Good Green Jobs: GANE and the Laborers Union Launch a Model Weatherization Program in Newark

The planned investment in weatherization programs offers a perfect model of how a massive infusion of federal funding could transform a chronically underfunded anti-poverty program that is built on poverty jobs into an entry into a career in union construction for low-income residents of urban areas.  Currently, though their work is federally funded, few if any labor standards beyond state minimums are placed on weatherization contractors.  Work is often done for wages close to those minimums, and contractors working in Newark often do not employ Newark residents.

GANE has been coordinating with national staff at Change to Win and the Laborers Union to raise standards for weatherization work, which will provide the Laborers with a foothold in the largely unorganized residential construction industry.  In December, the Laborers presented President-elect Obama with a proposal to dedicate ten billion dollars of weatherization funding to a competitive grant program that will be awarded to cities that set up weatherization programs that hire local residents, pay union-scale wages and benefits, and have strong local hiring requirements.

The Laborers’ national proposal would not have been taken seriously without GANE’s local work to make Newark a model city that is ready to implement the national program.  On January 12th, a week before the inauguration, Mayor Booker and Laborers Vice President Ray Pucino held a press conference to launch a pilot weatherization program which serves as a national model of a new green economy where working people can find sustainable careers that are a pathway to the middle class.

We hope to build on this success, working with the Change to Win Labor Federation to pass policy, at a municipal, state and federal level, that creates incentives for green construction projects that build union careers for urban residents who have too often found themselves falling through the growing gap between low and high-wage work in our economy.