New Legislation Needed to Create Green, Family-Wage Jobs

As part of our Good Jobs Agenda, the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO strongly supports LRB 2740/2, otherwise known as the Wisconsin Sustainable Jobs Act, recently proposed by State Rep. Cory Mason.  This legislation will help create a demand for skilled workers, and develop career pathways for potentially thousands of Wisconsin residents to move into family-supporting weatherization jobs.

Weatherization is the process of updating existing buildings to make them more energy efficient.  It is estimated that retrofitting the 100 million energy inefficient homes in the U.S. will create thousands of new jobs, reduce household energy costs by $3.5 billion a year (an average of $350 per homeowner) and save the equivalent of 500 million barrels of oil annually.

However, there simply isn’t the infrastructure in place to meet this potential.  That’s why we need the Wisconsin Sustainable Jobs Act. 

The legislation includes prevailing wage requirements; ensures that a percentage of all of the weatherization work is done by local, unemployed or low-income workers; and requires contractors to participate in apprenticeship programs.

“Rep. Mason should be commended for his attention to the needs of unemployed Wisconsin residents,” says Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Phil Neuenfeldt.  “It is critical that we hire within the state, train people properly, and make sure that they can support their families as they work towards a greener future for all of us.”

The Wisconsin Sustainable Jobs Act will:

• Create high-quality jobs throughout the state in the burgeoning weatherization industry;

• Allow Wisconsin to make critically important investments in energy conservation;

• Create career pathways for Wisconsin’s residents to get the training they need to move into these family-supporting jobs;

• Leverage federal stimulus dollars for residential energy efficiency in a revolving loan model;

• Leverage private capital to enable wide-scale retrofit projects at some of Wisconsin’s largest commercial and industrial locations; and

• Reduce Wisconsin’s carbon footprint.

Urge your State Representative to support this legislation!

Secretary-Treasurer Neuenfeldt discussed the Wisconsin Sustainable Jobs Act and other elements of the Good Jobs Agenda on WORT 89.9FM in Madison last week.  Click below to listen to the audio archive from “In Our Backyard.”  (Skip to the middle if you just want to hear Phil.)

http://archive.wort-fm.org/mp3/wort_100201_183001iobymon.mp3

(Photo: Service Area Organizer Andy Thompson gave a presentation on the jobs crisis at the most recent Western Wisconsin Building Trades Council meeting. Photo Credit: Jerry Jackson of UA Local 434. For more pictures from the meeting visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisaflcio/sets/72157623233695395/)

Comments

[Pam Weatherization]

I think this is coming at a great time and its a great way to get people involved. Considering that new construction has been put on hold in a lot of communities I think and hope this approach will be successful.

Pam Weatherization
www.everblueenergy.com/energy-auditor/weatherization-training