Climate Week NYC featured hundreds of events across the city on September 21st-28th. On Thursday evening, Senior Assistant Business Manager Chris Erikson Jr. represented Local 3, IBEW on a panel hosted by Cornell University’s Climate Jobs Institute to discuss their new report, “Key Interventions: How New York Can Still Achieve Its Climate, Jobs, and Equity Mandates,” and organized labor’s role in the just transition to a clean-energy economy. NYS Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, Climate Jobs NY Executive Director Esther Rosario, and Public Utility Law Project (PULP) Executive Director and General Counsel Laurie Wheelock, Esq., also participated on the panel moderated by Iris Packman, Senior Research & Policy Development Associate of the Climate Jobs Institute. Several representatives from the Joint Industry Board and Local 3 and rank-and-file members were in attendance.
Since the passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in 2019, New York State has largely met its goal for distributed solar but is way behind on its goals for offshore wind and energy storage. Researchers from the Climate Jobs Institute presented their findings and a Pro-Worker Clean Energy Agenda with ten actions that New York State can do immediately. Senior Assistant Business Manager Erikson Jr. made the case for employing highly-skilled union electricians on renewable-energy projects, as well as Project Labor Agreements, Registered Apprenticeship Programs, Global Wind Organization (GWO) training, workforce housing like Electchester, and pre-entry programs that help prepare the next generation for this line of work.
