Lake City, Tenn. (Wednesday, April 7) – Members of Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) will provide an insider-view of green jobs in Tennessee during the SOCM Green-Collar Jobs Tour, April 13 – 29. The tour will include stops at select green businesses during the important month of Earth Day, and in light of the tremendous loss of traditional jobs in Tennessee and Appalachia.
 

The tour will respond to an overabundance of displaced jobs in the state. Within the last 30 years, one-third of jobs in traditional manufacturing companies have been lost, based on a Tennessee Department of Labor Market Report released in February 2010.

 

As Tennessee communities adapt under the weight of job loss, SOCM’s Green-Collar Jobs Committee works to help them transition using green-collar economy solutions. The Committee believes that “green?collar jobs are family?supporting jobs with workers’ rights, which strengthen communities and provide pathways out of poverty and an equitable, sustainable clean energy economy.”

 

“This (jobs tour) will give us a better feel for where we can be most effective,” said Franz Raetzer, an engineer on the Green-Collar Jobs Committee, who hopes to learn about skills, equipment, training, and incentives involved in a variety of green-collar jobs during the event.

 

The tour will begin Tuesday, April 13th in Knoxville, Tenn., kicking off with an opportunity to explore a wind farm that generates energy and provides local jobs. Other facility tours will include Sustainable Futures; the Tennessee Technology Center in Pulaski, which includes a solar training program; and Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC manufacturing facility, which received the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for a tire plant in the world, and this year’s Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Educator of the Year Award.

 

“It’s all about linking the training with the jobs,” says committee member, Rev. Danny Gibbs, a former employee of General Motors in Spring Hill, which now hosts an extension program from the Technology Center for laid-off workers.

 

The event will conclude with the West Tennessee tour, including stops at Sharp Electronics Corporation’s solar panel manufacturing plant, and GrowMemphis, a community-owned garden program.

 

For more details about the tour or to register online, please visit www.socm.org. The $20 cost of the tour includes a SOCM membership. The online registration form can be accessed directly by visiting http://www.socm.org/index.cfm/z/1/pageID/74.


Green-Collar Jobs Tours Information:

 

East Tennessee Tour
Contact:
Registration deadline - April 8th
Tour Date: April 13
Schedule for tour visits:
Oliver Springs, TN
Buffalo Mountain Wind Energy Center - www.invenergyllc.com/projects/buffalo_mountain.html
Knoxville, TN
Sustainable Futures - http://sustainablefuture.biz/

 

Middle Tennessee Tour
Contact: amy@socm.org
Registration deadline - April 15th
Tour Date: April 26
Scheduled for tour visits:
Pulaski, TN
Pulaski Technical Center (training for solar) - www.ttcpulaski.edu/
Bridgestone (LEED certified plant with Steelworkers union) - http://demos.icomstec.com/bridgestone/run/

                                                        

West Tennessee Tour 
Contact: amy@socm.org
Registration deadline - April 15
Tour Date: April 29
Scheduled for tour visits:
Memphis, TN
Sharp Electronics (solar panel production) - http://www.sharpusa.com/SolarElectricity.aspx

GrowMemphis (Memphis Community Gardens) - http://www.midsouthpeace.org/GrowMemphis/Home.html

 
 
 
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