Collective Bargaining to Community Benefits: Leveraging Organized Labor to Advance an Equitable Clean Energy Transition

This research aims to bridge the gap in understanding how community benefits in the clean energy transition can expand opportunities for workers and communities of color, particularly within the context of Community Benefits Programs (CBP) with a focus on the role of organized labor. The federal climate legislation such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Reform Act (IRA) are expected to propel the growth of the clean energy sector and it is imperative to ensure that the impact on job creation and wealth-building opportunities are equitably distributed to historically disadvantaged communities. This paper aims to analyze the position of organized labor within the federal framework for addressing equity in energy transition and its potential to bolster labor-climate movements. Positioned in the discourse on the political economy of energy transition and organized labor's historical role in advancing or impeding environmental justice and racial equity goals, this research examines traditional tools of labor and new directions posed by the community benefits movement. The research conducts s a comparative case study using qualitative data to analyze key stakeholder priorities, labor-community engagement, and enforcement mechanisms of CBAs within the auto manufacturing sector from Los Angeles, CA, and Detroit, MI. Findings suggest that organized labor possesses significant leverage in negotiating community benefits but lacks influence in shaping the overall infrastructure for implementation and enforcement. The paper recommends that federal guidelines of the CBP or other funding conditionalities could help fill this gap for coordination, resource allocation needed to shape the legal, political, and civic infrastructure to guide community benefits negotiations, implementation, and enforcement.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Oh, Sung Eun Sally

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Knox-Hayes, Janelle

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/156127

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/156127