Unions Positioning Themselves to be Recipients of Green Jobs
In the AFL-CIO’s own words:
“As part of the AFL-CIO union movement’s commitment to fighting for green jobs, President John Sweeney and other union leaders today announced a major program to help working Americans prepare for the next generation of jobs by creating a Center for Green Jobs.”
Translation: Unions are positioning themselves to receive a windfall of money should Congress pass cap-and-trade or other climate/environmental regulations.
Democratic post-jobs summit logic has suggested that creating green jobs will pull us out of a recession and into a new era of prosperity. Unfortunately, such rhetoric is largely unfounded. In the near future, the only way government favored green jobs will ever be “viable” is if other carbon based (cheaper) jobs are taxed. However, this distinction is artificial and cannot exist without government subsidies. For more information, click here to read ATR’s newest release.
Unions, models of inefficiency, are kept in business only by there their cartel-like tactics used to keep competitors out of businesses and the generous federal subsidies they receive in the form of project labor agreements. Mandating green jobs creates a new opportunity for Democratic sops to unions.
An example:
A proposed “cash-for-caulkers” program, where houses will have to meet certain energy requirements (heat storing efficiency, etc), is “one of the top things we’re looking at,” said White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel. If project labor agreements and the Davis-Bacon law is any indication of how government contracts will play out, it is likely that the federal government will hire union workers to perform house checks and necessary installations.
Unions will be first in line to receive government contracts, as they usually are. It makes sense really, just as union jobs are unsustainable without government assistance so too are green jobs.
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