SEIU Endorses Green New Deal

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—Saying “we only have 12 years to accomplish the massive shifts necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” the SEIU’s International Executive Board passed a resolution supporting the Green New Deal June 6. The resolution said it would combine the “urgent action” needed to avert catastrophe with a strong commitment to creating union jobs. “The Green New Deal makes unions central to accomplishing the ambitious goal of an environmentally responsible and economically just society,” SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry said in a statement. The SEIU is the first nationwide union to endorse the Green New Deal. Its resolution emphasized that if the conversion to a clean economy eliminates jobs in the energy sectors and industries that rely on fossil fuel, the workers affected should get “access to good union jobs, training, and advancement” and “guaranteed pensions and a bridge of wage support and health care” until they “find comparable employment or reach retirement.” “It is extremely important that we take steps toward ending climate change before it’s too late,” said SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West member Charissa Fitzgerald, a certified nursing assistant from California whose home was destroyed in last November’s massive Camp Fire. Read more