Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance, Jason Walsh, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss his previous work with labor and the White House. Walsh also discussed the need for union jobs in the green energy transition and taking advantage of the targeted industrial policies coming out of Washington D.C.
After graduating from college, Walsh began working with SEIU as an organizer. Later, Walsh would move on to do a “bunch of coalition work” before finding himself at the BlueGreen Alliance (BGA) as Policy Director in 2010. He then moved on to work in the Department of Energy and the White House under President Barack Obama in 2012 until the end of the term in 2017. Walsh would return to the BGA in 2019 as Executive Director, where he has become one of the 500 most influential people in Washington D.C., according to Washingtonian.com.
As BGA works to provide good jobs for labor in the green energy transition, they continue to advocate for pro-labor policy to encourage these jobs go to union workers. Walsh discussed the job opportunities that are being added in the emerging industries. A majority of the jobs being created in the new industries will be accessible by workers without a four-year college degree, Walsh said. Providing a pathway to these workers who have been victims of poor policy and ensuring they receive union protections is the goal of the Alliance.
More work has been created with targeted industrial policies, like the CHIPS Act, Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, under the current administration. Ensuring these policies and investments are not wasted is important for Walsh and the BGA. Unions should be the most important part of successfully implementing the targeted policies. Now the goal is to showcase Labor’s ability to train, develop and retain good quality workers so the public can see the importance of unions.
For more information from Walsh and the BlueGreen Alliance’s work, listen to the show above.