The Blue Green Alliance was formed by the Steelworkers Union and the Sierra Club in 2006. Recently, the Communication Workers of America (CWA), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) announced that they were joining the Blue Green Alliance. By joining forces, the Alliance now unites more than 6 million people working to create a Green Economy based on justice and fairness.
The Alliance is a strong advocate of a Green Economic Recovery:
"If we invest $100 billion into six green strategies, we project it will create 2 million jobs"
This is a real movement growing to make change, to make a new future. This is the path to economic recovery, sustainable growth and economic fairness. And I believe Barack Obama shares our goals and will help make some happen, so long as we fight for real change. More, after the fold.
Founded in June 2006 by the Steelworkers Union and the Sierra Club, the Alliance is dedicated to solving the core problems of our era, environmental degredation and economic fairness, because they are intertwined:
"The Blue/Green Alliance is one of the most important initiatives undertaken by the environmental movement in decades," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club.
"We have reached a point in the development of a global economy where we can either use our planet’s resources for long-term sustainability or to create an ever more dangerous polarization of wealth and poverty. Our new alliance allows us to address the great challenge of the global economy in the 21st century--how to provide good jobs, a clean environment and a safer world."
"Good jobs and a clean environment are important to American workers--we cannot have one without the other, said Leo W. Gerard, International President of USW. "In fact, secure 21st century jobs are those that will help solve the problem of global warming with energy efficiency and renewable energy."
Sierra Club, United Steelworkers Announce ‘Blue-Green Alliance’
The Alliance is growing with the addition of SEIU, America's fastest growing union and strong supporters of Barack Obama in the recent election, LIUNA, CWA, and the NRDC. It has a bold agenda of fundamentally changing our economy through green solutions:
Together, the Alliance represents more than 6 million people, and its goal is nothing less than to transform the U.S. economy through global warming solutions.
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Joining the member groups was Kit Batten of the Center for American Progress, one of the authors of "Green Recovery: A program to create good jobs and start building a low-carbon economy."
"If we invest $100 billion into six green strategies, we project it will create 2 million jobs," said Batten. The six strategies she described were retrofitting buildings, building a "smart" power grid, expanding mass transit, and investment in the renewable energy sources of wind, solar and advanced biofuels.
She and others on the panel described a growing level of political support for a "green recovery." Stimulating demand for wind turbines, other renewable energy equipment, and materials for retrofitting could be the fastest way to revitalize U.S. steel, manufacturing and construction industries.
SEIU Blog
It's a real alliance, because justice for working people is intimately tied to a new Green Economy, and vice versa:
For example, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club have endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act, a union-backed bill that would protect workers' rights to join unions. The Sierra Club has mobilized members to write to their Congress members to support the bill.
AP: Green activists find new ally in US unions
The road to recovery is a green road:
Changing the way we produce and consume energy in the United States -- building a market for renewable energy and making our homes more energy efficient -- will not only create good jobs, it will reduce global warming pollution and help the U.S. to gain its independence from foreign oil.
We can create jobs in a multitude of industries -- including construction, manufacturing, agriculture and transportation -- by investing in a green economy. These are jobs that people already work in today. With investments in wind and solar power, building retrofits, mass transit, biofuels and smart grid transmission systems, we are putting people back to work, creating new jobs and rebuilding the energy infrastructure in the United States.
So as it turns out, the answers to our economic and climate challenges are interdependent. And unlikely allies are advocating for the green economy. The Blue Green Alliance -- a unique coalition of U.S. labor unions and environmental organizations -- was founded on the mission that investing in clean energy creates new jobs and helps preserve the environment for future generations.
David Foster, on HuffPo, Dec. 4, 2008.
Please go here for more on A Green Recovery and here for more on Green Jobs for America
Go here for more generally on the Blue Green Alliance.
Barack Obama appears to favor some aspects of the plan:
That’s why we need an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that not only creates jobs in the short-term but spurs economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term.
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To put people back to work today and reduce our dependence on foreign oil tomorrow, we will double renewable energy production and renovate public buildings to make them more energy efficient. To build a 21st century economy, we must engage contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools. To save not only jobs, but money and lives, we will update and computerize our health care system to cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help reduce health care costs by billions of dollars each year. To make America, and our children, a success in this new global economy, we will build 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. And to put more money into the pockets of hardworking families, we will provide direct tax relief to 95 percent of American workers.
Barack Obama, 01/03/09
01/03/09: President-elect Obama's Weekly Address
This is the future and consistent with Barack Obama's core beliefs, as I see them. Obama's most progressive appointments have been Hilda Solis at the Department of Labor, Stephen Chu at the Department of Energy, former Environmental Protection Agency Director Carol Browner as energy czar, and New Jersey environmental protection Director Lisa Jackson to head the U.S. EPA.
Together with the White House Task Force on Working Families led by Joe Biden (and, of course, Barack Obama), there is a progressive core in this incoming administration:
The Task Force will be a major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America. The task force will be comprised of top-level administration policy makers, and in addition to regular meetings, it will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities.
Joe Biden: Labor Czar
It's our task to support the progressives in the administration, and progressive policies, always asking for more, but willing to support fair compromises.
The "road" to building a Green America with a growing middle class is a "supertrain" powered by windmill-made electricity, built and maintained by American workers with good union jobs.
That's change worth hoping for, and I believe we can make it real.