“We are enthusiastically supporting Joe Biden for president,” said Bree Halverson, BlueGreen Alliance Regional Program Manager for Minnesota. “As the nation celebrates Labor Day, we believe Joe Biden has put forward ambitious and achievable plans to tackle the pressing issues facing workers in Minnesota—including the health and economic disaster caused by the coronavirus, the climate emergency, and the profound racial and economic inequities that the pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated. And he is ready to deliver for Minnesota.”

Leaders from the group cited Vice President Biden’s plans to provide relief to working Americans struggling from the economic chaos caused by the Covid-19 virus and put America’s economy back on a path to recovery; efforts to rebuild and retool America’s manufacturing sector and repair and modernize the nation’s infrastructure and create good-paying, union jobs; and his forward-thinking vision to tackle climate change at the scale science demands as reasons for choosing to endorse his candidacy.

“Workers and environmentalists are natural allies because we all want good jobs and healthy workplaces and communities,” said Bob Ryan, Rapid Response Coordinator for United Steelworkers (USW) District 11. “We are proud to stand with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We look forward to working together to build a future that ensures a clean, healthy environment, and good, union jobs for all of our workers in Minnesota.”

The group said Biden’s manufacturing, environmental justice, and sustainable infrastructure and clean energy plans align well with the BlueGreen Alliance’s Solidarity for Climate Action platform. The platform presents a plan to tackle the climate crisis and deliver an economic recovery for working people by retooling and rebuilding the American manufacturing sector and repairing and modernizing the nation’s infrastructure—creating good-paying jobs with benefits and access to training, addressing racial and income inequities, protecting the air we breathe and the water we drink, and ensuring health and safety on the job.

“Minnesotans value clean water and a healthy climate and communities for all—Black, white, urban, and rural. But Donald Trump continues to deny the climate crisis exists—putting us all at risk. Minnesotans need better. Joe Biden is proposing the most aggressive plan ever to tackle the crisis while creating millions of family-sustaining jobs,” said Mary Blitzer, Sierra Club North Star Chapter.  “We will continue working tirelessly in Minnesota to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Come be a voter with us.”