‘You Can Have Clean Environment and Good Jobs’

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/07/07/you-can-have-clean-environment-and-good-jobs/

‘You Can Have Clean Environment and Good Jobs’

by James Parks, Jul 7, 2007

The United Steelworkers (USW) have been fighting for clean workplaces and communities since the 1960s. The union helped pass landmark U.S. legislation regulating air and water pollution and toxic waste, as well as “right-to-know” laws, which require companies to tell the public how much pollution they are releasing.



Now, the USW is taking the struggle to a new level. Writing for Sierra magazine, Joan Hamilton notes that USW President Leo Gerard joined last year with the Sierra Club to form the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership committed to mobilizing public support for policies that create good jobs, a cleaner environment and a safer world.

Says Gerard:

We need to put an end to the lies, the myths, the hysteria, that say you can have either a clean environment or good jobs. You can have both, or you have neither.

Last year, the alliance made the clear connection between global warming and the excesses of the global economy. Gerard said the union movement’s vision of addressing global warming is fundamentally at odds with global policies that allow corporations to make huge profits by buying and trading the rights to emit carbon without ever addressing the basic inequalities in our global economy.

FULL story at link.