350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

This battle is not only being fought in Washington, D.C. States have become a prime battleground, and in many states, the struggles for climate protection and worker protection have come together in powerful–and successful–coalitions. You can read below about the state of Illinois’ just passed Climate and Equitable Jobs Act—recognized as “the most pro-worker, pro-climate legislation” in recent years. And you can read about the legislative impact of similar successful labor-climate coalitions in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Texas. These state struggles are building a powerful movement that will add momentum to national campaigns; state programs demonstrate that climate, jobs, and justice can go hand in hand.

Transportation is the largest economic sector for greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. The transition from fossil fuels to climate-safe transportation is an enormous task–and one that many unions are now embracing. United Auto Workers President Ray Curry says the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles opens up the opportunity for “sustainable communities, jobs, and environment.” Two recent webinars from the Labor Network for Sustainability explore how some cities are encouraging expansion of public transit by making it free and how automation of freight transportation will affect workers and public health.

And then there’s heat. Public Citizen recently issued a statement responding to the Biden administration’s efforts to address heat stress for workers, which you can learn more about below. But what else can we do for workers facing the risk of heat stress and other occupational health and safety issues on the job? Find out below in a guest piece by Suzi Nord, who talks about the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s upcoming “COSHCON2021.”

As Todd Vachon of Rutgers Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) recently wrote, “Preventing the most catastrophic consequences of climate change” is going to take “nothing less than a massive movement the likes of which the world has never seen.” But “this movement can simultaneously address many of the lingering social and economic injustices that are so inherently tied up in the struggle for climate protection.”

And what does all of this mean for young workers, whose future lies in the hands of decisions made today on climate and just transition? We’ve got a listening project for that. Read below to find out the latest progress of the Young Worker Listening Project and how you can engage young workers in your unions and workers organizations in this important collaborative process.

In mid-September Illinois passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act—a law to move the state to 100% clean energy by 2050 while creating thousands of new clean energy jobs. The legislation is the product of a multi-year effort and months of negotiations between the environmental/climate/faith/environmental justice-based Clean Energy Jobs Coalition, the renewable developers’ Path to 100 Coalition, and the newly formed labor coalition Climate Jobs Illinois. According to Climate Jobs Illinois, the law “sets the strongest clean energy labor standards in the country” and “promises to raise the bar for other states seeking to enact new labor and employment policies for building and maintaining clean energy developments.”

According to Labor Network for Sustainability Senior Organizer Mike Cavanaugh, “What happened in Illinois is the result of years of deep organizing work, hard conversations, real compromises and a collective commitment to responsibly addressing climate, jobs and equity. There’s a lot to learn from the Illinois experience–and a lot on the line to ensure that everyone is held accountable for successful implementation of this ambitious bill.”

In an article by Michael Sainato published in The Real News, Pat Devaney, secretary-treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, said, “We have a lot of jobs in the energy sector and particularly in fossil fuel generation, so for us to come forward with a proactive plan [for transitioning] from fossil generation to clean energy, I think, really says a lot about labor’s commitment to combating climate change.” Retweet this »

Climate Jobs Illinois says the bill will create thousands of new clean-energy union jobs, expand union apprenticeships for Black and Latinx communities, increase energy efficiency for public schools and safeguard thousands of union workers at the state’s nuclear plants.

The Climate Jobs Illinois executive committee includes Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers Union, the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) State Council, IBEW Local 134, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, Laborers International Union of North America Great Lakes Region, Laborers International Union of North America Midwest Region, Service Employees International Union State Council and United Auto Workers Region 4.

Sources

• The Real News, “Labor and Environmentalist Movements Team Up and Win Big in Illinois”
• “Climate Jobs Illinois Applauds Senate Passage of Clean Energy Legislation to Create Thousands of Union Jobs, put State on Path to be 100% Carbon Free by 2045”
• Chicago SunTimes, “Illinois now boasts the ‘most equitable’ climate law in America. What will that mean?”
• Jacobin, “Illinois Just Won a Big Green Jobs Victory”
• Full Text: Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (SB2408)

At its 2021 Convention, the Vermont AFL-CIO passed a resolution which, in addition to calling for federal legislation to advance the goals of the Green New Deal, called for Vermont to realize its own “union-led Green New Deal.” It would include “new investments in infrastructure, investments in renewable energy production, mandating of prevailing wages and union labor on all public projects (including the building of schools), increased spending on social services, more resources put towards affordable housing, a $15 an hour livable wage for all workers, single payer healthcare, free college tuition for all, affordable childcare for all, meaningful support for struggling family farms, additional public investments in the arts, passage of “card check,” and introducing a constitutional amendment establishing a town meeting based referendum system of government.”

Read the resolution »

The action, sponsored by Build Back Fossil Free and endorsed by the Labor Network for Sustainability, is at the invitation of Indigenous and other frontline groups who write,

From fracking sites and oil wells, to pipelines and refineries, to plastic plants and more, we are impacted Indigenous, Brown, Black, and low-income communities living on the frontlines of this climate emergency.

