The term 'blue-green alliance' refers to efforts by labor and environmentalists to promote industry and standards that protect good-paying union jobs and a healthy environment.
Via UnionReview, I
came across this Slate article
on the fight to change the face of port trucking in
Southern
California. The attempt is really three-fold:
1. Unionize the drivers, improve their pay and working conditions (okay, you're
saying, no-brainer there)
2. Reclassify the employees from 'independent contractors' to employees of the
port authority. This is tricky and is one of the ways that companies deprive
employees to perform work for them from paying them benefits or granting them
security. FedEx is notorious for this, and you can read more about that here.
3. Upgrade the rickety, aging truck fleet from one of the most polluting
factors to SoCal's poor air quality to a modern, fuel-efficient model of
trucking.
So the power here lies in the fact that many port jobs are high paying union jobs, but the trucking portion of the industry is not only deregulated but also unorganized. Part of the fallout of that deregulation and lack of organization is the poor pay for drivers who haul the goods shipped in, but the other part has to do with the very low levels of environmental oversight at the ports. The ports are set to take a vote next month on whether to make these drivers employees or to keep them at their current status, which would leave the unions and greens with the option of fighting it out in the courts.
All in all, it's a pretty interesting story.