Lots of  Green Jobs for Union Members
If Labor Establishes Its Own Companies

By Harry Kelber

By creating a chain of cooperative workshops and stores that provide “green” products and services to the nation’s consumers, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win can provide millions of jobs to unemployed workers, make significant improvements in  the environment,  contribute to the economic recovery and  enhance their political influence in Washington and with the general public.

Is this a wild idea? Not at all. American labor has the funds to make the initial investment in  the buildings and equipment that will be needed.  It can assemble a work force  more readily than any corporation from the millions of union members who are currently unemployed.  It can also supply a network of experienced union officials and shop stewards to manage the various green projects. And these would be union jobs, paying union wages and benefits.

Union leaders have been talking about "Green Jobs as Good Jobs” at  various conferences, trying to press the U.S. Senate  to approve the environment and energy bill, but the legislation has been blocked by a planned Republican filibuster. If Congress fails to act or produces a poor bill, doesn’t it make sense for organized labor to move ahead on its own?

Terence O’Sullivan, president  of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), explained what a national weatherization program could mean if implemented: 500,000 new construction jobs, 100 million homes retrofitted, $500 billion in energy cost savings—and we would save the equivalent of 500 million barrels of oil.”

Workers’ Cooperatives Have Existed since the mid-1800s

Historically, worker cooperatives rose to prominence  during the industrial revolution as part of the labor movement. As employment moved to industrial areas and job sectors declined, workers began organizing and controlling businesses for themselves.  Today, there are hundreds of producer and consumer cooperatives under worker management.

 Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers (USW) and a key figure in the Blue Green Alliance, declared: “We’ve built a movement that will be the engine to drive the change that will create  good jobs for the next generation.  Our generation will either leave to the next generation the worst mess in history—or the greatest opportunity in history.”

So what action is Brother Gerard advocating that would seize the “greatest opportunity in history”?  Is there a better option than  having organized labor play a dominant role in  a major growth industry?

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 We believe that the proposal for a chain of green co-ops is sufficiently important to warrant debate , not only by our leaders but union members as well.  We would like to know what Trumka, Gerard and O’Sullivan think of it—or if they have better  strategies than just talking about green jobs?—Harry Kelber