Weatherization
A SmArt InveStment
Reduce eneRgy Bills
Weatherization saves the average homeowner $350 a year on energy bills. The
cost of weatherization more than pays for itself by reducing energy bills and through
the community benefits of job creation.
Help OuR enviROnment
Buildings contribute 40% of U.S. global warming pollution and account for 70%
of electricity use. Weatherizing 100 million homes means the equivalent of 500
million fewer barrels of imported oil.
A Historic Investment to
CreAte JobS
Residential weatherization represents a new American industry that
will reduce energy bills and help our environment while creating good
jobs that working families desperately need.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act invested $5 billion to expand the
Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program. This investment is a
major step towards meeting President Obama’s goal of weatherizing one million
homes a year and is a ten-fold increase over previous investments.
A lOt Of wORk tO dO
There are 100 million energy inefficient homes in need of weatherization. Of those,
38 million homes are eligible for federal weatherization assistance.
A lOt Of peOple wHO need wORk
The construction industry continues to experience depression level unemployment.
Weatherizing 100 million homes will create more than 500,000 construction jobs
and hundreds of thousands more jobs in manufacturing and related activities.
CASe Study
LIunA Local 55 Changes Lives
with training and Career Paths
liunA lOcAl 55, a newly chartered local in New Jersey, created a
pilot program to provide weatherization training for local unemployed residents.
The program ensured that green jobs were also good jobs: trainees earned
accreditation, were paid family supporting wages and received health benefits.
A crew of 21 workers from the program performed energy audits, sealed air leaks
with caulking, applied weather stripping around doors, wrapped pipes and hot
water heaters and applied fiberglass insulation in 30 Newark homes. Homeowners
whose houses were weatherized saw an immediate reduction in their energy bills.
Local 55 will train an additional 350 unemployed workers by the end of this
year and their weatherization program serves as a model for LIUNA’s nationwide
weatherization efforts.
tHe LIunA dIfferenCe
LIunA’s breakthrough nationwide
Weatherization training Program
A commitment to weatherizing 1 million homes each year will require thousands of
well trained, highly skilled workers.
With nationwide training centers and new courses in weatherization and green
construction, LIUNA is the only organization that can recruit and train the workers on
the scale needed to meet demand.
LIUNA’s breakthrough weatherization training program provides workers with
credentials to become: • Technician/Installers
• Weatherization Supervisors
• Energy Auditors
Weatherization workers can continue in LIUNA’s training programs to learn new skills
and open doors to opportunities across the construction industry.
making Green Jobs
Good JobS
Investments in weatherization will create a new generation of green jobs—
but we need to make sure green jobs are also good jobs.
weAtHeRizing JOBs ARe gOOd JOBs if tHey:
• Pay a living wage that can support a family
• Provide healthcare benefits and retirement security
• Offer high quality training and skill development
• Allow workers to organize and collectively bargain
• Hire workers from local communities
• Open doors to career paths and new opportunities
WeAtHerIze!
By sealing leaks in windows and vents, weather stripping doors,
wrapping pipes and water heaters and insulating roofs and attics,
workers trained through LIUNA’s breakthrough weatherization
program reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, make homes
more energy efficient and lower utility bills.
fighting for our families and our Country
Weatherization Videos
LIUNA’s Weatherization Training
Weatherize!!
LIUNA Local 55 – Newark Pilot Program
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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FACT SHEET
LIUNA Weatherizes America
Weatherization Creates Jobs
LIUNA is using a breakthrough program to create family-supporting job and career opportunities for
unemployed workers. This is one of the most ambitious green jobs efforts being undertaken anywhere.
LIUNA wants to scale an American weatherization industry that could retrofit thousands of poorly insulated
homes in our area every year and create a steady stream of family-supporting jobs for years to come.
LIUNA’s weatherization program could train up to 10,000 nationwide in its first three years.
It’s estimated that there are 100 million poorly insulated homes in America - 38 million homes are
eligible for federal weatherization assistance.
An effort to weatherize 100 million inefficient homes will create more than 500,000 construction
jobs and hundreds of thousands more jobs in manufacturing and related activities.
Weatherization Saves People Money
The LIUNA weatherization program will save families hundreds of dollars per year – money they could
spend to stimulate the economy instead of on wasted energy.
