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Press Room

CONTACT THE BLUE GREEN ALLIANCE:


Jim Young
New York, NY
917 606 0511 x 11

NEWS:
"Area Mayors Agree to Act on Climate Change," by Marshall Helmberger, The Timberjay Newspapers (MN), March 2, 2007.

"70-90 at Blue-Green Gathering; Some Mayors Sign National Pact ," by Charles Ramsey, The Mesabi (MN) Daily News, March 1, 2007.

"Questions About DuPont Unsettle Town," by Anne Paine and Brad Schrade, The Nashville Tennessean, February 25, 2007.

"Labor, Greens Denounce Trade Policy," by Steve Hersch, The Washington Times, February 14, 2007.

"Water Safety Near DuPont Discussed," by John Reid Blackwell, The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, February 14, 2007.

"'Stars are Aligned' to Boost Renewable Energy," by Conrad Defiebre, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, January 16, 2007. Read the article.

"Green Manufacturing Gets a Push," by Dee DePass, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, November 1, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"Groups Tout Green Economy," by Dennis Lien, The St. Paul Pioneer Press, November 1, 2006. To read the article, click here.

Vice President Al Gore gave a speech on global warming September 18 at New York University Law School that credited the United Steelworkers with helping to build momentum for solutions to this massive problem. To read coverage of the speech from Mother Jones magazine click here.

"Groups Oppose Chemical Discharge," by Mike Keller, The Biloxi Sun Herald, August 13, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"Member Exchange: Steelworkers, Sierra Club join on globalization," by Alison Grant, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 30, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"Greener Ohio Could Cash In - Groups: Environment, Economy Can Co-Exist ," by Mike Boyer, Cincinnati Enquirer, June 27, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"Labor Gains: New Green/Labor Alliance Brings Sierra Club and Steelworkers Together," by Amanda Griscom Little, Grist Magazine, June 16, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"New Environmental Coalition Wants Lawmakers to Think Long-Term," by Lorna Benson, Minnesota Public Radio, May 5, 2006. To listen to the broadcast or read the story, click here.

"Project Brings Green to N.O.:Joint Initiative to Help Clean Up, Reach Out to Neighborhood," by Joe Gyan Jr., Baton Rouge Advocate, March 23, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"What Our Country Needs," blog by Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, featured on The Huffington Post, March 2, 2006. To read the blog, click here.

"Steelworkers Lead Teflon Chemical Warnings," Associated Press, February 22, 2006. To read the article, click here.

"Union, Sierra Club Unite for Common Good: Steelworkers and Environmentalists Form an Alliance to Protect the Region's Jobs and Land," Duluth News Tribune, December 16, 2005. To read the article, click here.

"Protecting Workers' Rights also Safeguards Environment," by Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, San Francisco Chronicle, December 9, 2005. To read the op-ed, click here.

"Steelworkers, Citizens Issue Call to Action for Good Jobs, Clean Environment, Safer World," USW press release, September 17, 2005. To read the log, click here.

"On the Road with Foster and Fahn: Blue + Green," web log by Larry Fahn, Sierra Club President, and David Foster, Director of Steelworkers District 11, about the dangers of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), May 2005. To read the log, click here.

Speech by David Foster of the Steelworkers at April 18 Cornell University conference entitled "A Sustainable World is Possible: A Trade Union Day of Strategy on Globalization, Development and Environment." To listen to an excerpt, click here.

"The Union Makes Them Strong: A Blue-Green Alliance on Climate Change Adopts a New Agenda: Jobs," Orion magazine, March/April 2005. To read the article, click here.

"Labor Unions, Environmental Groups and Community Leaders Forge Alliance, Commit to Making the Copper Basin Environmentally Safe," United Steelworkers District 12 press release, Tucson, Arizona, April 25, 2005. To read the release, click here. -->

"Steelworkers, Citizens Issue Call to Action for Good Jobs, Clean Environment, Safer World,"
USW press release
September 17, 2005 http://www.steelworkers-usw.org/usw/program/content/2414.php

"On the Road with Foster and Fahn: Blue + Green,"
web log by Larry Fahn, Sierra Club President, and David Foster, Director of Steelworkers District 11
about the dangers of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)
May 2005 http://www.sierraclub.org/roadtrip/blue_green/day1.asp

