.--jz]

Posted by National Jobs for All at 5:16 PM    

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LA Mayor Villaraigosa Discusses America Fast Forward At Jobs Summit

cross posted from OurFuture.org

by Dave Johnson, 3/10/11

"...Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles, talked today at the Summit On Jobs and America's Future in Washington D.C. Villaraigosa described the bipartisan America Fast Forward initiative from the National Conference of Mayors. The America Fast Forward initiative is based on Villaraigosa’s 30/10 initiative for public transportation construction projects in Los Angeles.

"According to the LA Daily News:

America Fast Forward includes increasing annual funding for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act; increasing the maximum percentage of the funding allotment that the act can finance; permitting the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve multiple related projects at the same time; allowing the department to grant up-front credits to projects and authorizing the department to lock in interest rates for approved projects.

Villaraigosa said the plan would generate $158 billion in total economic output focused in the construction and technical industries while generating $10.6 billion in new federal tax revenue and another $5.8 billion in state tax revenue."

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 2:26 AM    

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US Lagging in Green Jobs

US Lagging in Green Jobs | The Energy Collective:

November 10, 2010 by David Levy

"...A recent Clean Tech Jobs Outlook Report estimated that in 2009 there were more than 3 million jobs in the renewable energy field globally. The report indicates, however, that the US is falling further behind in this field; the bulk of these jobs are now in China and Brazil.

"The CleanEdge report points to several trends that suggest that, while the world is moving toward a green economy, the United States may be lagging. Solar panel production is expanding in Mexico where some U.S. companies have outsourced manufacturing for the lower wages. In the automobile and other sectors, Mexico has been a very attractive destination for outsourcing because its proximity to the U.S. enables logistical integration of supply chains, and because of the NAFTA free trade area."

"About 70 percent of hardware and technology used in U.S. clean-energy installations are constructed overseas, according to the report. “Essentially, clean-tech manufacturing has run up against the same economic realities as countless industries that came before, from clothing to computer chips to cell phones: it’s very hard for the U.S. to compete with overseas labor costs, particularly in the developing world.” For example, BP Solar closed its Frederick, Maryland, PV plant in March 2010 and moved most of the 320 jobs abroad. This is also a sign of the surprisingly rapid maturation of the industry, as solar panels rapidly become low-value added commodities..."

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 3:26 AM    

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Sustainable Bonds Hope to Help Fix the Planet

Sustainable Bonds Hope to Help Fix the Planet - NYTimes.com:

By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP

Published: November 3, 2010

SINGAPORE — Financial experts may debate how much it would cost to shift the world to a low carbon economy, but they agree on one thing: the amount would be phenomenal. The International Energy Agency in Paris, for example, has estimated that it would take $46 trillion in additional clean-technology investments over the next 40 years to halve carbon emissions by 2050.

...Today, funds mobilized to address climate change are primarily coming from the private sector. While there is also some public investment, there remains a clear gap between what is needed to deal with climate change and what is available. How to close that gap has become a subject of intense debate.

For Ben Caldecott, head of the British and European Union policy department at Climate Change Capital, a London-based environmental investment manager, the answer is clear. “The only pool of capital deep enough to finance our low carbon transition is that held by institutional investors and players in the debt capital markets,” Mr. Caldecott said. “New green bonds are a way of accessing this pool of money.”

But, he cautioned: “Investors want to see a liquid market in long-dated asset-backed bonds that are investment grade and those criteria have yet to be met for green bonds. The market will buy these new debt products, but for this to happen at scale we need to create a liquid market first. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg story.”

Sean Kidney, chairman and co-founder of the Climate Bonds Initiative — an international network that advocates raising money through the bond market for climate protection projects — argues that “themed” bonds have long been a way to raise large sums of money for specific purposes.

For example, “the U.S. civil war was financed with war bonds,” Mr. Kidney told delegates at a carbon conference in Singapore last week. “Although these war bonds were targeted at retail investors, most of the money raised came from institutional investors.”

The retail investors’ campaign served to engage the population, creating political pressures that drew in the institutions, Mr. Kidney said, suggesting that themed climate change bonds could be used in a similar way to mobilize retail and institutional investors on the issue.

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:09 AM    

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United Steelworkers negotiate green jobs deal for Texas wind farm

What’s Green, White and Blue? American Jobs - The Hill's Congress Blog:
By Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers International

08/10/10

"... In a deal with the United Steelworkers (USW), two Chinese companies have agreed to build as much of the wind turbines as possible in America, using American-made steel, and creating perhaps 1,000 American jobs."

