The Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in Washington, DC on February 4 - 6 brought together about 2,700 labor, environmental, agency, community, and faith-based advocates with the intent on working together to urgently push forward the new green economy to not only save the plant but also the people. The conference was organized by the Blue-Green Alliance, of which the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club are founding members.

Hillary Bright, our Blue-Green Alliance staffer here in Pittsburgh, has the following report:

The presence of so many progressive leaders led to several dramatic and inspirational speeches, including those by USW President Leo W. Gerard and by author Van Jones. My notes from one speech read:

We reject the false dichotomy of good jobs vs. green jobs. We have to have both or we won’t have either. We must make the same commitment to a green economy as we did to the election. The human family is coming back to itself; we now get to make a decision: who are we, honeybees who work together for a sustainable future or locusts that devour everything and leave nothing behind?

Sierra Club National Board President Allison Chin and Donald Kennedy represented Sierra Club. Dr. Kennedy, formerly President of Stanford University and Editor of Science magazine, was introduced as the new Campaign Chair of the Sierra Club Climate Recovery Partnership. He spoke of the “challenge of dealing with Fiscal Chilling while addressing Global Warming …but the good news is – science is back!” He also mentioned Climate Recovery Partnership’s honorary chair NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and made sure steelworkers and other new labor friends knew Sierra has 1.3 million members.

Achim Steiner, UN Environmental Programme Executive Director, told us there are more jobs worldwide in the renewable energy sector than in oil & gas; that arrogance, ignorance, and a lack of responsibility must be addressed, rather than assume an inevitable outcome for the world’s 6-7 billion people. He pointed out that until now renewables have been a market niche industry in America, but we do not need mega corporations and monopolies to produce a green economy.

Larry Cohen, Communications Workers of America President called for a blue-green coalition to be more integrated, like a “smoothie”, rather than the typical “salad” style coalition where you can still identify cucumbers, tomatoes, i.e., separate members and characteristics. Unions advocate not for protectionism, but rather for a sustainable economy with good, green union jobs.

Teamsters President James Hoffa brought the crowd to its feet when he admitted his union had been wrong to support drilling in ANWR, and that he knows who the Teamsters’ friends are now.

Winona Duke of Honor the Earth told of her Ojibwa people’s 2000 year old prophecy for today: two paths lie before us. One is well worn but scorched; the other new & green. Indians want apprenticeships & training to tap the wind power potential of reservations, America’s windiest places, as 25% of all U.S. power could come from Indian lands.

Best selling author Van Jones of the All For Green, Green For All movement urged us to get past all these old divisions. The old economy hurt the planet, but we’re done with that now. The only way to save the arctic is to save the neighborhood; polar bears depend on there being no more leaky homes.

Throughout the conference Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and new EPA Director Lisa Jackson all called for the creation of a new and just green economy. Sierra Club now officially endorses labor’s #1 issue, the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s time to save jobs as we save the planet. Sierra Club has joined with new allies to build a better world.