Economic Justice Means Rights for Workers, Sustainable Jobs

Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference

CWA President Larry Cohen speaks Tuesday at the 2011 Good Jobs Green Jobs conference. Also pictured, from left, Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke, Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry and, at right, national talk show host Bill Press.

Creating good, sustainable jobs in the nation's emerging green economy will require workers, community and political leaders to build coalitions that put pressure on employers, CWA President Larry Cohen told the "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Cohen was part of a panel discussion at the conference, which drew nearly 2,000 labor, environmental and community activists, including more than 80 CWA members. Most of them were IUE-CWA members working in jobs that are forming the foundation of a revitalized U.S. manufacturing sector.

"We have IUE-CWA members from our industrial division who are working hard to convert manufacturing jobs for the new economy," Cohen said. "They are doing it by working with and often pushing their employers to create jobs that will be here for the next generation."

Cohen's panel, including SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, discussed the challenges of today's political climate and ways to build a grassroots movement at the state level for creating good, family-supporting jobs. Click here to hear the full discussion. Henry, whose members are working to "green up hospitals" and other health industry workplaces, said BlueGreen allies "need to use our organizing energy to move things on together."

Beinecke's National Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and other BlueGreen Alliance partners helped unions fight for the Employee Free Choice Act and continue to be strong allies for workers' rights.

Cohen said allies share values even if their goals differ. "Labor and environmental groups need to demonstrate how the economic justice issues that we work on are related – for secure sustainable jobs, health care for all, retirement security, and bargaining and organizing rights."

He said the key to overcoming political opposition is for allies to build support locally. Toward that end, future GJGJ conferences will be held at the state level to facilitate state- and community-level organizing.