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 1:28 AM    

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Sanchez proposes creating jobs by fixing forests

Congratulations to Rep. Linda Sanchez for her leadership in pushing job creation legislation to fix our national parks!! This is a great visionary idea that can help Americans get back to work.

Sanchez proposes creating jobs by fixing forests - SGVTribune.com

By Rebecca Kimitch, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/25/2009 06:03:01 AM PST

In an effort reminiscent of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, is pushing legislation to provide billions of federal dollars for repair and construction projects in the country's national parks and forests.

Sanchez is requesting the government spend $4.75 billion fixing crumbling infrastructure on public lands, including the Angeles National Forest, a move she says would create some 50,000 jobs.

"We have people without work and work without people. The solution could not be clearer," Sanchez said when she introduced the legislation. "We can put people back to work now and restore our national treasures."

A smaller version of the proposal was included in the "jobs bill," a second stimulus package, passed earlier this month by the House.

But that legislation calls for only $270 million in spending in national parks, so Sanchez plans to push for more when Congress returns from Christmas recess and the Senate takes up stimulus legislation...

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:48 PM    

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Support Gulf Coast Job Creation Bill!

Dear Friends,

December 10 is International Human Rights Day, the fifth International Human Rights Day since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. After five years, four regional disasters (Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike) and a new President, the United States government still has not taken the necessary steps to ensure the human rights of the survivors of our nation’s disasters.

As we look across the Gulf Coast we still see:

• Tens of thousands of Katrina survivors unable to realize their right to return home.
• Families living in toxic FEMA trailers struggling to find resources to rebuild their homes.
• Over 2 million residents of coastal Louisiana increasingly vulnerable to future disasters an internal displacement due to coastal land loss and climate change.
• Homelessness and rental housing costs rising while affordable housing projects grind to a halt with the crash of financial markets;
• Communities still without vital medical facilities.
• Many more survivors who can't find work at a living wage or training to finance their families' recovery and find their way out of poverty.

But we have a chance to let the Obama Administration know that such injustices must not continue in the United States of America.

Click here to support a plan to bring human rights home.

President Barack Obama launched an effort to reconsider how our country should respond to natural and man-made disasters. The President has tasked Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to lead a Long Term Disaster Recovery Working Group. But that working group hasn't included many grassroots leaders representing low income, minority, and immigrant communities-the most vulnerable victims of the storms-in its early consultations.

A growing movement of Katrina survivors, local elected officials and community, faith-based, and human rights organizations is continuing to push the Administration and Congress to stand up for human rights and enact innovative policies to equitably restore Gulf Coast communities. But we need your help.

President Obama pledged to fix what the Bush Administration left undone after Katrina. But we need to pressure him to make good on his promise. Let’s tell the Obama Administration that we will not let another Human Rights Day pass without meaningful steps to recognize the rights of disaster survivors along America’s Gulf Coast and across the nation.

Click here to send your message to the Obama Administration.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Buchanan
Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign
http://www.solvingpoverty.com/

PS The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is the national effort to pass HR 4048: The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, which would create 100,000 jobs for Gulf Coast residents and evacuees to rebuild their communities.

Ask Your Congress member to co-sponsor HR 4048: The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act

Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:36 AM    

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NJFAC Calls on President Obama to Invest in Direct Public Job Creation

An Open Letter to President Obama from the National Jobs for All Coalition

"Despite a multi-billion-dollar stimulus earlier this year, unemployment has continued to rise and is now double-digit. The Jobs Summit that you are convening is clear recognition of the gravity of this crisis. We write to urge that the Jobs Summit adopt a bold course of action to deal with current mass unemployment and, since unemployment and underemployment afflict millions of Americans, even in better times, to take steps toward assuring a living-wage job to all who want to work..."

"...President Obama, the American people await a big assault on unemployment from your Administration. It is not hard to predict what the midterm elections will bring if substantial reduction of unemployment does not occur by fall 2010. When you became President official unemployment was 7.6 percent; it was 10.2% in November, an increase of more than a third. The
Federal government spent $700 billion buying “troubled assets” to bail out financial institutions and nearly $800 billion to stimulate the economy. Why can’t we spend another $800 billion to give every officially unemployed worker the opportunity to work and provide billions of dollars of socially useful output?"

Read rest of letter

Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:32 AM    

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11/13-14 Jobs Conference Presentations

Much thanks and gratitude to all who attended, endorsed and supported the November 13-14 National Conference to Create Living Wage Jobs, Meet Human Needs and Sustain the Environment. We hope to post more materials from the conference program very soon, along with photos and video.

