ICYMI: Acting Secretary Su champions workforce development partnerships, addresses future climate leaders in North Carolina visit

WASHINGTON – Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su traveled to North Carolina for two events on Sept. 24, 2024, to promote the U.S. Department of Labor’s Good Jobs Principles, cement public and private sector partnerships that will build equitable workforce pipelines statewide and reaffirm the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to create a generation of good-paying jobs while addressing the climate crisis. 

In Charlotte, Acting Secretary Su joined local elected officials, union and community leaders, and workforce providers to announce their commitment to adopt and implement the department’s Good Jobs Principles. The city’s building trades and community-based organizations announced the formation of the Charlotte Regional Apprenticeship Collaboration to strengthen efforts in greater Charlotte to develop pipelines of diverse and equitable apprenticeships.

“Through President Biden and Vice President Harris’s Investing in America agenda, we have made significant progress in delivering good jobs and economic security to communities across the country,” said Acting Secretary Su. “Here in North Carolina, that means $10.3 billion of investments in safe roads and bridges, clean air and water, and renewable energy. With today's announcement - and through partnerships of those in this room - we are going to make sure that every single cent of that $10.3 billion supports good-paying North Carolina jobs.”

In Cherokee, Acting Secretary Su toured the Oconaluftee Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center, part of the American Climate Corps. The ACC initiative seeks to train the next generation of clean energy, conservation and climate resilience workers and put them on a path to good-paying union jobs. During the visit, Acting Secretary Su formally “swore in” participants as American Climate Corps members. 

“When we take this oath, it’s a commitment that you are making not just to yourself, not just to the climate, but also to each other, a community of people who are going to be accountable to one another to put their talent, their hunger, their drive and the skills they learn here to good work,” Acting Secretary Su told participants. “…Your generation made this issue so critical that legislators could not ignore it, and your generation is going to be the one that shows us what’s possible and shows us a new way.”