Labor & Employment Law

Just Transition to Green Economy Would Create Jobs, Profits

By James Parks

A just transition to a green economy is the only path toward building the broad support needed to combat climate change and to creating and retaining quality jobs and decent work, AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon Silvers said. 

Speaking yesterday at the U.N.’s Investor Climate Risk Conference in New York City, Silvers said investors, especially those who manage workers’ pension funds, must change their investment strategies and lead the way to a stronger, greener future.

Silvers delivered the speech on behalf of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who was called to meet with President Obama on health care.

Silvers told investors at the conference that a just transition requires an aggressive, sustained commitment of national resources to modernize industry, develop and deploy technology and educate and train current and future workers.

And most important, it requires that workers have the right to a voice in how the decisions that affect their lives are made, which means Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

With an administration in place that’s making climate change a priority, now is the time for investors and corporations to turn away from financial speculation and short-term profit making and invest in new technologies that will create sustainable jobs in the future, Silvers said.

He urged the investors to support corporate transparency so workers would know where their money is being invested and to oppose efforts by groups like the Chamber of Commerce to undermine good climate change policy. 

The AFL-CIO believes that with the right political and business leadership the global transformation to a low-carbon economy can and should be the engine for growth and good job creation here in the United States and around the world.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).