ECONOMY-US: Green Jobs Should Be Black and Brown Too

[Guest guest]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49260

 

ECONOMY-US: " Green " Jobs Should Be Black and Brown Too

By Haider Rizvi

 

NEW YORK, Nov 13 (IPS) - The Barack Obama administration's drive to promote a

" green " economy is not working in the interest of poor people in the United

States, especially those who belong to minority communities, according to a new

study by a leading think tank.

 

" The communities of colour are hardest hit [by joblessness], " said Terry

Keleher, who co-authored the report, " Green Equity Toolkit: Standards and

strategies for advancing race, gender and economic equality in the green

economy " .

 

" They can benefit from the emerging green economy. But that is not happening, "

he told IPS.

 

The report, released this week by the Oakland, California-based Applied Research

Center, says that a vast majority of green jobs are being filled by white men,

even though there is no scarcity of talent among people of colour and women of

all ethnicities.

 

According to Keleher's findings, which he concluded in collaboration with his

colleague Yvonne Liu, African Americans and Latinos comprise less than 30

percent of those employed in green industries and economies.

 

" Gender disparities are even starker, " said Liu, who found that African American

women are employed in only 1.5 percent of the energy sector workforce. The

numbers are even worse as far as Asian and Latino women are concerned. Their

share in jobs stands at 1.0 and 0.7 percent, respectively.

 

The term " green economy " refers to businesses that care about environmental

protection, energy efficiency, preservation of biodiversity, community

self-reliance, and sustainable development.

 

Soon after taking office in the White House last January, President Obama

declared that his administration was determined to boost green businesses across

the nation, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs throughout the country.

 

Last February, the Obama administration earmarked 200 billion dollars of the

787-million-dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for creating green

jobs programmes.

 

Keleher and Liu decided to investigate whether those 200 billion dollars have

made a difference in the lives of poor U.S. citizens, and found it a harder task

than they had anticipated.

 

" Tracking funds from the Recovery Act has proven to be difficult, because there

is no centralised, authoritative source of where the money is going to and what

it's being used for, " Liu told IPS.

 

The act does not require recipients to stipulate race and gender in their data.

 

However, the report's authors said their findings regarding recovery allocations

by race, gender and class are " troubling " . A sample of their analysis shows that

the funds are not reaching those hardest hit by the recession.

 

The report mentions several cases where both the authorities and recipients

seemed to lack concern for compliance with U.S. anti-discrimination laws. In

Florida, for example, African Americans received only about two percent of the

total contracts. Latinos got six percent, and women received less than two

percent.

 

Amid the lingering economic recession, the U.S. unemployment rate has jumped

over to more than 10 percent. On Thursday, President Obama publicly acknowledged

that unemployment has continued to climb despite relative economic growth in the

past three months.

 

" The economic growth that we've seen has not yet led to the job growth that we

desperately need, " Obama said. " This is one of the great challenges. " He has

invited corporate officials, economists and labour leaders to take part in an

upcoming summit on job creation.

 

According to the U.S. Labour Department, currently, nearly 16 million people are

unemployed. The centre's research shows that a vast majority are people of

minority communities.

 

One recent study by the Economic Policy Institute shows that with regard to

poverty rates this year, Latinos and Asians have shown marked increases by 1.6

and 1.4 percent. Last year, about one-third of all Black and Latino children

lived in poverty. Millions of single mothers are also suffering from joblessness

and hardship.

 

Both Keleher and Liu argue that the Obama administration should continue its

quest for economic recovery and the efforts to promote a green economy. But,

they insist that such efforts are not likely to produce positive results if

millions of jobless people from minority communities are not offered equal

opportunities.

 

The authors prepared a comprehensive guide for policymakers, labour leaders and

community activists to work together to help the new administration devise a

more equitable policy on job creation in green industries.

 

They hold that green jobs must be well-paid and contribute directly to

preserving or enhancing environmental quality. " If a job improves the

environment, but doesn't provide a family supporting wage or career ladder to

move low-income workers into higher-skill occupations, it's not a green-collar

job, " said Liu.

 

She notes with concern that many green companies are behaving the same as

traditional firms whose profit is mainly derived from low labour costs. " The

hourly wage for a green job can be as low as 8.25 dollars [per hour], " said Liu,

" which what one Los Angeles recycling centre pays its workers. "

 

Keleher thinks that this situation can be overcome if policymakers, labour

leaders, and community activists decide to work in unison to create sustainable

and equitable models for economic development, employment and the environment.

 

" We believe that race and gender equity would not happen by chance, " he told

IPS. " It requires continuous attention and concrete actions. "