Right to Work Blog

Unions have gotten on the “green jobs” porkwagon.  The federal government is handing out grants for jobs in the environmental field and unions are monopolizing that space. 

From Human Events:

One of the more startling revelations at the forum came in testimony from Stephen Worth, President & CEO of Worth and Company, a merit shop mechanical contractor out of Pipersville, Pennsylvania, currently employing more than 400 people.

Amid testimony of union harassment and exclusion from contracting bids was a startling revelation of union methods to monopolize “green jobs” through illegitimate and discriminatory regulatory definition.

“‘Green jobs’ is a phrase being used to describe work that is environmentally friendly, both inside and outside the construction industry,” Worth told the forum.  “However, there is no agreed-upon definition.  Currently, organized labor is attempting to define ‘green jobs’ as positions held by workers that receive special green training through union-only apprenticeship programs.”

Given that narrow definition, literally all government contracts would go to unionized construction companies merely by categorizing the work as a ‘green job.’  But it is likely it will not stop there.  Given the aims of this administration, EPA regulation could apply that definition to permitting for any construction project.

“Organized and certain special interest groups claim that only union apprenticeship programs can properly train workers to build green projects,” Worth said.  “However, these claims are nothing more than an effort to monopolize the construction workforce on green building and other construction projects.  Most green building techniques involve simple architectural changes or the use of environmentally-friendly building materials, which requires workers to learn skills that can be taught through both union and nonunion training programs.”

It appears that whenever you look under the hood of this administration’s proposed policies, another forced union scheme stares back.

The Committee was forwarded an e-mail that, in part, read:

We have just learned from our contacts in Washington that the HELP committee [U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions] has postponed other scheduled business and will conduct a hearing on the [Craig] Becker [National Labor Relations Board] nomination next Tuesday at 4 p.m.

– Martin F. Payson

Beware politicians touting “green jobs.”  That has become the new code word for “union-only” jobs.

Look no further that Maryland Sens. Mikulski and Cardin touting new “Green Job Training in Maryland.”  In fact, these taxpayer grants are going to the SEIU to train people in “green healthcare.”  Unfortunately, green jobs just mean more green union dues money to the Big Labor bosses.

“Organized Labor has a long history with extortion and the mob. Federal prosecutors have put most of those mob bosses behind bars, but unions haven’t renounced using blackmail to get what they want. They simply use more sophisticated methods to do the same thing,” writes James Sherk at the Heritage Foundation.

The new tactic can be called “greenmail,” blackmail with an environmental hue.

Sherk continues: “Take the way unions exploit environmental concerns through Project Labor Agreements [PLAs]. Under PLAs, businesses promise to hire only union members — or else. Why would businesses sign such agreements? Because unions threaten to use environmental regulations to shut them down unless they sign the PLA.”