Steelworkers and Sierra Club Unite

[Kolesar]

Steelworkers and Sierra Club Unite
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

The nation's largest manufacturing union, the United Steelworkers of America, and the nation's largest environmental group, the Sierra Club, yesterday announced the formation of an alliance that will do something that labor and environmentalists rarely do: cooperate.

After decades of fighting between blue-collar unions and green activists, the steelworkers and the Sierra Club say they will use the alliance to battle for energy independence and against global warming and toxic pollutants.

A central goal of the partnership, called the Blue/Green Alliance, will be to reassure workers that measures to improve the environment need not jeopardize jobs.

"We're going to work together to try to blow up the myth that you can't have a clean environment and good jobs," said Leo Gerard, the president of the steelworkers union, which has 850,000 members.

With unions and environmentalists often fighting Republican initiatives, the steelworkers and the Sierra Club say the alliance should help increase their impact on Capitol Hill and in many communities, although the alliance will not be directly involved in electoral politics.

The two groups also hope that in November's elections the alliance will help to highlight their issues, including global warming and the loss of manufacturing jobs to countries with lower environmental and labor standards.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/08/us/08labor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[murielm99]

1. Thank you for posting.

This is a great story to see so early in the morning.

:thumbsup:

[Rainscents]

2. Wow...bout time!

[Kolesar]

3. The alliance used Ohio as the launch pad this week for a tour ...

The article covers a lot of material on the tour through four Ohio cities last week.

Leading the tour is David Foster, a former Steelworker regional director from Minnesota and the alliance's executive director, and Larry Fahn, immediate past president of the Sierra Club.

The Blue/Greens plan to stop in Cleveland today, where they are to meet with the city's sustainability manager, Andrew Watterson.

On Monday, Cleveland anticipates joining Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and more than 200 other cities in signing on to the Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement. It endorses support of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming.

The Steelworkers and Sierra Club insist the old tossup - jobs or the environment - is a false choice. While prosperity may once have smelled like dirty smokestacks, they say economic security today depends on strong environmental laws.

"It is both or neither," the union said. "We see little prospect for good jobs in a nation of depleted resources, poisoned water and foul air."

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/1151656403117420.xml&coll=2