Iowa Blue Green Alliance formed to fight for climate and jobs

A new alliance has formed in Iowa to tackle two of the most urgent issues of our time — the climate crisis and the need for quality, living wage jobs to sustain our communities. The Iowa Blue Green Alliance is bringing together labor and environmental organizations who reject the notion that we have to choose between good jobs and environmental protection and insist that we can and must do both.

Workers have been hit hard by the increase in severe weather events in our state, from the floods in the Western Iowa to last summer’s derecho. Families living paycheck to paycheck have the least capacity to rebuild as our climate becomes increasingly unstable. Meanwhile, an estimated 1 in 5 Iowa workers did not earn enough in 2019 to meet their basic needs. Fully half the jobs in our state do not pay enough for a single parent to make ends meet. Violations of safety and wage payment rights are becoming rampant.

There are already positive examples we can learn from, in which Iowa workers are building a renewable energy future with living wages, health and retirement benefits, proper training and safety, and equity. Workers in Iowa’s building trades unions recently worked with contractors to safely decommission and remediate a coal plant in Clinton and install solar panels on buildings at the Quad Cities airport — these jobs were done safely, on-time, with agreements that respected their workers. Union Steelworkers are manufacturing lightweight aluminum in the Quad Cities for more energy efficient air travel and vehicles like the Ford F-150. They are also building electric vehicle parts at a manufacturing facility in Keokuk with negotiated raises, health, and retirement benefits and a voice in their working conditions.

Unfortunately, we have also seen some renewable energy projects that have taken the low-road with their workers — cutting corners with safety, using temporary agencies and fly-by-night out of state contractors rather than local workers, and paying substandard wages. This approach is harmful and inconsistent with our shared values. This is not the way to build a better Iowa.

As organizations who support a rapid, just transition to a clean energy economy and infrastructure, we are joining together to fight to make sure project developers, state and local officials, and all stakeholders adopt labor practices that make Iowa’s clean energy jobs good jobs. Good jobs employ local workers first, invest in training, pay fair and transparent wages, and prioritize safety and workers’ rights. Good jobs that value the dignity of every worker.

We are already seeing results. NextEra Energy has signaled its commitment to build its Palo solar project using responsible contractors who employ local workers under agreements that honor area labor standards. That is the kind of win-win project that invests in our community and our renewable energy future.

As we create the clean energy economy, it is imperative to put working people front and center — to create and sustain jobs that value our work, our families, our communities, and our environment.

Katie Rock is the Iowa Campaign Representative based in Des Moines for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal, a national campaign to retire the U.S. coal fleet by 2030. Bill Gerhard is the President of the Iowa State Building and Construction Trades Council and is a member of Laborers Local 43 in Cedar Rapids.