WASHINGTON--Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa vowed to step up with labor and environmental allies today in the fight to create more green jobs in the United States -- and to ensure that they are good union jobs.
"We must define the rules of the new green economy," Hoffa said, addressing 2,500 attendees of the Good Jobs, Green Jobs national conference in Washington. "We want job creation that won't harm workers or our planet.
The more than 1.4 million members of the Teamsters Union work across the entire global supply chain in ports, warehouses, rail, trucking, airlines, package delivery and waste and recycling. The Teamsters Union has been at the forefront of the green economy, strengthening ties to environmental allies and building coalitions to bring about important change.
"It's about taking care of the environment, our economy and the workers in America who depend on both, not one or the other," Hoffa said. "Green and blue in fact do go together. We have been forced to make a false choice in the past - good jobs or clean environment. But today is a new day."
For example, the Teamsters and its environmental partners got the Port of Los Angeles to make trucking companies responsible for replacing old, dirty diesel trucks. It's a model for the rest of America's ports.
"If we're going to go solar, the panels must be union-made in America," Hoffa said. "If we're going to capture hydroelectric power, then the generators must be union-made in America. And if we are going to capture wind power, then the turbines must be union-made in America. It doesn't do us any good to buy the hardware from China."
Hoffa was part of a keynote panel that included Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jared Bernstein, chief economist and economic policy adviser to Vice President Biden. The Teamsters Union is a major sponsor of the national conference and has a prominent role in workshops and panels.
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