In the meantime, here are copies of speeches and presentations from some of the conference speakers that we've collected so far.

Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, Our Practical Dream (Opening remarks)

Robert Pollin, The Economic Logic and Moral Imperative of Full Employment

Bill Barclay, A Permanent Jobs Program for the U.S.: Economic Restructuring to Meet Human Needs

Chloe Tribich, Green Jobs New York

Bill Quigley, Human Rights and Living Wage Jobs

Mel Rothenberg, Presentation on Political Strategy

Philip Harvey, Learning from the New Deal (Powerpoint)

Philip Harvey, Learning from the New Deal (Draft Paper)

Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:09 PM    

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Gulf Coast Civic Works Act Would Bring 100,000 Jobs to Gulf Coast

Jeffrey Buchanan: Four Years Later, Let's End the Human Rights Crisis in KatrinaRitaVille:
RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights
Posted: August 28, 2009 04:53 PM
Huffington Post

"...Looking to build on local successes and tackle recovery issues, diverse grassroots leaders from across the [Gulf Coast] region working with students, policy experts, and a bipartisan group of legislators including Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Rodney Alexander, Joseph Cao, Charlie Melancon, Gene Taylor and Bennie Thompson developed the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act."

"This legislation would create 100,000 green job and training opportunities for residents and displaced survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to rebuild and sustain their communities. The federal government would partner directly with local officials and non-profits to address remaining challenges like infrastructure, affordable housing and flood protection. It would focus on building resilience to climate change, mitigating the effects of future deadly storms and confronting poverty."

"This plan is supported by 250 community, faith, environmental and human rights organizations along the Gulf Coast and across the nation like the NAACP, ACLU, National Council of Churches, Jewish Council on Public Affairs, NETWORK, Global Green, 1SKY, the Equity & Inclusion Campaign, Oxfam American and Amnesty International USA..."

"Over 30 members of the U.S. House are now urging their colleagues on Capitol Hill and at the White House to remember the people of the Gulf Coast and our duty as Americans to ensure every community has a right to recovery with this legislation. As we approach the 4th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, there is no better way to utilize the lessons learned since 2005 and support our brothers and sisters along the Gulf Coast than by passing and funding the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act.

Click here to support to urge your Member of Congress to support the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act.

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 8:51 PM    

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IAM calls for massive jobs program and 2nd stimulus package

American Chronicle Machinists Union Launches ´JOBS Now´ Campaign:
Will Urge Strong Support at AFL-CIO Convention.

Harry Kelber July 10, 2009

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) will propose an eight-point 'JOBS Now!' initiative, that it w ill ask the AFL-CIO to adopt at its 2009 convention this September. The ambitious goal of the IAM campaign is to find work for the 30.2 million Americans who are unemployed, involuntarily working part-time or who want a job and can´t find one, says Tom Buffenbarger, IAM´s international union president.

The IAM resolution calls for a national jobs program. similar to the public works projects during the Great Depression, that can 'rebuild America´s manufacturing sector and put seven million Americans back to work—immediately,' Also included in the resolution are proposals for a tuition-free, two-year skills training program; creation of green jobs; operating assistance to America´s transit system and a 'Buy American law with teeth.'

The Machinists intend to press the Obama administration for a second economic stimulus package, one aimed at the manufacturing and transportation sectors. A union statement said: 'President Obama´s economic stimulus plan is a start toward economic recovery but the program is not broad enough to create needed jobs now, rebuild our manufacturing sector, provide training for workers and children preparing for the future, maintain our national defense, provide a real Buy American program and reform labor law.'

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 5:21 AM    

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Making Sure Solar Jobs are Truly Green

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is pointing out some of the challenges in ensuring that "green jobs" in the solar power industry are environmentally-friendly.

"SVTC’s Clean and Just Solar Campaign’s goal is to guide the solar industry towards being safe and sustainable. We believe that the solar industry has a unique opportunity to incorporate principles of social and environmental justice into its global supply, production, and recycling operations by proactively creating and implementing systems to monitor worker health and safety, chemical use and exposure, and enforce labor and environmental laws throughout the global supply chain."

Read rest of Green Jobs Platform

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:39 PM    

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A New Deal for the Gulf States?

Kudos to Rep. Zoe Lofgren and allies, who are pushing a public jobs program to support economic recovery in the depressed states on the Gulf Coast. The Drive for Decent Work applauds this visionary thinking.

We hope more Congressional leaders will step forward with similar creative proposals to address the need for jobs and public investment in essential infrastructure and public services.

