Union Members Continue Cross-Country Tour to Urge Action on Clean Energy Jobs

PITTSBURGH, PA – A bus tour highlighting the potential to create good American jobs by passing comprehensive clean energy and climate change legislation in the U.S. Senate stopped in Pittsburgh today to urge Senators Specter and Casey to support action on comprehensive legislation that will create and save millions of American, clean energy jobs, including up to 78,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.

“With nearly 1 out of 10 Americans still out of work, we are here today to tell the Senate that the job is not done,” said United Steelworkers International Vice President Fred Redmond. “We can create good jobs across the country manufacturing clean energy technologies — and establish the United States as a global leader in the clean energy economy — by passing comprehensive legislation now.”

The Job’s Not Done tour is traveling to 17 states — with more than 30 stops along the way — and features clean energy workers, union members and environmentalists urging Senate action on important job-creating clean energy legislation. Workers on The Job’s Not Done Tour worry that China will take the millions of potential jobs that will result from the transition to a clean energy economy.

“Instead of importing clean energy technologies, we should develop and manufacture the technology to harness American energy here at home,” said Leon Weeks, a member of USW Local 5965 out of Freeport, Michigan. “We can’t afford to let other countries like China take the millions of jobs that could be created in America by transitioning to clean energy.”

The tour will continue to Scranton through Richmond, Virginia on September 3. For more information, visit www.bluegreenalliance.org.

“This tour is a reminder that millions of people are out of work, and clean energy is the best way to jumpstart the American economy. We need the Senate to get back to work and get the job done — for our families, the economy, our environment, and the future,” said Tom Hoffman of the Allegheny Sierra Group.