Manchin backs labor organizing legislation
WASHINGTON — As progressive Democrats in Congress planned to reintroduce the Green New Deal resolution, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., joined the head of the mine workers’ union on Monday to call for federal funding for fossil fuel technology like carbon capture, slammed proposals for a carbon tax, and said efforts to ensure a “just transition” to renewable energy ring hollow to many Appalachian coal miners.
But Mr. Manchin — the key vote in a 50/50 divided U.S. Senate — gave his fellow congressional Democrats a big lift in another way: He announced he would co-sponsor legislation that worker advocates consider the biggest expansion of labor organizing rights in more than 80 years.
Mr. Manchin, during a virtual conversation with the National Press Club in Washington, said the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, was key to “level the playing field” for workers seeking to organize, particularly in emerging tech-driven and clean energy fields.
The bill, passed by the House in March, would classify independent contractors as employees, prevent employers from permanently replacing striking workers and impose financial penalties on employers that interfere with organizing efforts.
The bill also would eliminate right- to- work laws passed by more than two dozen states to allow privatesector workers to opt out of paying dues. A Supreme Court ruling in June 2018 allowed public-sector workers in all states to stop paying dues.
The House voted to pass it last month by a 225-206 vote, with just five House Republicans members supporting it and one Democrat voting against it. Last year, House Democrats passed the same bill, and it died in the Senate, then controlled by Republicans.
Mr. Manchin discussed his support for unions, in particular those laboring in coal and natural gas, in the context of the debate over the future of fossil fuels as Congress considers a $2.2 trillion infrastructure plan. President Joe Biden unveiled the proposal near Pittsburgh last month, pressing for a transition to clean energy and electric vehicles, among other priorities.
“While the [coal] industry has been in a steady downturn in job opportunities, maintaining those good-paying jobs as we reduce emissions is both possible, and it’s our responsibility,” the senator said.
Mr. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he would continue to push for federal research dollars into carbon capture technologies that would not only preserve fossil fuels in the U.S. but also export to countries that are building new coal plants today.
He noted that 667 new coal-fired plants are being constructed today around the world, with 5,286 coalfired power plants operating currently. Just a few hundred coal plants are being operated in the U.S., with none under construction, according to federal data.
“If you think that you can stick your head in the sand and say, ‘I’m going to eliminate all fossil [fuels], all coalfired plants, shut them down and clean up the environment’ — you better start looking around at what’s happening in the world,” he said.
Policymakers instead should be focused on preserving the livelihood of those who spent generations working in fossil fuels. About 7,000 coal miners lost their jobs in 2020, said Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America, and some 40,000 miners had been laid off in the past decade or so.
Mr. Roberts, a fellow West Virginian, joined Mr. Manchin in opposing a carbon tax that proponents say would provide the financial incentive for the electric utility industry to speed up its transition to clean-burning fuels.
Mr. Roberts said the union believed such a tax would put an end to carbon capture research altogether.
“What the carbon tax would do is place a heavy penalty on fossil fuels, which would make coal, and perhaps even natural gas, completely uncompetitive,” Mr. Roberts said. “So we would never get to the advancement of the technology that’s needed worldwide for carbon capture and sequestration to allow the utilization of these fuels around the world and help deal with this climate situation.”
Mr. Manchin said the tax would be ineffective in spurring new technologies and would be used by fossil fuel opponents as “a way to eliminate and transition” industry jobs.
Mr. Manchin reiterated his support for region-specific tax credits for clean manufacturing developments, including renewable energy like wind and solar, that would require job creation in regions hardest hit by the decline of coal.
Policies favored by both men have run counter to many tenets of the Green New Deal, which is expected to be reintroduced Tuesday by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-N.Y. The nonbinding resolution, as first introduced in 2019, calls for sweeping public investment in renewable energy so the country relies on 100% zeroemission energy sources in the next decade.
Mr. Roberts said he would press all lawmakers to ensure his members are protected in the infrastructure bill. He pointed to Congress’ approval of a backstop for the UMWA pension plan that suffered from a wave of coal company bankruptcies and layoffs that resulted in fewer miners paying into the fund.
“We need to provide a future for those people, a future for anybody who loses their jobs as a result of the transition in this country,” Mr. Roberts said.
“We talk about a ‘just transition’ all the time — I wish people would quit using that,” he added. “There’s never been a just transition in the history of the United States, and that’s sad. The transition you get is down at the courthouse and whatever you can get out of bankruptcy, and it’s generally nothing.”