Grist For The Mills

A new alliance between The Sierra Club and the United Steel Workers might hold some actual promise of potential mutual accomplishment, provided they can hold together. But this seems to be one example of an alliance that mght extend beyond the board rooms, and trickle down into the rank and file membership, with little dissent.

The Sierra Club, for it’s part, agrees to support increases in wages and benefits packages for workers, while the Steel Workers agrees to support the development and advancement of clean technologies, on the grounds that in the long run this will actually lead to inceased efficency and new and more jobs, and better jobs. Of course, this would undoubtedly be good for the environemnt.

The Sierra Club also agrees to support the Steel Workers in promoting Fair Trade, as oppossed ot the Free Trade fiasco that has been so harmful to the livelihoods of union workers across America.

Amazingly, one of the first good things George W. Bush did as president, on the domestic front, was to impose tariffs on foreign steel, which was being dumped here in America at prices American companies could not hope to compete with. The tariff evened out the playing field. True, some American businesses were hurt by the move, as they were in some cases paying a higher price for steel than had been the case under the old new system. This provided a pretext for him to end the tariffs, but of course the true reason, the only reason, was that the World Trade Organization declared Bush’s steel tariffs to be illegal. And frankly, he needed the WTO, in other areas, and so could not afford to alienate them any more than he already had.

Therefore, the United Steel Workers, though given an all too brief reprieve, ended up royally screwed. But at least they got a little kiss.

Now, with the Sierra Club, they have hopefully met their true soul mates. I will try to be hopeful, at least. We will see what they produce in the long term. Weddings and honeymoons, after all, are incidental pleasantries to the main fucntion of a marriage. In most cases, the children of a union are a more accurrate reflection of the two partners that produce them.

A link to Grist Magazine, where you can read the original article and other cool environemntal articles, can be found in the post title.