Climate infrastructure must be rapidly built in the next 5 to 25 years to meet impending demands of decarbonization in the face of growing climate risks. With the new federal administration, the infusion of massive investments in the green economy is at risk, as well as the labor standards that helped make these investments a historic win for the working class. Yet despite the unclear future of pro-labor federal climate investments, the demand for climate solutions will continue to exist and grow. This panel discussion will examine the consequences of building out climate infrastructure with poor working conditions in the solar industry in New York and Texas, the opportunity to rectify these consequences and foster a pro-labor environment in emerging climate industries like thermal energy networks, and pathways to build the high-quality, equitable union workforce to meet this unprecedented moment.
Lessons learned from the growth of the solar industry: The number of solar job postings has more than tripled since 2010 (Curtis & Marinescu, 2023), however, recent findings from two studies supported by the Climate Jobs Institute in the last year have highlighted serious concerns around job quality, from potential legal concerns to severe racial disparities within each sample.
Applying these lessons and the case of thermal energy networks: Thermal energy networks are an emerging technology to reduce emissions from buildings at the block, neighborhood, or campus scale with the potential to utilize the existing unionized fossil fuel workforce. As thermal energy networks or TENs rapidly gained popularity across the U.S., their proliferation offers a chance to apply the lessons learned from the growth of the solar industry and instead create a truly just transition for organized labor and communities alike.
Ensuring the buildout of a just, equitable green economic future for the working class: Building out the needed infrastructure for a climate-safe economy will take millions of workers, but there is no guarantee that these workers will be highly-trained, well-paid, diverse, and treated with dignity on the job. Union-led programs around the country show what is possible when industry leaders and policymakers prioritize high-road job creation and investment in skill development. Successful models of pre-apprenticeship that specifically support expanding diversity in the trades provide a roadmap for how community, labor, government, and industry can work together to ensure an equitable transition.
Assistant Director of Labor Outreach and Workforce Equity, Climate Jobs Institute
Melissa began her labor career as a community organizer with the Laborers Eastern Region Organizing Fund (LIUNA), working to build multi-stakeholder community labor coalitions to ensure quality and labor standards in affordable housing. She was the Director of Organizing and Political... Read More →
Thursday April 3, 2025 4:45pm - 6:00pm EDT
Abromson Room 21388 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101
Jobs with Justice (JWJ) is a national network of local coalitions that are leading the fight for workers rights and an economy that works for all. Since the passing of the Bi-Partisian Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act, Jobs with Justice has strategically engaged in opportunities to increase worker power within these federal funds. Local coalitions in our network are anchoring various campaigns and projects with union and community partners to build worker power in the clean energy sectors, leveraging the labor provisions baked into these federal funds. The geographic areas of JWJ’s coalitions engaging in this work are not limited to but do include: East Tennessee, Central Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania and California. There is a wide scope of goals and focus in our networks campaign and project goals, including:
Increasing union density in construction, manufacturing and operations of these clean energy and decarbonization projects.
Increasing representation and retainment of people of color, non-binary individuals and women in the building trades.
Implementation and enforcement of Community Benefit Plans/Community Benefit Agreement provisions.
Ensuring that workers on the construction and operating sides of these projects have union neutrality, specifically in union hostile states in the regional South.
