Community Partner Showcase- BlueGreen Alliance

"For those who aren’t familiar with us, the Blue Green Alliance is a partnership between some of the biggest labor unions and environmental organizations in the country that fight to combat climate change and does so in a way that creates good paying union jobs.

I’d like to start by saying that the Build Back Better agenda is a response to 2 big issues and is a plan with 2 major components. Build Back Better is a response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has put so much strain on people of all walks of life. And it is also is a response to the historic economic inequities that many urban, suburban, and rural communities face. The decline to domestic manufacturing and de-industrialization that is felt all across the country, but especially in rustbelt cities like Milwaukee.

 Through this piece of legislation, we have an opportunity to bounce back from the pandemic, put Americans back to work with opportunities that ensure upward economic mobility, and fight the impacts of climate change.

The first part of the Build Back Better agenda, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was an important first step. This will help us to begin to rebuild and modernize our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, with the largest federal investment in public transit, and clean water in history. Not to mention the notable investment in high-speed internet or environmental remediation that communities from Eau Claire to Milwaukee have been in need of for quite some time.

Now the second piece of the Build Back Better agenda, the Build Back Better Act, will be critical in putting America back on track to truly rebuilding our nation's economy. For example, the United States has lost 270,000 manufacturing jobs since February 2020.

The manufacturing and industrial investments included in the Build Back Better Act would support 1.27 million total jobs over 10 years nationwide. They would also create or sustain hundreds of thousands of long-term jobs at thousands of factories established, expanded, or retooled with federal support and more throughout the economy.

• Manufacturers account for more than 18.79% of total output in Wisconsin, employing 474,000 workers, or 15.89% of the state’s workforce.
• The BBB Act will add over 74,000 jobs over the next five years in Wisconsin. Jobs in manufacturing, Jobs in building and maintaining electric vehicle charging infrastructure and electric transit; jobs in solar and wind installation and maintenance; and jobs in supply chain manufacturing for clean energy products and technologies
• All of these good-paying union jobs that will stay in Wisconsin and cannot be outsourced. It’s a blueprint to a better economy and a better environment

As you have heard, Build Back Better is a jobs bill, and a jobs bill that will train the American workforce to combat climate change."

-Richard Diaz, Midwest Regional Field Organizer, BlueGreen Alliance

For more information on the BlueGreen Alliance and the important work they're doing, check out their website.