A New Deal for the Gulf Coast: Advocates welcome vital recovery legislation
from: Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies

Almost four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, legislation was introduced this week to create more jobs and support sustainable rebuilding efforts in the region.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act of 2009 (H.R. 2269) was introduced in the House Tuesday by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and a growing bipartisan group of co-sponsors.

Facing South has reported that one of the major barriers to rebuilding and one of the biggest problems facing residents of the Gulf Coast post-Katrina is finding good jobs. Inspired by New Deal-era public works programs, the act would create 100,000 "green" living-wage jobs and training opportunities for Gulf Coast residents and displaced people to rebuild critical infrastructure, restore natural flood protection and increase energy efficiency in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 8:09 AM    

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Housing advocates call for increased investment in rental housing

The National Low-Income Housing Coalition and other housing advocates are circulating a sign-on letter to Congress and the Obama adminstration calling for much more public investment in affordable rental housing.

According to the letter:

The economic crisis that has beset the United States is rooted in excesses in the home ownership housing market that must be corrected for our economy to recover. But housing is much more than the private market home ownership. The undersigned organizations want to call attention to what we mean by housing. We mean enough homes renting at affordable prices so that our nation’s lowest income families and individuals are assured of safe and decent places to live.

As the Administration and Congress consider action to stem housing foreclosures and to reform the housing finance system, equal attention must be paid to the long-standing and unmet need for decent, affordable homes for households with the lowest incomes. Despite the surplus of single family homes for sale today, the shortage of rental homes that extremely low income households can afford continues unabated.

Nationwide, 9 million extremely low income renter households compete for only 6.2 million rental homes they can afford. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are on waiting lists for rental assistance, which are only getting longer as unemployment and foreclosures grow. Tonight, more than 745,000 people are homeless. ...[M]uch more must be done to prevent a surge in homelessness and help the unemployed, low wage workers, low income seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans who are experiencing severe housing affordability challenges.

When we compare the unprecedented attention paid to homeownership and the investment the federal government will make to shore up troubled mortgages to the resources for programs serving the nation’s most vulnerable people, we are dismayed and disappointed that those households for whom stable homes are most threatened in today’s economy are once again being shortchanged.

The solutions to the housing crisis of the lowest income renters are simpler and less expensive than what is needed to repair the home ownership market. We know what to do: preserve and expand the supply of rental homes that these members of our communities can afford. To do so, we call for dedicated sources of funding for the National Housing Trust Fund that will generate the necessary revenue to produce or preserve 1.5 million homes in the next ten years and 200,000 new housing choice vouchers a year for ten years.

Read full letter here

In January, housing advocates urged the administration to fund the 200,000 housing choice vouchers and set aside $10 billion for the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund as part of the stimulus package, but these elements were not included. Instead, approximately $4.6 billion in funding was set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, for public housing upgrades, energy retrofits, an $ 1 billion increase in Community Development Block Grants, $2 billion to support the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program to fund housing construction, and other programs.

Posted by Chuck Bell at 7:57 AM    

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Brown-Stabenow push "Green Jobs and Infrastructure Act"

Jobs at issue as labor-enviro coalitions stump for climate bill - NYTimes.com:
By MICHAEL BURNHAM, Greenwire
Published: April 16, 2009

The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups, is launching a media blitz aimed at promoting passage of legislation its members hope will boost domestic renewable energy and create 'green' jobs and services... The alliance, whose endorsers include the Sierra Club and AFL-CIO, is lobbying Congress to include language in either a climate or energy bill this session that provides loans and grants to U.S. manufacturing companies to 'retool' their factories to make everything from wind turbines for the prairie to insulated glass for buildings.

The 'Apollo Green Manufacturing Plan' that the group released yesterday also calls for tying federal support to manufacturers' ability to meet labor's and 'Made in America' content standards. The plan also calls for a presidential 'clean energy manufacturing' task force and federal support to streamline clean-energy component supply chains...

The Apollo Alliance does not suggest a dollar amount nor a jobs target in its plan. But Gordon estimated that the 'Green Jobs and Infrastructure Act,' introduced by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in January, would create 1 million direct manufacturing and indirect jobs via $50 billion in loan guarantees.

The Stabenow-Brown bill has not gained traction on Capitol Hill, Gordon conceded, so she would like to see similar language added to a climate or energy bill. The Blue Green Alliance, which helped craft the Apollo Alliance's plan, is also taking to the airwaves in support of a greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade bill.

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Posted by Chuck Bell at 6:29 PM    

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