{"id":4498,"date":"2009-05-15T13:35:54","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T19:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4498"},"modified":"2009-05-15T13:35:54","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T19:35:54","slug":"labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/KumkWx_sqUs&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1]<\/p>\n<p><strong>So, what exactly are <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2009\/05\/11\/solveclimate-universities-start-tailoring-degrees-to-green-jobs\/\">green jobs<\/a>?<\/strong> The answer to that question largely depends on an individual&#8217;s skills, training and experience: construction workers, computer programmers, and public relations professionals could all find themselves labeled as <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2009\/01\/27\/greentalk-radio-strategies-for-the-green-economy-with-joel-makower\/\">green collar<\/a> in the right circumstances. For Dave Foster, a former official with the United Steelworkers, the phrase has a specific definition:\u00a0&#8220;A green job is nothing more than a blue-collar job with a green purpose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>[social_buttons]Today&#8217;s <em>Post-Dispatch<\/em> provides us with yet another example of how <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/stltoday\/business\/stories.nsf\/story\/13A11033E02FE49B862575B6007AB6BB?OpenDocument\">organized labor and mainstream environmental groups are joining forces to promote a green economy<\/a>. Writer Steve Giegerich took note of steelworkers and Sierra Club members marching together recently to protest the loss of jobs at Granite City, Illinois&#8217; U.S. Steel plant. As you can see in both the video above, and the article, blue collar workers around the country increasingly &#8220;get it&#8221;: green industry provides one of the most promising means of rebuilding a manufacturing economy in the United States.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Giegerich&#8217;s article focuses on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluegreenalliance.org\/home\">Blue Green Alliance<\/a>, an organization co-founded by the Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, and which now consists of numerous <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2009\/02\/05\/the-afl-cio-puts-up-1-million-for-green-jobs\/\">unions<\/a> and green groups. Like the Apollo Alliance, BGA believes that green collar jobs are the answer to expanding employment opportunities for millions of American workers:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Both working people and environmentalists have a stake in building the new, green economy. Transforming our economy through renewable energy, energy efficiency, mass transit and rail, a new smart grid and other solutions to global warming, has the potential to create millions of jobs, while reducing global warming emissions and moving America toward energy independence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With <a href=\"http:\/\/people-press.org\/report\/485\/economy-top-policy-priority\">environmental issues sinking lower on the public&#8217;s priority list<\/a>, BGA and related groups are doing critical work: demonstrating that the economy and the environment are mutually dependent. They&#8217;re also providing a valuable lesson for us in the green movement: speak to people&#8217;s needs, and they will listen&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/KumkWx_sqUs&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1] So, what exactly are green jobs? The answer to that question largely depends on an individual&#8217;s skills, training and experience: construction workers, computer programmers, and public relations professionals could&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":16736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,60],"tags":[3357,470,265,242,3358,482],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment &#8226; Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment &#8226; Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/KumkWx_sqUs&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1] So, what exactly are green jobs? The answer to that question largely depends on an individual&#8217;s skills, training and experience: construction workers, computer programmers, and public relations professionals could&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-15T19:35:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/labor-unions-environmental-organ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-15T19:35:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-05-15T19:35:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"commentCount\":8,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"apollo alliance\",\"Blue Green Alliance\",\"green collar jobs\",\"green jobs\",\"labor unions\",\"sierra club\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/\",\"name\":\"Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment &#8226; 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You can keep up with all of his writing at Facebook, and at Google+\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/jeffmcintirestrasburg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment &#8226; Sustainablog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/labor-unions-environmental-organizations-united-on-green-employment\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Labor Unions, Environmental Organizations United on Green Employment &#8226; Sustainablog","og_description":"[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/KumkWx_sqUs&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1] So, what exactly are green jobs? 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