"A Sustainable World is Possible: A Trade Union Day of Strategy on Globalization, Development and Environment."
Speech by David Foster of the Steelworkers at Cornell University conference
April 18, 2005
To listen to an excerpt: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=program-info&program_id=12341&nav=producer-directory&

"Labor Unions, Environmental Groups and Community Leaders Forge Alliance, Commit to Making the Copper Basin Environmentally Safe" United Steelworkers District 12 press release
Tucson, Arizona
April 25, 2005 read the article here

"The Union Makes Them Strong: A Blue-Green Alliance on Climate Change Adopts a New Agenda: Jobs"
Orion magazine
March/April 2005 read the article here

"The Work Ahead: Challenge Low-Wage Globalization"
By David Foster
YES! magazine
Spring 2005 read the article here

"Coalition Sees Jobs in Energy Production"
By Scott Thistle
Duluth News Tribune
February 18, 2005 http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/10932124.htm

"Take it to the Blue States"
by Thomas Geoghegan
The Nation
November 29, 2004 http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041129&s=geoghegan

"Missouri Blue Green Alliance Praises Escape Hybrid, Ford Wins Praise for Gas-Electric SUV"
By Randolph Heaster
The Kansas City Star
August 5, 2004 http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/1459.php

"Missouri Blue Green Alliance Unites Conservation and Labor"
By Carla Klein and Jill Miller
Sierran
October-November, 2004 http://missouri.sierraclub.org/SierranOnline/OctDec2004/blueGreenAlliance.htm

"Unions, Environmental Groups form Minnesota Blue Green Alliance"
Workday Minnesota
July 15, 2004 http://www.workdayminnesota.org/view_article.php?id=d074889719edea7771c11533e8b68423

"Blue Green Alliance Wants Some Land Off Limits"
By Jeff Gearino
Casper Star Tribune
June 30, 2004
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/06/30/news/wyoming/f179d7f2a1ad35f787256ec30007737d.txt

"In Search of Solidarity"
By Laura Paskus
High Country News
May 24, 2004
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=14755

"Arctic Refuge Battle is One of Principles"
By David Foster, Director
District 11, United Steelworkers of America
Op Ed in St. Paul Pioneer Press
November 6, 2003
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/7191503.htm

"Green-Collar Workers"
By Jim Young
Sierra Magazine
July/August 2003
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200307/labor.asp

BLUE GREEN RESOLUTION

Resolution on the Formation of the United Steelworker/Sierra Club Alliance:

WHEREAS the United Steelworkers with 850,000 members in North America and the Sierra Club with 800,000 members in the United States have a long history of collaboration, working for a more just and equitable society in which human impact on our planet is managed for sustainability, and

WHEREAS that collaboration is grounded in our work securing passage of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act in the 1970’s and other landmark worker and environmental protections; opposing the succession of unfair trade agreements from the North American Free Trade Agreement to the Free Trade Area of the Americas; democratizing the global economy through our protests during the World Trade Organization Ministerial meeting in Seattle in 1999; joining in our advocacy for international labor, human rights and environmental standards; and supporting workers’ rights here in the United States through such legislation as the Employee Free Choice Act, and

WHEREAS the anti-environmental and anti-worker policies of the current administration threaten to roll back the historic accomplishments of the 20th Century’s great social movements—its labor, human rights, and environmental movements; and

WHEREAS the United States needs an energy policy that promotes visionary solutions like clean cars and clean, renewable energy; and

WHEREAS the United States needs a fair trade policy that benefits the majority of Americans and protects workers’ rights and the environment; and

WHEREAS the United States needs responsible corporate practices that ban the release of toxic chemicals in our workplaces and neighborhoods and promotes the creation of the next generation chemical industry based on principles of environmental sustainability; and

WHEREAS the United States needs to lead the world in constructing a global economy that meets the historic challenge of providing for the social needs of a population of six billion human beings in an environmentally and economically sustainable fashion;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club form this historic alliance of our two organizations to create a powerful social movement for change dedicated, in a time of great uncertainty, to securing our children’s world; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this alliance will focus its resources on those issues which have the greatest potential to unite the American people in pursuit of a global economy this is more just and equitable and founded on principles of environmental and economic sustainability; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the struggle for Good Jobs, A Clean Environment, and A Safer World best expresses those principles in 2006.
• A sound 21st century energy policy can create a new generation of domestic manufacturing jobs while reducing global warming and air pollution. Hybrid and other clean cars, public transportation, efficient heating and lighting systems, and clean renewable power plants are the keys to our energy freedom. Producing them can create more than 1.4 million new jobs and strengthen our economy while simultaneously making America more secure.
• A just trade policy for the 21st century can promote growth and prosperity across all sectors of global society, not just for multinational corporations and a few elites, and would embed enforceable labor, environmental, and human rights standards in our trade agreements.
• An informed 21st century policy on toxic chemicals can protect workers and communities from dangerous chemicals, enhance public health and promote safer alternatives; and

