Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment Educational Project
Portland, Oregon

Multi-Program Grant - $50,000

Program Contributions:
$40,000 - Environment Program
$10,000 - Interprogram

Models for Labor/Environmental Cooperation

The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment Educational Project (ASJE) is a labor-environmental network with the mission to build a world where "nature is protected, the worker is respected, and unrestrained corporate power is rejected" through grassroots education, organization, and action. By working together, the labor and environmental movements can more effectively pursue common demands for accountability from both corporations and government. This project will demonstrate three strategies for such cooperation: 1) development of a labor-environmental coalition to create new jobs in environmental restoration in California and the Pacific Northwest, and to shift public investment toward that work; 2) building "blue-green" support for environmentally and socially responsible climate change and energy policies through education of community labor and environmental leaders nationwide, and; 3) bringing labor unions and environmentalists together to pursue mutual opportunities for campaigns to remedy corporate abuses.

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
Washington, DC

Multi-Program Grant - $100,000
Program Contributions:
$85,000 - Environment Program
$15,000 - Interprogram

Good Jobs First

Good Jobs First, a project of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, unites traditionally unconnected constituencies to remedy problems with state and local development-subsidy programs that lack accountability safeguards. Such groups include environmental groups, tax and budget groups, state action coalitions, living wage campaigns, labor unions, smart growth advocates, and community organizing networks. Good Jobs First's work on bringing organized labor into the smart growth debate has great potential to repair strained relations between unions and the environmental movement. Good Jobs First will continue to conduct research and provide information and training to environmental, community, and union leaders, public policy makers and media sources about the harmful environmental consequences of sprawl development on communities and the local economy. Studies showing how smart growth can benefit the environment and unions and about corporate responsibility to provide living wages and health care to workers of subsidized businesses will be released and used for training and workshops. The long-term strategy is to strengthen and grow the diverse base of organizations that are concerned with wasteful subsidies and sprawl development that lead to environmental degradation and economic injustice, and to empower the organizations to take action for reform.