Building Trades News

Hillary Clinton speaks to the hundreds of community and IBEW members on the growing influence of organized labor in California

Primary election season kicked off in Southern California at IBEW Local 11’s Electrical Training Institute in the City of Commerce on Jan. 11. Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton spoke to hundreds of community members including IBEW members. Joining Sen. Clinton at the event was LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, both of whom have endorsed Clinton. Clinton’s campaign stop at the ETI speaks to the growing political influence of organized labor, particularly in California. Labor’s ability to turn out its members to support pro-la bor candidates is making elected officials stand up and take notice.

Marvin Kropke, Business Manager for IBEW Local 11, welcomed Senator Clinton and the hundreds of guests to the Electrical Training Institute. “On behalf of approximately 400 contractors and over 8,000 members here, we wish you a fraternal welcome to the house of labor,” said Kropke. "You are in one of the most advanced state-of-the-art training facilities in the world. We built this facility with green in mind and we generate our own electricity—but more importantly we build green jobs,” he said, referring to Local 11 extensive program training IBEW members in the installation of photovoltaic systems. “They’re middle-class jobs.”

In her speech, Clinton addressed criticized Bush administration economic policies and their negative impact on working people. "We have an economy that’s not working for most Americans,” said Clinton. "The average American family has lost over $1,000 in income on the last 7 years, health care premiums have doubled and energy costs have gone up $2,000 since George Bush became president.” As part of her plan to address the countries growing economic crisis, Senator Clinton pledged to jumpstart green collar job growth across the United States.

The idea of green-collar jobs is something that folks are just beginning to appreciate. I teamed with one of my fellow senators a few months ago and we passed legislation that put federal dollars into training people for green collar jobs. I want to accelerate that money to come to places like [the ETI] to train more people. These renewable energy jobs are the kind of jobs that cannot be outsourced.”  She also pledged to immediately implement a green building-fund to renovate public buildings such as schools, municipal building and police stations to make them more energy efficient. She also promised to sign an Executive Order requiring new building construction to be more energy efficient and to require existing government buildings to begin programs to increase their energy efficiency. “People will be put to work installing solar panels like the ones on display here,” she added.