Mass. workers will benefit from green jobs grant

Globe Staff

Massachusetts workers in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Plymouth counties will benefit from a nearly $5 million federal grant to the Utility Workers Union of America that aims to provide safety, technical, and green skills training to displaced workers, older youth, under-employed workers, and disadvantaged adults, the US Department of Labor said today.

That grant will also benefit workers in California and New Jersey.

All told, the department said it was announcing nearly $100 million in green jobs training grants nationwide; the grants are authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which is commonly referred to as the Recovery Act.

Roughly $13.4 million of that total is being allocated to green jobs training grants that will help benefit New England workers, a department spokesman said.

"Today’s announcement is part of the administration’s long-term commitment to fostering both immediate economic revitalization and a clean energy future," Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis (right) said in a statement. "It’s an investment that will help American workers succeed while doing good."

To read a Department of Labor press release on the $100 million in national grants, please click here.

(The photo of Solis that accompanies this post was taken by AP photographer Stephen Chernin.)