One thing you should remember is that the Sierra Club and other conservation and environmental organizations have been advertising in hunting and fishing magazines forever. So the groundwork for this was done a long time ago.
The Steelworkers have been trying to clean up the steel industry since the late 1940's. I mean after all who should be more concerned about the environment that the people who have to work in it! It also makes good economic sense to use or find a use for the captured byproducts of a process. As the plumbers say, it maybe shit to you, but, its bread and butter to me. So, you will find that Steelworkers are willing to push pollution control to the limilt of existing technology.
I'm looking forward to meeting Dave Foster sometime, if we have met I don't recall it.
Tom Lehman
Doug Henwood wrote:
> [Very interesting. Anyone know more about this?]
>
> Wall Street Journal - October 4, 1999
>
> Unions, Environmentalists Unite To Pressure for Jobs, Resources
>
> By JIM CARLTON
> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
>
> SAN FRANCISCO -- Labor unions and environmentalists are set Monday to
> announce an unusual alliance aimed at pressuring corporations whose
> practices they believe jeopardize U.S. jobs and threaten natural
> resources.
>
> The newly formed Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
> consists of about 400 members of large unions such as the United
> Steelworkers and Teamsters and environmental groups including Earth
> First and the American Lands Alliance. The nonprofit organization,
> based in Eureka, Calif., is being run by representatives from both
> groups.
>
> Another 120 environmental groups and about 100 unions have endorsed
> the alliance, according to organizers, who say they could potentially
> mobilize thousands of members for demonstrations and write-in
> campaigns.
>
> "In a very simple way, you exponentially increase your numbers," said
> Karen Pickett, a member of the alliance's steering committee and an
> Earth First organizer in Berkeley, Calif.
>
> The alliance is planning its first show of force at next month's
> scheduled gathering of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, which
> has been targeted by protesters who object to trade policies
> world-wide. Organizers also intend to conduct "corporate
> accountability campaigns" against several multinational companies
> they say have poor records of dealing with both workers and the
> environment.
>
> "They have accumulated so much power that no one government can
> effectively control them, which is why we've gotten together," said
> Dave Foster, a United Steelworkers director in Minneapolis who is
> co-chairing the alliance.
>
> The alliance plans to use many of the same tactics employed by
> members of a group who protested against practices by Maxxam Inc., a
> Houston conglomerate controlled by financier Charles Hurwitz. Maxxam
> has been under attack by environmental groups for logging of ancient
> redwoods by its Pacific Lumber unit, and by Steelworkers locked out
> of plants in a labor dispute with Kaiser Aluminum Corp., which is
> about 63%-owned by Maxxam. Steelworkers have attended forest
> protests, while environmentalists have joined anti-Kaiser rallies.
>
> "This is an extraordinary marriage of convenience between two groups
> whose interests are not aligned," said Maxxam spokesman Josh Reiss.
>
> Other industry executives also question how well environmentalists
> and labor unions will be able to work together, given their past
> clashes on such emotional issues as logging of ancient trees in the
> Pacific Northwest. Indeed, while the two sides have cooperated in
> fights against specific corporations, they haven't engaged in such
> far-sweeping activity before.