A family that weatherizes its home to make it more energy efficient can save $350 per year - money
that would otherwise be paid to the local utility company for wasted energy.
LIUNA’s goal is to reduce the energy bills for millions of families nationwide over the next 10
years.
Weatherization is Good for America
Weatherization will enable us to import less energy from foreign sources that are often controlled by
dictators who are hostile to American interests.
America can import the equivalent of 5 fewer barrels of oil per year for every home weatherized.
If we weatherized 100 million homes, we would save the energy equivalent of more than 500 million
barrels of oil each year.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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FACT SHEET
LIUNA’s Weatherization Training Program
LIUNA has designed a breakthrough national program to train local workers to do skilled
weatherization work on millions of poorly insulated U.S. homes – and to do the work
right the first time.
This program will create pathways to new careers, especially for low-income people.
LIUNA wants to scale a viable American weatherization industry that will retrofit
millions of poorly insulated homes and create a steady stream of family-supporting jobs
for years to come.
LIUNA’s five-week weatherization training program uses experienced instructors who
provide trainees with a broad set of weatherization and construction skills. The
weatherization work is detailed, involving much more than just putting plastic over
windows.
All LIUNA weatherization installers are trained to meet safety and quality standards and
must complete an OSHA 10-hour safety-training course.
LIUNA’s standardized national weatherization model exceeds the Department of
Energy’s weatherization assistance program standards.
LIUNA’s training programs and instructors are accredited by one of the largest
international accrediting bodies.
LIUNA has one of the largest industry training networks in the nation, with worker
training centers in virtually every state.
LIUNA works with community partners to identify motivated weatherization training
candidates, implement a rigorous screening process, and support trainees though a
challenging and rewarding training program.
LIUNA provides workers with credentials as Technician/Installers, Weatherization
Supervisors and Energy Auditors, and it offers workers a network of future employment
connections.
Green for All (www.greenforall.org) and Good Jobs First (www.goodjobsfirst.org) have
highlighted LIUNA’s weatherization model as an example of weatherization work done
right.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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LIUNA’s Green Skills: Building America so America Works
LIUNA is uniquely positioned to help build the energy systems, transportation systems and green
buildings of tomorrow. With its green skills training, LIUNA is helping to transform our country’s energy
systems and reduce negative environmental impacts.
A green economy is about both a healthier world and creating good family-supporting jobs to put
people back to work. LIUNA is ready.
LIUNA provides the best adult continuing education system in the world with training in a variety
of skills, including green construction – and it’s free.
Many skills required for green construction are not new – for example, building concrete pads for
wind farms or rail for mass transit. Other skills – such as identifying reusable materials on
construction sites or aspects of weatherizing homes – are part of new LIUNA training programs.
Weatherizing homes, which account for 22 percent of America’s energy consumption, can free us
from millions of barrels of foreign oil and create tens of thousands of jobs.
LIUNA trains workers in weatherization that substantially reduces a building’s energy use,
putting people back to work in their communities and equipping them with skills for the future.
Every million homes weatherized supports 78,000 jobs and saves 3 million barrels of oil. The
U.S. Department of Energy estimates a $1.53 return for each $1 invested in weatherization.
Due to neglect, transportation systems are in urgent need. Modernizing our transportation systems will
save energy, reduce carbon emissions and put men and women back to work.
Americans waste nearly 4 billion hours and hundreds of millions of dollars in gas a year due to
decaying and over-crowded roadways and transit systems.
Fixing our transportation systems would create more than a million jobs – for every $1 billion
invested in transportation, federal officials estimate 34,800 jobs are supported. According to the
American Society of Civil Engineers, existing highways are shortchanged by $30 billion every
year and existing transit systems by $8 billion a year.
LIUNA members are already at work building renewable energy systems. Stepping up construction of
wind and solar power, and modernizing our electrical grid, would dramatically reduce carbon
emissions and put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work.
Building wind power is not new to LIUNA. Since 2003, LIUNA has been working with
contractors in 17 states to help build wind farms. In addition, LIUNA members are prepared to
build solar farms and help modernize our inefficient and outdated electrical grid.
