POLITICO
Biden squeezed between promises to go green and bolster unions
Dems are cranking out bills filled with carrots for developers of zero-emission infrastructure, but with pro-labor strings attached.
While both sides are eager to push clean energy projects forward, their disagreements will test President Joe Biden’s vow to be both the greenest and the most pro-union president in history. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda is in danger of being engulfed in a fight between organized labor and industry over unionization, wages and other workplace issues.
As the renewable energy industry expands, unions and their allies in Congress are determined to unionize more of the jobs or, at the very least, require the payment of union-equivalent wages. But the industry says such moves would cripple some of their operations.
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February 19, 2021 7:30 pm
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – Since ABC6 first reported last month on discrepancies in pension payments to hundreds of union members in Rhode Island, a retired worker has come forward saying that if the state doesn’t pay him and others what they believe they are owed, there could be a lawsuit.
“They took a lot of money away from us,” the member, who wants to remain anonymous, told ABC6. He is a retired state worker with more than 30 years on the job. He says he’s missing 12 years of wages.
He says after months of back and forth with the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) and the RI Department of Administration, a settlement was offered to members for 9 years of lost wages.
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Why Biden’s New Dawn of Net-Zero Is Looking Like a Dark Day for Labor
Last Labor Day, candidate Joe Biden made an impassioned pitch to leaders and members of the AFL-CIO, America’s largest labor federation. Stressing that “the great American middle class was built by unions,” he jabbed his finger in the air for emphasis as he promised, “I’m going to be the strongest labor president you have ever had,” drawing a smile from his longtime ally and friend, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
But Biden has also declared climate change the nation’s greatest challenge and is supporting strategies that could cost struggling union members hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs that will not be easily replaced. From interviews with labor leaders, RealClearInvestigations has found that President Biden may be hard-pressed to balance the competing demands of these two core constituencies unions and environmentalists. How he addresses those tensions will shape his much-anticipate