The National Labor College in Silver Springs, MD, has just announced a new online journal, The Green Labor Journal. In the email announcing the release was this very telling paragraph:
For the founders of GLJ, any discussion of sustainability should begin with the premise that people must be sustainable. For any job to truly be considered “green,” the people who do the work must be paid fair wages and benefits that enable them to sustain themselves and their families. All green policy initiatives, moreover, must include fair labor standards if we are to reach the goal of a just and sustainable society.
There you go! “Green” jobs no longer relate to “ecological impact,” but to whether or not it is a union job. Here is another interesting quote taken from the journal itself:
The second theme that the Journal will highlight is the idea that unions have an important role to play in significant environmental debates. Take green buildings for example. For a building to really be considered “green,” it’s important to make sure that the people who build the building and those who work there are included in this process.
So, there will be no such thing as “green design” unless those who design, build, and work in the building (think maintenance and security first – but I’m sure they will try to eventually stretch the definition), are all union members. Unions are desperate. They will go to great lengths and are becoming very creative at asserting themselves into the semantics of all of the lead issues of our day. In this they are very smart – the more you control the terminology and framing of the conversation, the more persuasive your arguments are perceived to be.
