Green Grads Hit the Ground Running

Adam Lynch

Laborers' International Union Local 145 President James Anderson shows reporters a small structure built by students participating in the union's weatherization training in October.

by Adam Lynch
November 4, 2009

Laborers' International Union Local 145 President James Anderson said at yesterday's graduation ceremony that he trained his students well before sending them out into the workforce. "We had 14 students. It was a three-week class. They actually built a little house out back, and put in the doors, windows and walls, and weatherized it all," Anderson told the Jackson Free Press.

The union joined forces with South Central Community Action Agency to train un-employed workers—dumped by the rotten economy—for new jobs earning them up to $15 an hour, thanks to the federal stimulus package

"All of these were adults. They were young males and females who had kids. Many of them were mothers, young folks who didn't know anything about building or weatherization, but we trained them so that now they can build a house and weatherize a house—and they went to work this morning," Anderson said, adding that every graduate has a two-year work contract.

After the two years are up, the employee's growing experience would likely facilitate continued employment in the growing green industry.

The money comes via a weatherization stimulus program enacted through the administration of President Barack Obama, which devised the program to weatherize houses and cut down on utility costs. The federal plan is part of a larger effort by the Obama administration to make the country more energy-efficient and create green jobs, which could ultimately lead to an expansion in the use of renewable energy, like wind and solar power, and the development of a nationwide "smart grid." Obama devoted nearly $60 billion of his federal economic stimulus package to building a new green-based economy rich in renewable energy and strategies to cut carbon. The month of July had yet to report the creation of a single green job, according to Newsweek. November brought a change to that. The federal program has arranged for similar training sessions in every state.

The federal government filtered the funding through the South Central Community Action Agency, which recruited the 14 students, and will recruit at least 30 more throughout the course of two more union-trained classes. Participating counties include Hinds, Rankin, Simpson and Madison.

"We actually had some college graduates in the program," Anderson said. "I guess their degree didn't do nothing for them, so they needed to adapt."