Fault vs. Responsibility: Panel at CJI Conference Demands Accountability

"I was a little late [today] because I got into a car accident," said Justice Favor, joining the panel. "It wasn't my fault that the car accident happened because I got hit from behind, but it was still my responsibility to get here." 

The barriers marginalized communities face to good jobs may not be our fault. Still, it is our responsibility, and it readily became the responsibility of those gathered at the Climate Jobs Institute's (CJI) statewide conference in March. 

The Generating Equity conference in Albany, New York, featured panel discussions, breakout sessions, workshops and networking opportunities to explore pathways to union careers in clean energy. 

One breakout panel – Clean Energy Careers: Overcoming Barriers to Entry for Underserved Communities – brought together representatives from criminal justice initiatives, construction unions and disability workforce programs.

"When we talk about removing barriers, you have to come amongst the people as the people, you have to be able to speak their language – come where they at," said Favor, an organizer for Laborers' Local 79. "And don't assume that they know. There's a lot of things that I didn't know, there's a lot of things that I didn't understand."

"There is this information gap that I've heard throughout this entire conference, and that can be solved with technology," said Jodi Anderson Jr., director of technological innovation at Cornell ILR's Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI). "I think it's incumbent on us to get that educational curriculum and get it in the hands in front of the people who have been left out of the equation."

Anderson Jr.'s sense of responsibility means enabling incarcerated individuals access to education. Anderson Jr. recently spoke in front of the New York State Senate concerning the barriers to education behind bars and the slave-labor-style practices he faced while incarcerated. 

"One of the most disheartening things to me was when an individual came home from doing 30 years [in prison], and he didn't even know what a phone was or how to operate a phone," said Samantha Pugh, associate vice president of programs at The Fortune Society. "When we talk about those disparities for marginalized communities, digital inequity is one of them."

"I think you really opened up a whole space, Jodi, that I don't think about: the ways in which technology can train people up, especially for clean energy work," said Melissa Shetler, panel moderator and senior training and education associate at CJI. "What do we need to build out more so that folks don't get left behind?"

The panel laid bare that "the labor movement is a social justice movement," said Favor.

"Disability is 100% inseparable from every point in the talent pipeline and from every piece of the employment lifecycle," said Ellice Switzer, workplace disability inclusion associate at Cornell ILR's Yang-Tan Institute (YTI). 

Switzer has "forced her way into the room" for the past 30 years, taking responsibility for bettering the lives of people with disabilities and fighting for their inclusion in tomorrow's workforce. 

"Disability is a part of the human condition, and it's a part of workforce development initiatives. If you aren't talking about disability in whatever workforce initiative you're involved in, then you're missing a huge piece of the puzzle," said Switzer. 

The panelists uncovered the intersection of their respective responsibilities, "but what's the execution plan?" asked Pugh. "We can come to all these conferences, we can sit on these panels, we can make it look good…but are we serving the people? Are we making sure we're walking the talk we say we are?"

While Favor, Anderson Jr., Shetler, Pugh and Switzer step up and take responsibility, there are those we must hold accountable. 

"For folks to really have that [accountability]," said Favor, "you got to be able to expose people and call these charlatans out when they exist because there's a lot of folks that are frauds, there's a lot of organizations that are frauds, a lot of elected officials that are frauds that are really not trying to solve the real problem that's plaguing our people and our communities."

The anger is warranted. "There's a reason why there's an influx of reentry individuals entering the construction field. Does anybody have a guess why? No background check," said Favor. "Employers know this, the developers know this. This is coerced labor that's happening, and it's targeted. We had a gentleman that said he was in the halfway house after he got released from federal parole, and the non-union company that was exploiting them was at the halfway house, offering him a job."

Non-union jobs seldom provide the fair wages and longevity required to uplift marginalized communities, especially in the face of the climate crisis. In short, not all jobs are good jobs. 

"The labor union has made it its mission to commit to disenfranchised communities – folks that have not had opportunities to have a pathway into trades, into construction," said Favor. "I sit up here not as an anomaly but just an example, a testimony to many folks that look like me, that come from communities like me, that has historically been neglected."

"I did 10 years [in prison]," said Anderson Jr. "The only reason I was successful was because someone took a chance on me…You can change the world, one person at a time, because that person owes it to the next person."

Fault is past and gone. Responsibility and accountability are here and now in Anderson Jr., Favor, Shetler, Pugh and Switzer. If we look to the future, towards overcoming barriers and generating equity, then we must back those who step up.