For every $1 billion invested in these green projects, 20,000 jobs are created, according to the
Center for American Progress.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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Remarks of Terence M. O’Sullivan,
General President of LIUNA
Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference
February 5, 2009
It is truly a privilege to speak to this conference today. It is always an honor to share a stage with Rich
Trumka of the AFL-CIO, a true friend and warrior on behalf of working people everywhere and a real
honor as well to follow Margie Alt of Environment America.
Brothers and sisters of the Steelworkers Union, of the Service Employees International Union, of the
Communications Workers of America, of the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council
we are proud to join you today as an active, progressive, aggressive and militant member of the Blue
Green Alliance.
Because we’re new to the Blue Green Alliance it’s only fair that we introduce ourselves so you know
what you’re getting into and so you know who we are what we do what we stand for and what we fight
for.
We are a half-million men and women who build America. We build highways and transit systems,
wind farms and sewer systems, we remove hazardous waste, asbestos and lead to make buildings safe
where our children live and where you work.
And like you we are genuinely concerned about our environment and deeply committed to creating good
jobs.
Our members fight for better pay to support their families … they fight for health care … our members
fight for more jobs so they and millions of workers like them can share the wealth of our nation …we
fight for retirement security so there is dignity after decades of construction work that wears away at the
human body.
We fight for respect and let me tell you one more thing … we fought like hell to end eight years of
worker repression by electing Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States … and there was no
bigger party, no bigger celebration on election night than at the Laborers International Union of North
America.
Today our country is standing at one of the most significant moments in our history, a time of crisis and
opportunity. For environmentalists and for trade unionists there is hope like never before in our
lifetimes.
As we move forward together our unity will never be shattered as long as we remember two things: One,
it does no good to care for the Earth, if we don’t care for the people on it. And two, if it doesn’t put
green in working people’s pockets it’s not a green collar job … if it doesn’t enlarge and strengthen the
middle class, it’s not a green collar job.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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Remarks of Terence M. O’Sullivan,
General President of LIUNA
Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference
February 5, 2009
For too long we have allowed some corporations to hold a gun to our heads and demand that we chose
jobs, or chose the Earth.
It’s a false choice and today we have the power to push that gun aside -- the time of the Blue Green
Alliance is now.
We also won’t be trapped into other false choices. We don’t have to chose between highways or rail
because we need both … we won’t draw false lines between fix it or build it … because we have to do
both.
Today across America, the backbone of our country is in decay and it is costing us lives, making us less
competitive and destroying our environment. Our wastewater systems contain so many cracks and leaks
that billions of gallons of sewage seeps into waterways every year. Our highways are so traffic-clogged
that the typical motorist wasted nearly $1,000 last year in gas and emitted millions of pounds of carbon
into the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, our transit systems are stretched beyond limits, with usage increasing 25 percent since the
1990s while investment falls short by half.
We share a dream to build America so America works through an economy in which every worker who
builds green can afford a hybrid car, and every worker who is struggling to keep their house warm can
join the struggle against global warming.
We are making progress. Members of our union have developed a cooperative and profitable
relationship with one of the most successful real estate developers in the northwest,
Gerding Edlen Development Company. Gerding Edlen builds green, pays union wages and makes a
profit.
Yesterday you heard about Gamesa Corporation and their positive relationship with the United
Steelworkers.
But despite progress, other workers building components for non-union solar and wind power
corporations do not earn enough to support their families, even though their employers receive millions
of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.
A survey of major wind and solar manufacturing plants contained in a report LIUNA and others
commissioned showed that more than a fourth of those employers did not pay enough to support a
family of two.
A wind blade manufacturer in Iowa took over a shut down appliance factory where workers had made
$19 an hour. They were given $2 million in state taxpayer money, and then paid workers $5 an hour
less, moving them from family-supporting pay to just barely making it.
That’s not the promise of a green economy that the Obama Administration and all of us envision.
Under the President’s economic recovery proposal, we are on the verge of dramatically increasing
funding for residential weatherization, providing $6.1 billion to weatherize 2 million homes.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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Remarks of Terence M. O’Sullivan,
General President of LIUNA
Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference
February 5, 2009
The 78,000 men and women who would do the work must have a living wage, they must have health
care benefits and they must have skills training to create a career path.
