Going Green - A Path Out of Poverty

It's easy to see "going green" as an elitist initiative. If you are committed to reducing your carbon footprint you can probably afford CFLs, energy efficient appliances, organic food. If you're poor or a vulnerable middle class family a Prius is not in your future. Buying organic food? Seriously ...just buying food is a struggle. But what if 'going green' was a path out of poverty or into a more sustainable job?

A new initiative hopes to enlist the masses in our country's transition to sustainable living . Green for All has a simple but ambitious mission: to help build a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. Here is how they describe themselves:

By advocating for a national commitment to job training, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities -- we fight both poverty and pollution at the same time. We are committed to securing one billion dollars by 2012 to create “green pathways out of poverty” for 250,000 people in the United States, by greatly expanding federal government and private sector commitments to “green-collar” jobs.

Green collar. What a great idea!

However, before we get all enthusiastic, let's think about this: Blue collar is dying in this country, and with it, the middle class. Will the same thing happen to those with Green collars?

Union membership is shrinking, in large part because since Ronald Regean the Republican-dominated government and courts, have allowed service and retail industries like Wal-Mart to punish workers who attempt to unionize. The Clinton administration unknowingly accelerated the process by supporting free trade and globalization. As manufacturing jobs evaporated, so did unions. How can a union effectively advocate and negotiate for its members if 1) there are too few members to shut down business and 2) if they DO successfully negotiate better contracts, the corporation counters by exporting jobs to countries with cheap labor, no unions, and no environmental or health protections. The game today is rigged to fuel shinking unions and shrinking jobs and a shrinking standard of living.

Bottom line: we won't revitalize jobs if those jobs can be exported or can be done by low-wage non-unionized illegal immigrants. Unions need to be involved in the development of green industries from the ground up. As we train people to rebuild our infrastructure and green-up housing, we also need to organize them into effective bargaining units or they will be just another loosely employed group with low wages and few benefits (like the roofing industry, for example). The Culinary Workers in Las Vegas and the SEIU are two unions that have made a difference, whose aggressive organizing efforts among low wage workers have catapulted those workers into a more secure middle class life. I may disagree with their politics, but I support their overall objectives, like globalizing unions so that world-wide action can be taken against global corporations.

I know, I know. The unions have their own corruption, their disproportionately well-paid bosses, and a sense of entitlement that must be reconsidered. But with all their flaws, they had a substantial role in bringing the good life to our parents, who in turn, provided one for us. Our standard of living owes a great deal to the union movement.

So, while we support efforts to create green jobs, let's also support the renaissance of the good old-fashioned union label!