Electric bus manufacturer BYD Jobs to Move America’s coalition in California have renewed their community benefits agreement, reaffirming BYD’s commitment to creating pathways into good manufacturing jobs for underrepresented and underserved populations.
"We must fight for an economy that works for all working people. Because there can be no economic justice without racial justice," writes JMA board member Tanya Wallace-Gobern.
Kate Aronoff on why our wonky California legislative fight is a test of whether green jobs will be good jobs, too.
The measures would require mass transit systems to purchase zero-emissions buses by 2029 and encourage them to enter into "best value" contracting framework to build the infrastructure to support the transit system.
The plan has widespread support among environmental advocates, transit advocates, and labor unions throughout the state.
The legislation also cites that other major cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago have put forward similar commitments in the development of new employment “that created hundreds of high-quality, unionized jobs.”
A pair of bills from Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and State Senator Timothy Kennedy would mandate public bus systems convert to zero-emission buses and would incentivize electric buses to be manufactured in New York’s high-need communities.
States and localities will need the full range of tools to recover economically. That calls for federal policies that tap infrastructure-building’s power to boost local jobs and small-business growth, writes national program director Christy Veeder.
In Los Angeles, transparency proved to be important for an economic development deal and contract between the city’s transit authority and a bus manufacturer. But it took a court battle to reveal the details to the public.
Our research shows how divesting from policing could build clean transit systems in Black neighborhoods and create thousands of good jobs in the process.