If we don’t stand together now, no matter where we live, all of us—you, your children and grandchildren will all eventually live in sacrifice zones of drought, record temperatures, wildland fires, hurricanes, floods, food shortages, pandemics and more. Transitioning away from fossil fuels cannot be put off any longer—we can either come together as a species now, or make this planet uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.

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In a Labor Day Op-Ed Ray Curry, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), describes the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles as an opportunity to create “sustainable communities, jobs and environment.”

He added:

This is a necessary shift, and one our union supports. Auto workers—like all Americans—want a country and a world where our children and communities can thrive. Electric vehicles are one of the critical ways to achieve that.

This transition can benefit the environment, workers, and our communities alike. Too often, those interests are pitted against each other by corporations which are ultimately guided by their need for profit. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We all benefit when the jobs that will be created with new technologies are safe and family sustaining, where workers have a voice on the job and a contract that they bargain.

We stand with others who are fighting for a vision of the future where people are put before profits. Where we work towards a zero-emission economy that doesn’t exploit workers in new jobs or dispose of workers in old ones.

Read the entire Op-Ed, published by The Hill, “Celebrating workers, unions, and an opportunity for a sustainable future.”

How can free fares for public transit impact equity and access issue in cities around the country? What are some of the challenges and lessons to be learned when introducing legislation to a city or local board? Watch this special panel on “Transit Organizing for Free Fares”—the second meeting in the Transit Equity Network’s series on “Building Powerful Coalitions for Transit Equity.”

Having taken place on Sept. 17, 2021, this discussion was facilitated by Labor Network for Sustainability Transit Equity Organizer Bakari Height and featuring Christopher Ramirez, co-founder andexecutive director of Together4Brothers in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Martin Barna, director of planning and marketing for Alexandria Transit Company (DASH); and Supervisor Dean Preston of San Francisco.

Watch it here.

Special thank you to our speakers Joel Ervice, Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP); Martha Ockenfels-Martinez, Human Impact Partners (HIP); Angelo Logan, Moving Forward Network (MFN); and Vivian Malauulu, International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Local 13 Registered Longshore Worker and Benefits Officer.

The Labor Network for Sustainability is grateful to MFN, RAMP, and HIP for their inspiring work and enlightening presentations on report findings and recommendations–a perspective and analysis that starts with people first. We heard communities and workers are on the frontlines of transition and must be at the table for decisions about automation. Vivian Malauulu reminded us, “robots don’t pay taxes,” and we learned to watch for claims that it’s either clean air or good jobs, false arguments that divide workers and communities.

Making the case that there is a path to zero emissions without displacing workers, Angelo Logan underscored that we have an opportunity and call to action to use this report as a tool for communities and workers to come together in collaboration as we transition to a climate safe world. Watch the full webinar here. If you would like to reach out to the speakers, please contact Judy Asman at judy@labor4sustainability.org.

According to Public Citizen, which has long campaigned for worker protection against excessive heat,

Climate change due to global greenhouse gas pollution is dramatically increasing this workplace hazard.

Black and Brown communities, especially farmworkers, are disproportionately subjected to work in extreme heat, resulting in more heat stress illnesses, injuries and death

The Biden administration initiative will include a national emphasis program for heat inspections targeting key industries, greater employer education and enforcement actions, better heat illness reporting data, identifying and addressing disproportionate heat impacts, home energy assistance and community cooling stations.

Read Public Citizen’s statement: “Biden’s National Heat Stress Standard is Welcomed and Desperately Needed.”

Workers who attend COSHCON gain crucial skills and contacts for organizing to build power on the job. Participants are inspired by speakers such as Sara Nelson and Dr. Linda Rae Murray and can hear directly from essential workers about topics such as successful COVID protection campaigns or how the fight for climate justice is a labor-justice issue.

National COSH brings together experts in workplace safety AND long-time organizers so that participants learn the crucial facts about workplace illnesses and injuries but also what workers’ specific rights are in the workplace and how to exert those rights to create the change needed to make workplaces healthier while protecting the planet. We hope to see you there.

Preventing the most catastrophic consequences of climate change is dependent upon our ability to coordinate our efforts, reconstruct our patterns of action, and challenge the powerful few that are driving and profiting from the unfolding crisis. It is going to take nothing less than a massive movement the likes of which the world has never seen—but whose underlying dynamics are revealed in scores of movements analyzed in Common Preservation. If done properly, this movement can simultaneously address many of the lingering social and economic injustices that are so inherently tied up in the struggle for climate protection. This volume helps us understand how such a movement might come to be and at the same time urges us to actively participate in its development.

For the good of all of us. For our common preservation. Read. Discuss. Act. And together we just might “save the humans.”

• “From Mutual Destruction to Common Preservation” White Paper by Todd E. Vachon
• Interview with Jeremy Brecher by Michael Albert discussing Common Preservation in a Time of Mutual Destruction

Have you taken the survey or have you passed it on to young workers you know? If not, share it now!

Jennifer currently serves on the board of Plug-in America, the Advisory Council of the Business Ethics Network and is a former board member of Dogwood Alliance. She holds a B.A. and a B.L.A. from Ball State University.