The foundation LIUNA has put in place over the last century can be the foundation that efficiently and
effectively helps build the green economy. We have more than 60 training centers, available in every
state, providing both basic construction and environmental skills crucial to green construction.
We are working with elected officials and with community groups such as “Green for All” to develop
additional environmental coursework and to address local hiring needs to make sure new opportunities
exist for those who have been shut out in the past.
Our training program is one of the best adult continuing education programs in the world – and it is free
to workers. In just the past year, 100,000 LIUNA members received construction and environmental
skills training to meet the needs of contractors and open the door to future opportunities for our
members.
The partnership in this room will insist on the federal investment that is needed – and we will make sure
that taxpayer subsidies help create good jobs, with prevailing wages and living wages that don’t drive
communities further down.
The fact is the vast majority of green jobs for the foreseeable future will not be created by businesses
alone, but rather through partnerships between business and government in the form of subsidies,
incentives or outright contracts. All of these businesses will owe their success to workers and taxpayers.
To safeguard workers and our economy, we must fight for, win and enforce basic standards.
Wherever taxpayer dollars are used, whether as subsidies, incentives or direct contracts on green
construction projects, payment of federal prevailing wages must be required to ensure that transforming
our economy to a green economy doesn’t drive down local community living standards.
Bad corporate behavior must not be rewarded with taxpayer money.
Contractors who thrive on low-ball bids based on cutting labor costs to the bone should no longer
automatically receive work.
Responsible contractor clauses and best value contracting policies -- covering both employers and
investors -- must be put in place to ensure that contractors who bid for work disclose their safety
records, training opportunities and benefits policy, and whether they respect the freedom of their
employees to join a union.
On that note, we are grateful that you have joined us to fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice
Act to help workers freely choose to make every job a good union job.
We may have elected Barack Obama president, but our fight isn’t over. The last two weeks is proof of
that as Republicans try to throw up roadblocks to every effort to get our economy moving again with a
recovery bill to create good jobs.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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Remarks of Terence M. O’Sullivan,
General President of LIUNA
Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference
February 5, 2009
Investing in working people is too much for them. These are the same people who for eight years
couldn’t find Osama Bin Laden, couldn’t find weapons of mass destruction and now can’t find half of
the $700 billion they tossed to Wall Street.
Brothers and sisters, they will fight us every inch of the way.
As I look out into the faces in this crowd, I see the heart and soul of the union movement and the
environmental movement, warriors for change, liberators of working people. We never back up and we
never back down – no retreat and no surrender, you are the spark that lights the fire of a worker
revolution and an environmental revolution.
The Rev. Joseph Lowry, a great man, a leader and a great American, often asks, “What time it is” … it’s
time to get back to our activist roots, to replace Wall Street with Main Street, to put workers first, to
realize, with all due respect, that the most valuable asset in America isn’t corporate America, it’s
working people.
So as we continue our partnership to invest in green jobs and good jobs, let us stand together, let us stay
together, let us fight together and let us win together.
Let us change the course, the direction, the destiny of our movement, of our environment, of our country
and of our world.
###
The members of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the
construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build America.
To learn more about LIUNA’s Build America, so America Works - a long-term effort to make taking care of
America’s basics a national priority - go to www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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Statement of Terence M. O’Sullivan,
General President, Laborers’ International Union of North America,
Press Conference on Making Green Jobs Good Jobs
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
On behalf of LIUNA - the Laborers’ International Union of North America - a half-million men and women who
get up every morning to go to work building America, I’m honored to be here.
I want to thank the elected leaders, business leaders, environmental leaders and working people who are here
today or who have made it possible to prepare and release this important new report.
LIUNA is proud to join with the Teamsters Union, with Change to Win and the Sierra Club to release High Road
or Low Road -- Job Quality in the New Green Economy. This is a significant piece of new research which starkly
poses the choice our nation faces as we invest for the future.
We can seize the promise of the green economy, a future for our country and a future for our world based on
prosperity and a mutual shared interest. Or, as this report warns, we can ignore the potential pitfalls of a green
economy that purports to take care of the Earth – but neglects the people on it.
