Use Federal Investment to Put Skilled Trades to Work
Using Strategic Investment to Build the New Economy
This is the eighth in an 11-part series on labor policy for the Green New Deal. As a trade union lawyer and climate activist, I believe we need to have a bold plan for climate action coupled with rewriting the rules governing our economy. In the spirit of Bernie’s Green New Deal policy (although written independently and before its release), this series proposes specific policy solutions to advance worker power alongside environmental stewardship.
(4) to achieve the Green New Deal goals and mobilization, a Green New Deal will require the following goals and projects— . . .
(F) ensuring the use of democratic and participatory processes that are inclusive of and led by frontline and vulnerable communities and workers to plan, implement, and administer the Green New Deal mobilization at the local level;
(G) ensuring that the Green New Deal mobilization creates high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages, hires local workers, offers training and advancement opportunities, and guarantees wage and benefit parity for workers affected by the transition[.][1]
Use Federal Investment to Put Skilled Trades to Work
With the collapse of America’s manufacturing industry, the building trades are one of the few places working-class people can still make a great living. In fact, many workers in the trades make more than many people with college degrees, have strong pensions when most Americans struggle to fund their 401(k)s, and do meaningful work that we all depend on.
The GND threatens some of those jobs, to be sure, but it also has much promise. GND advocates should work with the building trades, like they did in New York, to identify specific ways to support workers in each trade and—most importantly—put these workers’ skills to use doing the work we sorely need.
Several good places to start are the Labor Network for Sustainability and 350’s Clean Energy Future report,[2] Jay Inslee’s Evergreen Economy Plan,[3] the Roosevelt Institute’s Decarbonizing the US Economy report,[4] BlueGreen Alliance’s Infrastructure Priorities report,[5] and the BlueGreen Alliance’s Solidarity for Climate Action plan,[6] but we can go further. Here are some examples:
Develop regional authorities modelled off of the Tennessee Valley Authority and centered on ecosystems, to create powerful economic engines and environmental stewards.[7]
Embrace Solutionary Rail to electrify our rail networks, creating and supporting high-quality construction and rail worker jobs while eliminating emissions from freight and rail transportation.[8]
Pilot hydrogen infrastructure programs, to test whether hydrogen could replace fossil fuels for many manufacturing and industrial purposes. This would let us put workers’ existing pipeline infrastructure skills to use developing a clean hydrogen distribution system alternative.
Develop strong nationwide building standards to protect human safety and health and reduce emissions and pollution. Invest billions in residential and commercial retrofitting programs (with full government contacting standards), and require every existing building to retrofit within a reasonable time.
Invest billions in infrastructure, with a particular focus on 1) drinking water quality and safety, 2) public transportation, 3) dam and other legacy infrastructure removal, 4) electrical production and transmission infrastructure repair and replacement, 5) climate change adaptation and mitigation infrastructure, and 6) environmental remediation and ecosystem restoration.
Confront America’s housing crisis by investing billions into new mixed-income housing stock, owned by community land trusts and built by organized labor.
Implement a comprehensive school modernization program, to make all public schools safe, healthful, and energy-efficient places to learn and work.
Remove one driver of the insect population crisis by prohibiting the use of some or all pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer on yards and lawns, while creating a fully-funded lawn replanting grant to allow homeowners and businesses to put in a native-plant lawn or a bee-friendly wildflower garden at little to no cost to them. This would create millions of acres of insect-friendly land while substantially unionizing and raising wages in the residential landscape industry.
Dismantle unnecessary military infrastructure and installations.
Give the federal government ownership stakes in projects commensurate with its investment, to create public wealth for all.
By articulating how to support jobs in each trade, GND advocates will be able to say clearly to working people what types of jobs will be available in each trade, commit that the jobs will come with prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship standards, and articulate how skilled tradespersons are necessary for the collective project ahead.
If you have thoughts on this subject, I’d love to hear them. Hit me up on Twitter or email.
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[1] H.Res. 109, §§ 4(F), (G).
[2]See Labor Network for Sustainability, 350, & Synapse, The Clean Energy Future (2015), https://www.labor4sustainability.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/cleanenergy_10212015_main.pdf.
[3] Jay Inslee Campaign, Jay Inslee’s Evergreen Economy Plan (2019), https://www.jayinslee.com/issues/evergreen-economy/text/Inslee_EvergreenEconomyPlan_2.pdf.
[4] Mark Paul, Anders Fremstad, & J.W. Mason, Decarbonizing the US Economy, Roosevelt Inst. (June 2019), https://rooseveltinstitute.org/decarbonizing-the-us-economy/.
[5] BlueGreen Alliance, Investing in America’s Infrastructure to Create High-Quality Jobs and Protect the Environment (May 15, 2019), https://www.bluegreenalliance.org/resources/investing-in-americas-infrastructure-to-create-high-quality-jobs-and-protect-the-environment/.
[6] BlueGreen Alliance, Solidarity for Climate Action (June 2019), https://www.bluegreenalliance.org/work-issue/solidarity-for-climate-action/.
[7]See, e.g., Jonathan Kissam, The Fight for Good Jobs and a Democratic Economy, United Electrical, Radio & Machines Workers of Am. (2018), https://www.ueunion.org/ue-news-feature/2018/the-fight-for-good-jobs-and-a-democratic-economy; Matt Bruenig, Fighting Climate Change with a Green TVA, People’s Policy Project (Jan. 23, 2019), https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/GreenTVA.pdf.
[8]See Bill Moyer, Solutionary Rail (2016); Solutionary Rail, https://www.solutionaryrail.org/.