FINALLY, BE IT RESOLVED that this alliance between the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers calls on the rest of the labor movement in the United States, our country’s environmental community and its human rights’ advocates to join with us in creating a united progressive movement for change.

June 7, 2006
Washington, D.C.

Leo W. Gerard
International President
United Steelworkers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Carl Pope
Executive Director
Sierra Club
San Francisco, California

GREEN LABOR NEWSLETTER

The Blue Green Alliance publishes the Green Labor newsletter in cooperation with the United Steelworkers and Sierra Club. Green Labor provides the latest news about labor and environment collaborations. The newsletter explores the threats to our jobs and our planet and possible solutions. In every issue, we deliver stories to enlighten, infuriate, surprise, and agitate.

Editor
Jim Young
Email: jfyoung@erols.com

For a free electronic subscription, email info@greenlabor.org with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

GREEN LABOR ISSUE 5

Steelworkers & Sierra Club: Good Jobs, a Cleaner Environment, a Safer World
What do you get when two powerful organizations team up? A lot of oomph. Read here here about the growing partnership between North America's biggest industrial union and the largest environmental group in the U.S.

Alliance Fights ASARCO Pollution in Arizona Environmentalists are supporting striking workers at one the biggest polluters in Arizona -- the ASARCO copper smelter in Hayden. That's right. We ain't lying. Take a look here.

CAFTA: Labor Pains and Environmental Flaws If it walks like NAFTA, and if it talks like NAFTA, it must be … CAFTA. Read here what the Sierra Club and the United Steelworkers think about this deal. And take a gander here of how the US Chamber of Commerce is bankrolling a speaking tour that is hyping CAFTA with the same bogus claims used to pass NAFTA.

For Bush, "Green Energy" Means Greenbacks for Corporations When George W. Bush was a young boy, is it possible he dreamed that one day he would preside over a national energy policy capable of funneling massive subsidies to big energy corporations? Probably not - but that's how it all turned out for him. See what we mean here.

Trust Us, We're Upbeat The Bush administration is making sure the energy "message" is very green and very positive. What's wrong with this picture? Find out here.

A Union for Anyone, Anywhere For environmentalists and other individuals looking to join the labor movement, your ship has come in: the Steelworkers' Associate Members Program. Sign up here.

Heard Around the Nation "Blue-Green" lobby days in "Red" state capitols. Union electrical workers installing solar panels in California. Environmentalists supporting chemical workers in New Jersey. It's a vision of the future that inspires hope. Get a glimpse here.

Join Us Join thousands of other labor and environmental leaders and activists by signing up for the email version of Green Labor - and for occasional alerts. They're both 100 percent free. Sign up here.

Shared Goals, Common Opponents "Follow the jobs" if you want to learn where pollution is coming from. That's the powerful lesson Carl Pope says he learned from the late Tony Mazzocchi, a leader in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) union. Pope elaborates here.

Read All About It To read the complete Summer 2005 issue of greenlabor newsletter in PDF format, click here.

Green Labor Issue 4

Oil and Gas Development Should Be Off Limits in Much of Wyoming
Interview with Sara Patton: Why I Joined Steelworkers
After NAFTA, We Won’t Take CAFTA
Minnesota Blue-Green Alliance Launched
Escape from Wal-Mart: Art by Howard Saunders

Green Labor Issue 3

Our Land: Alaska's Arctic Refuge
Rich Guys on the Take: The Bush Energy Plan
Crushing Dissent in Miami
Cintas: Bad for Workers and the Environment
Art by Howard Saunders

Green Labor Issue 2

March to Miami to Protest Unfair Trade
Climate Change and the Great Lakes
Green Job Creation in U.S. and Canada
Global Warming Training

Green Labor Issue 1

Unions Fight Global Warming
GI Bill for Workers
Auto Workers and Clean Cars
Steelworker Power Plan for Northwest