Building Energy Efficiency
Unions Train a New Generation of Workers for Green Jobs
Global warming and our dependence on fossil fuels are the foremost environmental issues of our time. Addressing these challenges is key to our economic recovery and will provide unparalleled opportunities to create jobs and launch new models for economic development. We can put America back to work by investing in clean energy, but we also must ensure that the green jobs we create are good family- and community-sustaining jobs that will strengthen our economy for the long run.
Wisely spent, federal investments in clean energy will provide a strong foundation for clean-energy industries to deliver significant economic and environmental benefits. For the green economy to succeed, we need a robust workforce to capitalize on these new opportunities. Labor unions can play a key role by ensuring that there are well-trained workers with comprehensive skills.
Located on the front line, these workers have protections and training to blow the whistle on health and safety risks in the workplace, including hazardous pollution, chemical spills and other accidents that can devastate communities.
Working to Capture Energy Savings
Currently, buildings are responsible for 40 percent of U.S. global-warming pollution and 70 percent of electricity use. Upgrading heating and cooling systems, appliances and insulation in buildings will improve community health and safety, create jobs, cut energy costs, reduce our dependence on dirty fossil fuels and slash global-warming pollution.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will invest $5 billion to jumpstart this work, expanding the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program, or WAP, to meet the Obama administration’s goal of weatherizing 1 million homes per year. This investment will address the 20 percent of U.S. global-warming pollution from residential buildings.
The demand for weatherization work will require an industry that can train and connect workers to hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Thirty-eight million low-income households nationwide are eligible for services through WAP. Weatherization services save residents about $350 or more on energy costs per year. Every $1 million invested creates 52 direct jobs and 23 indirect jobs; approximately 300,000 jobs could be created in the effort in the next few years.
The demand for weatherization work will require an industry that can train and connect workers to hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
Weatherization at Work
To jumpstart an expanded and sustainable residential energy-efficiency industry, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LIUNA, has launched a breakthrough, nationwide program to train new workers in residential construction and weatherization work. This program will contribute to upgrading millions of poorly insulated homes and help put more money back into people’s pockets instead of paying utility companies for wasted energy. (For more information about LiUNA's Weatherization Program, view this PDF.)
LIUNA works with community partners to provide local, unemployed workers with training as technician/installers, weatherization supervisors and energy auditors, as well as access to a network of future employment connections.
LIUNA’s weatherization program could train up to 10,000 workers nationwide in its first three years, reducing energy bills for several million homes nationwide during the next 10 years. Combined with LIUNA’s commitment to training residents of low-income communities, these training programs help to rebuild America’s middle class and economy.
Improving Livelihoods
In 2009, Laborers’ Local 55, working with the Newark, N.J.-based Garden State Alliance for a New Economy, provided weatherization training for unemployed, local residents in Newark. The program ensured that these green jobs were also good jobs; trainees earned accreditation, were paid family supporting wages and received health benefits.
In January 2009, a crew of 21 workers from LIUNA’s pilot program performed energy audits, sealed air leaks with caulking, applied weather stripping around doors, wrapped pipes and hot water heaters and applied fiberglass insulation in 30 Newark homes.
The program delivered concrete benefits to homeowners: Those whose houses were weatherized saw a 25 percent reduction in their energy bills.
Those whose houses were weatherized saw a 25 percent reduction in their energy bills.
In April 2009, 23 students graduated from LIUNA’s pilot program. LIUNA trained an additional 350 New Jersey residents by the end of 2009 and continues to formalize, develop and expand its weatherization training program. Already, the success of LIUNA’s Newark program has fostered interest in developing similar programs in other cities in the region.
Other Union Programs
In New York, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union offers a training program for building superintendents and service workers to develop and maintain energy-efficient green buildings. The program helps promote environmentally friendly geothermal residential heating and cooling systems, green-cleaning products, as well as green engineering, construction and custodial jobs. To date, the program has trained more than 300 workers and has plans to train thousands more during the next few years.
Local 68 of Denver, a branch of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, is increasing the scale of energy-efficient work by training members to work in fast-growing renewable-energy sectors. Instructors focus on crucial elements in green-technology, energy-efficiency and renewable-energy sectors, such as photovoltaic theory and solar and wind applications. Training centers work with employers to secure solar, wind and geothermal projects for their highly skilled workers. Local 68 has trained nearly 500 workers to date with many in the 70 training centers IBEW sponsors nationwide.
Often, the skills that workers have already learned on the job are needed to build the green economy. Members of Local 49 of the International Union of Operating Engineers have recently put their skills to work by building a wind turbine farm in Chandler, Minn. Union crane operators lifted turbines into place while other members dug trenches, installed transmission lines and configured grading.
Back to Work
These unions’ work illustrates that by putting America to work, we can reduce household energy bills, create thousands of new jobs, save energy and slash global-warming pollution.
For more information about green jobs, visit the Sierra Club, Washington, D.C., and Blue Green Alliance, Washington. An Adobe PDF about the LiUNA Weatherization Program is available in the Media Center.
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