Union Members Call for Investments in Green Jobs to Put Mainers Back to Work & Fight Climate Change
Today Maine union members spoke in support of an ambitious proposal that would tackle climate change and put unemployed Mainers back to work by investing in clean energy and upgrading the state’s crumbling infrastructure. Union members highlighted a new University of Massachusetts-Amherst study titled “A Program for Economic Recovery and Clean Energy Transition in Maine,” which shows that by making these investments, the state could reduce CO2 emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
"By making investments in clean energy, efficiency and our infrastructure, we can not only dramatically reduce our carbon output, but we can also create over 20,000 new jobs in the process," said Grant Provost, labor representative for Ironworkers Local 7. "This will help address our state’s demographic challenges by keeping young people here and drawing young families to Maine. Many of our members are forced to travel hundreds of miles outside of Maine to find work, but this proposal could help keep them right here in Maine with their families."
The study, led by Professor Robert Pollin, Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute at the UMass-Amherst, estimates that this proposal would create 22,000 high-quality jobs in Maine by raising energy efficiency standards, investing in large scale wind and solar and rebuilding transportation infrastructure, school buildings, parks, public housing and more.
At a press conference, Provost, and Jacob Norris, an apprentice electrician with IBEW 1253, praised the study but urged policy makers to require that large clean energy projects have project labor agreements to ensure that developers use skilled labor, uphold collective bargaining rights, pay living wages with benefits and adhere to proper labor and job quality standards.
"As the son of a union carpenter, I learned what it meant to take pride in my work and the importance of workers rights. These values, along with experiencing unjust working conditions, are what led me to pursue a career as a proud apprentice electrician through IBEW Local 1253," said Norris. "But while being a union member will help secure the financial future of my fiancee and me, we one day hope to have children so we need to protect their future as we face the threat of climate change. This report shows that we have the potential to not only create thousands of good paying union jobs, but also tackle climate change in the process."