The United Steelworkers of America and members of the Sierra Club in Northeastern Minnesota are forging a relationship aimed at improving safety and health and creating jobs.
"There's always been a contentious relationship between the Steelworkers and the Sierra Club," said Jerry Fallos, USWA associate member coordinator in Eveleth. "Most of the Steelworkers think that the environmental groups want to shut down the mines. But we're saying that we can create good-paying jobs if we work together."
Last week, USWA and Sierra Club members held private meetings in Eveleth, Hibbing and Tower to talk about how the two groups can work together.
The late Sen. Paul Wellstone and outgoing USWA District 11 Director Dave Foster had the idea of starting a USWA-Sierra Club Northstar Chapter coalition, Fallos said.
The Northeastern Minnesota partnership is part of a nationwide Blue/Green Alliance between organized labor and environmentalists that started about 18 months ago.
Common interests of both groups include Northeastern Minnesota mining projects such as Mesabi Nugget and PolyMet Mining Co.'s proposed base and precious metals mine, taconite plant expansions, environmental protection, and promoting an increase inrenewable-energy sources across the state, Fallos said.
The alliance plans to lobby the 2006 Legislature to develop statewide renewable-energy projects using wind or water power, which would create hundreds of good-paying jobs, he said.
Steelworkers and Sierra Club members also are forming a committee to look at a proposal by U.S. Steel's Minntac Mine to discharge millions of gallons of water from its tailing basin, Fallos said.
"In the past, they've been working on these issues by themselves," Fallos said. "We (Steelworkers) have sometimes been viewed as beer-drinking, bearded and big-bellied.
"But we're environmentalists, too. We all want to be able to eat the fish we catch and have our grandchildren able to eat them, too. If we're there, maybe we can come up with a game plan on how to succeed."
Clyde Hanson of Lutsen, a Sierra Club spokesman and co-chairman of its Mining Without Harm campaign, says Steelworkers and environmentalists have common ground.
"Steelworkers helped get lead listed as a pollutant and worked for the Clean Air Act," Hanson said. "Actually, I think they've been pretty green folks.
"The common ground is that we both breathe the same air and eat and drink the same food," he said. "We may not agree on every issue about recreation, but we have a lot in common with people who work in these places and hunt and fish."
Representatives of U.S. Steel and Cleveland-Cliffs declined to comment Thursday on the Steelworkers-Sierra Club partnership.
A Feb. 11 forum at the Hibbing Memorial Building -- to be led by explorer Will Steger -- will focus on requiring 20 percent of the state's energy to be renewable. Members of other unions are invited to attend.
USWA and Sierra Club leaders plan to hold public meetings in the coming months to share concerns, discuss ideas and plan for the Iron Range's future.
Fallos said the two groups probably won't agree on every issue. But working together on common issues gives them more strength than working alone, he said.
"It's going to take a while for it to work," Fallos said. "It's going to take time for Steelworkers to trust them and for the Sierra Club to trust us."Duluth News Tribune
