Green jobs was a major topic of discussion at the A. Philip Randolph Institute's 40th National Education Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Here are excerpts of a speech given August 12 by Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO.
“One of our biggest opportunities lies in the creation of green jobs, and a new vision of America that our labor movement is helping make happen.
“The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the Obama stimulus package we helped pass into law — allocated more than a hundred billion dollars to be spent over the next two years to energy-saving investments — clean fuels, ultra efficient vehicles, weatherizing homes and retrofitting office buildings, clean coal technology, building a smarter power grid.
“And these are just small parts of a bigger plan to slow global warming, promote energy independence, revive our battered economy, and help millions of workers climb back up into the middle class.
“The AFL-CIO recognized that thousands of highly-trained workers would be needed to help make all this happen, and so we launched the AFL-CIO Center for Green Jobs as a part of our Working for America Institute.
“The job of the Green Jobs Center is to engage unions and labor organizations at all levels in a campaign to recruit and train workers for the green jobs of the future, and we’re helping groups apply for green jobs training grants totaling $500 million.
“Many of our unions — including the Steelworkers, the UAW, AFT, AFSCME and the building trades — are already undertaking green jobs initiatives … and in Pittsburgh, APRI has already begun a 12-week training program . . .
“Fred Redmond and Dewitt Walton, I want to applaud you for your leadership in Pittsburgh. I was never so excited, than that day, a few weeks ago, when I visited the Pittsburgh Public Housing Authority and witnessed the residents in the A. Philip Randolph Computer Learning Lab learning computer skills, and the young men and women in a room down the hall going through basic OSHA training and being taught by Steelworker Health and Safety Instructors.
“They are being prepared for a green future – and we all can agree that, at the end of the day, the only color that matters is Green….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.
“The Obama Administration has already made $150 million available to help create green jobs in areas of high poverty; and national partnerships, as well as state and local partnerships, are eligible for grants ranging from $2 million to $8 million.
“That is real money, to help solve problems, and help put real people to work, and APRI is playing a big part in making it happen --- so thank you, thank you once again.
“Some people say we should slow down . . . that President Obama should ease up on the pace of change . . . that we are taking on too many things . . . that we are pressing our luck.
“Well, somebody once said that luck is found at the intersection of preparation, perspiration and inspiration — and I can tell you this: As a labor movement, as a free nation, as a free people … we have plenty of all three?. . Can we do it? Yes, we can!”
