Who’s Up For Some “Green” Union Jobs?

It’s always interesting how the so-called science issue of ‘climate change’ ends up being mostly about left-wing politics, eh?

New York aims to fight climate change by creating green union jobs

As global warming has worsened in recent years, environmentalists and union members have often protested against each other, whether over fracking, oil pipelines, coal production or the Green New Deal.

But an innovative new labor-environmentalist effort in New York – to build offshore wind turbines to power up to 6m homes – is a sharp departure from all that feuding and shows that these two groups can work together to advance renewable energy and reduce dependence on carbon-based energy.

Giving this plan a vital boost, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced plans to have the state’s energy authority invest billions of dollars to build hundreds of offshore wind turbines. For Cuomo, this plan is key to New York state’s ambitious mandate to obtain 70% of its energy from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, by 2030.

As a sidebar, you can bet that there will be a lot of groups, mostly environmentalists and leftists, which will file lawsuits to stop the wind turbines and the transmission lines.

Pushed by a professor at Cornell University, more than a dozen unions came together to develop what they call Climate Jobs New York, a plan that they say will create more than 10,000 jobs; jobs that they agree should be middle-class, union jobs.

“We brought together more than a dozen unions, and said things are not good at the national level in terms of how unions are relating to environmental organizations and the climate movement,” said Lara Skinner, the labor relations professor at Cornell who spearheaded this effort. She noted that several unions were furious at environmentalists for opposing fracking and the Keystone and Dakota Access oil pipelines, which many unions viewed as a boon for job creation. (snip)

In an unusual move, more than a dozen unions and labor federations developed the climate plan, without inviting environmental groups to participate in the early discussions. One fear was that if the two sides were together from the start, there might be fights over fracking and pipelines that blew up and prevented progress on other fronts. One union leader involved in the effort said: “The labor movement and environmental community agree on probably 90% of things, so we shouldn’t focus on the things that are going to destroy goodwill.”

And the union will donate money to NY Democrats to make sure that the jobs only go to the unions, locking out individuals and small companies that are not part of the union. But, remember, this is science, not politics. Or something.

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8 Responses to “Who’s Up For Some “Green” Union Jobs?”

  1. Professor Hale says:

    Funny thing. If the unions were to ignore their party loyalty and vote self interest, then they would be against the waves of immigrants who take their jobs for lower wages. Labor unions should be Trump’s best friends instead union bosses are lock step with the Democratic party. And unlike other Republicans, Trump actually is in favor of labor unions. Mindless loyalty to party makes strange bedfellows.

  2. Nighthawk says:

    By all means get the unions involved, that way we can have cost over runs, strikes and the project canceled before it’s complete.

  3. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    Teach typed (for the umpteenth time!): “But, remember, this is science, not politics.”

    Based on science we know that the Earth is warming from CO2 we add to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Science tells you that atmospheric CO2 is the greatest for about 1 million years, and with burning as usual it’s projected to keep rising, causing further warming.

    At first the deniers said it wasn’t warming; then the deniers said the warming wasn’t caused by CO2; now the deniers say it’s too late to do anything – fuk the future.

    Where does politics come into it? It’s our mechanism for potential actions, if any.

    And how can any working class American be against labor unions? Higher pay, better conditions, job protections. Workers pool their resources (and labor) to balance the power between the working classes and the capital class. It’s why the Republic Party hates unions, duh. The GOP is the party of white wealth.

    • formwiz says:

      Based on science, we know all the climate stuff is a lie and only a dodge to scare people into letting the Commies have their way.

      He lies again.

      • formwiz says:

        PS The Republican party doesn’t hate unions. America does.

        • Liljeffyatemypuppy says:

          Take away the teacher and government employee unions and there really aren’t a lot of members. https://www.thepiratescove.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_cool.gif

    • Nighthawk says:

      Your so called ‘science’ still can’t get it right. If the climate is warming because of man made CO2 and we understand this so well, why is it that every climate model fails? NONE of them can accurately model known, past climate and, as such, they cannot accurately predict future climate.

      Very few climate realists claimed that the climate wasn’t warming, we also acknowledge that some MAY be from man made CO2 and I have yet to hear any say that it’s too late to do anything. And you call us liars.

      Simply put, unions suck and have long outlived any usefulness. I’ve worked at two union shops in my life and BOTH are now closed and the jobs moved out of the country. I have worked in 5 non union shops and all are still running strong and I had/have better pay, better benefits and better working conditions in these than either of the union shops.

  4. Dana says:

    “(O)ffshore wind turbines to power up to 6m homes”? I seem to recall when the Kennedys torpedoed off shore wind turbines because it would spoil their ocean view; given what offshore means in the Empire State, a whole lot of people on the south shore of Long Island — that is: people with money — are going to be pissed off, and they’ll throw up so many legal roadblocks that Barron Trump will be President when everything has made it through the courts.

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