If you want to know what the future of the union movement will look like, talk with George Calko.

Calko, in his late 20s, is part of a generation that's already shaping the movement—and one of the movement's trailblazers. A member of the Steelworkers (USW), he is an organizer in his home state of Ohio for the Blue-Green Alliance, a vibrant two-year-old partnership between the USW ("blue" as in blue collar) and the Sierra Club ("green" as in the environment).

Labor and environmentalism? In Calko's view, the connection between the two make perfect sense. He's heard the old myth that industrial workers and environmentalists are destined to butt heads—even Newsweek speculated at first that the USW and Sierra Club were "strange bedfellows"— but Calko disagrees. He observes, "We're going to have green jobs, or we'll have no jobs at all. And we want clean cities and a healthy environment to raise our children."

That's the whole point of the Alliance. The organization focuses on three key issues: (1) global warming/clean energy, (2) fair trade and (3) reducing toxic chemicals in the environment, including in manufacturing processes. For example, the Alliance is raising public awareness of the enormous potential for creating green jobs—some 23,000 new manufacturing jobs in the renewable energy field in Ohio alone, according to one estimate.

The Alliance is pushing to reform trade agreements so they include binding standards for workers' rights and environmental protection. Fair trade has long been a focus of the union movement to preserve well-paying jobs in the United States. And as Calko points out, it's logical for environmentalists to be just as involved.

"Smoke doesn't stop at the border, pollution doesn't stop at the border," he says. "If we don't clean up at a global level, we're in big trouble. That's where trade policies come into play for environmentalists."

As a member of a three-person team that includes representatives from the Alliance and the Sierra Club, Calko travels throughout Ohio spreading the word about the goals of the Alliance through education and public outreach, largely to union members and environmentalists.

"When you can reach someone and see in their eyes that they understand," he says, "you know they'll go out and make a difference. You make a believer out of them."

If Calko is part of the union movement's next generation, he's also the kind of guy who represents its best traditions. He grew up in a union family—his mom was a member of the Electronic Workers (now IUE/CWA), and his dad and grandfather were members of the Steelworkers—so he learned early what unions are all about.

Calko became a steelworker at WCI's mill in Warren, Ohio, when he was 21. As an operating technician there, he explains, "I take liquid iron and turn it into liquid steel."

A few years later, he became active in USW Local 1375. His union sisters and brothers have elected him to the local's executive board. It's an honor, but it certainly hasn't been an easy job. Ohio has been hard hit by deindustrialization, and the local union's members have been navigating through many challenges—from a top-to-bottom modernization of the plant to a new team-based work system and even the bankruptcy of the plant's owner.

His experience on the local union's executive board impressed on Calko the importance of remaking the economy and creating stable, environmentally friendly union jobs along the lines of the Blue-Green vision. "If we do this right, we could be standing at the edge of the next great movement, like a new Industrial Revolution," he says.

He's convinced the USW and the rest of the union movement belong at the center of it, working closely with environmentalist allies. He's eager to be part of it.

"It's a very deep-seated thing with me," Calko notes. "The USW is a wonderful organization. This work with the Blue-Green Alliance has been the best experience of my life. We're doing a heck of a lot of good."