Green Locomotive Project

“I want to thank you all so much for waging the fight,” Congresswoman Lee told the crowd. “We know that companies like Wabtec are never going to move unless we the people move them. We are sending a message to Wabtec and every other company & corporation in western PA that Pittsburgh is a union town. We're going to let them know how strong our movement really is — this is how we're going to win the green jobs of the future.”

Over the past month and a half, UE members from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California have spoken out in favor of proposed new Environmental Protection Agency rules on locomotive emissions. The new rules would improve air quality for rail yard workers, including hundreds of UE members who work as rail crew drivers, and the working-class communities surrounding rail yards. They would also help create good, union jobs.

On April 27 and 28, UE representatives participated in a Green Worker Organizing conference in New York City. The event, which was sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung–New York Office, brought together leaders from unions, worker centers, and climate justice groups to discuss the need to organize unorganized workers as part of addressing climate change.

A new study, conducted by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, details the thousands of new, high-quality jobs that can be created through the manufacture of “green locomotives” at Wabtec’s Lawrence Park facility in Erie.

The study estimates the number of new jobs that would be created in the plant at between 2,600 and 4,300. In addition to direct jobs in the plant, the increased production would add between three and five thousand new jobs in Erie County due to increased demand for goods and services. The total employment impact throughout the U.S. would be between 9,860 and 14,960 jobs.