High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in the New Green Economy is a detailed and well-documented examination
of how a green economy can build America with good jobs that create wealth and protect the Earth and in fact, as
the report outlines, it is what many unions, businesses and environmental advocates are already doing.
But this report also shows how green jobs, if not true to their purpose, can drive down our economy, impoverish
families and put prosperity out of reach.
As a side note, it should come as no surprise that unions and advocates for the environment are united behind a
green economy that creates and defends family-supporting jobs. The time is long past when jobs can be used as a
sword of division between those who care about working families and those who care about the environment.
Too often in the past corporations told unions to choose between jobs and a clean environment.
Good jobs and good environmental practices are no longer a weapon to divide us; they are a bridge that unites us.
We are actively engaged with the Sierra Club and others such as the Blue Green Alliance and the Apollo Alliance.
LIUNA is a union whose members are already building green, by gearing up training programs for home
weatherization and retrofitting commercial buildings, by helping to build wind farms. Our skilled and trained
members work to remove asbestos and lead and by cleaning up hazardous waste.
We know green jobs don’t just help the planet, they can help working families live a middle-class life and attain
the American Dream. As this report shows, workers making minimum wage and worried about heating their
homes can’t be worried about global warming and won’t be buying hybrid cars.
Today you’ll hear from Pierritte Hopkins, who is a LIUNA member in Newark, New Jersey. Pierritte is ready,
willing and able to do the work of green construction – and she knows first-hand the difference between a family-
supporting job and a job that drives down living standards.
And in this new report, you’ll learn about truck drivers who service America’s ports and help the global economy
run. But because poverty wages prevent them from adequately maintaining their rigs, they are releasing excessive
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
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Statement of Terence M. O’Sullivan,
General President, Laborers’ International Union of North America,
Press Conference on Making Green Jobs Good Jobs
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
exhaust into the air and nearby communities. Those 90,000 truck drivers are struggling to join together with the
Teamsters Union, and when they succeed they’ll improve their jobs and the environment.
The bottom line is this: If it doesn’t put green in working people’s pockets, it is not a green collar job. If it
doesn’t enlarge and strengthen the middle class, it’s not a green collar job. If it doesn’t ensure workers get
respect, receive good benefits, and have the freedom to choose to join a union – it’s not a green collar job, it’s just
another job like those typical of the Bush era that have driven our economy, our country and the world to new
lows.
In this report, you will learn about the partnership with companies like Gamesa and Girding Edlen Development.
They’re companies that value their relationship with unions. They’re building the green economy with green
collar jobs – and making a fair profit.
You’ll learn about the solar and wind industry, but also about manufacturers, waste management companies and
other construction contractors – some of which prove the promise of a green economy, but too many of which are
simply unscrupulous employers taking advantage of working people just as they are taking advantage of the
environmental crisis.
We believe a green economy with real green collar jobs can help President Obama and our country get our
economy moving now – and keep it moving for generations to come.
But we will only succeed if we make sure that the people who build the green economy and keep it running have
jobs that allow them to fully participate in that economy.
The key is standards. For a green economy to succeed, for it to help build America so America works, it must put
green in our communities and in the pockets of working people.
Green jobs must:
Include training that opens the door to new any future opportunities
The must expand the use of project labor agreements so that projects are completed on time and within
budget, and that workers are receiving family-supporting pay.
They must include healthcare benefits so that green construction doesn’t make the health care crisis
worse.
It’s simple: As taxpayers invest in the green economy, our government is obligated to ensure that our investment
supports communities and families.
I want to introduce Pierriette Hopkins, the first member LIUNA Local 55, a new local union in the residential
construction industry in Newark, New Jersey. Ms. Hopkins was one of many LIUNA members who recently
completed a pilot project weatherizing homes in Newark.
###
The members of LIUNA – the Laborers’ International Union of North America – are on the forefront of the
construction industry, a powerhouse of workers who are proud to build America.
To learn more about LIUNA’s Build America, so America Works - a long-term effort to make taking care of
America’s basics a national priority - go to www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org.
905 16th Street NW | Washington, D.C. 20006 | 202-942-2246 | www.LiUNA.org | www.LiunaBuildsAmerica.org
| | | |