Labor and environmental interests have not always coincided [on the issue of green jobs]. Energy efficiency program consultants and directors have told Green Justice Coalition members that they can weatherize more homes by containing labor costs—in other words, holding down wages. A "low road" push based on such reasoning might have fractured the Green Justice Coalition's campaign. But CLU's careful coalition building helped to prevent this. "There was certainly a possibility for the utility companies to pick off certain of our environmental partners, to the detriment of what we were organizing around," says Clauson. "That didn't happen, because groups in the coalition, like Clean Water Action, were key bridges between the environmental sector and our community and labor partners. They really had a commitment to the broader focus of the campaign."

To successfully advocate for high-road jobs, CLU and its partners built relationships with public administrators sympathetic to their aims. Their efforts have reflected a third important element of regional power building: in cities where unions have embraced the strategy, labor flexes its political muscle in a new way. Central labor councils move away from merely supporting "lesser of two evils" candidates when elections come around and hoping that officials act in the movement's interest once elected. Rather, they use their influence to create allies within the system who can work with grassroots advocates on an ongoing basis.