The Middle Class Task Force held its first meeting in Philadelphia and the focus was on green jobs. VP Joe Biden headed the task force and was joined by several cabinet members and…Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers. But where was a green small business representative? I first noticed that organized labor had a big seat at the green jobs table at the Green Jobs National Conference last month in Washington, DC. The conference was organized by The Blue Green Alliance, “a strategic partnership between labor unions and environmental organizations created to expand the job-creating potential of the green economy.”
When I asked for a press pass, BGA’s National Communications Director, Kelly Schwinghammer, couldn’t have been nicer. However, I followed-up with two emails to discuss the tension between small business and labor on the green jobs issue and have yet to hear back.
Earlier this month, CNNMoney.com asked: ”Will a union-friendly Congress hurt small business?” Nowhere does this question apply more aptly than to green jobs, where much of the growth is expected to come from ecopreneurs. The problem with too much of organized labor is that when it has to do with green jobs is they are in it for the jobs part, not the green part. In fact, organized labor supports all sorts of not-very-good-for-the-environment jobs, like clean coal; we know that clean coal is a crock (or to quote Van Jones: “We could have clean coal and we could have unicorns pull our cars for us.”)
At the same time, it is completely unclear how much the pro-labor movement will actually help or hurt green small businesses. Conventional wisdom is that if you are a small business and you do not exploit your workers, you have nothing to worry about. Your workers are not likely to become unionized. If that’s true, then we need to advocate for policies that truly impact green small business like easing credit and giving ecopreneurs access to stimulus money that currently shuts them out.
As ecopreneurs we are business people and advocates for change. We are often not it it for the biggest bottom line. While I hate to say that the politics of small business are partisan—and I firmly believe that they don’t have to be nor should they be—its not clear why organized labor has such a big seat at the table when clean tech and green small business advocates don’t. What are your thoughts? Are unions good or bad for ecopreneurs?
Photo by Bill Jacobus at Flickr.
About Jennifer Kaplan
The current economy is a mess everybody knows it. What is amazing is how some people continue their daily life as if nothing changed and one such behavior is their attitude to their credit score. Foreclosures and just not paying laons is not a solution. Until Americans become more responsible for their debts we can not get out of the current mess. It is about time Americans educate themselves about finances and debt. Just taking debts on credit cards and home loans is not the way to go unless you understand what you are doing and face it most of us just do not. Here is a good resource to read about credit http://www.badcreditloansgenie.com Education is key after all you would not try to fix your television set without studying how to do it first but you take a mortgage without understanding the basics behind debt.
Are unions good anywhere?
Unions are intrested in sustainable jobs, if you want jobs that are good for the enviroment you can’t have jobs that don’t have a living wage, health and pension benefits. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have been training their members to install photo voltaic systems for over a decade and because of their training you can be sure of a quality and efficient system. The IBEW provides careers for our members that cover all aspects of electrical installations this means that our members are intrested in jobs that are good for our enviroment because we are part of our communities, we have families that are going to benefit from jobs that are enviromentally sound.