Mass. AFL-CIO Political Director Robert Bower Receives Community Labor United’s “Salt of the Earth” Award

Community Labor United's Annual "Salt of the Earth" Awards Ceremony and Fundraiser was held on Wednesday April 14. Emceeing the event was Amy Dean, former head of the South Bay (CA) Labor Council, founder of Working Partnerships USA, and co-author of A New New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement.

Bob Bower worked throughout the last year with CLU’s Green Justice Coalition to establish a home weatherization pilot program that will make money-saving home retrofits available for families in several low-income areas of the state, and create good union jobs for local workers who will perform the weatherization work. In addition to this work and his political work, Bower has worked tirelessly over the past decade in assisting dislocated workers, securing education and training for youth and adult worker programs, and fighting for many workforce development initiatives that benefit low and middle-income working families.

Other awards went to the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, Boston's trailblazing neighborhood organization; and Massachusetts Clean Water Action.

The mission of Community Labor United is to move strategic campaigns combining the joint power of community-based organizations and labor unions in order to protect and promote the interests of low and middle-income working families in the greater Boston area. The Green Justice Coalition was forged to bring home energy efficiency upgrades and quality jobs in this field to Boston's low-income communities.