Pictured Above: Judy Sheridan Gonzalez, President, New York State Nurses Association, gives her remarks on Just Transition: Current Theories and Strategies.

by Todd Vachon, NE Convergence Steering Committee

On November 17, 2018 the Labor Network for Sustainability organized the Northeast Regional Labor Convergence on Climate Change. The convergence brought together over 90 labor leaders and allies from eight states across the northeast to discuss labor’s role in the urgently needed transition to a just and sustainable economy that both protects the climate as well as the lives and livelihoods of workers and frontline communities that are threatened by climate catastrophe. Co-sponsored by the Labor Education Action Research Network and the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the day-long intensive strategy session was convened at the Labor Education Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Attendees included nurses, carpenters, electrical workers, teachers, communication workers, transportation workers, postal workers, food service workers, public employees, and service industry workers from over 20 different unions.

Pictured above: Geographic breakout sessions provided a forum for deeper discussions on how labor can engage union leaders and communities regarding transitioning to a climate safe economy.

The agenda for the day included an overview of the types of labor-climate campaigns that are underway in the northeast; a discussion about the need for a fair and just transition and what that might entail; and five workshops on important topics including: public ownership and control of the energy sector, carbon pricing, offshore wind, divest/invest campaigns, and current legislative proposals designed to mitigate the climate crisis. The day also included two sub-regional breakout sessions where attendees met with fellow labor-climate activists from their home states to share information, discuss opportunities for collaboration, and brainstorm ways that LNS can help those state and local-level campaigns flourish and win.

Pictured above: LNS Founding President Joe Uehlein gives opening remarks, stressing the urgency of acting now regarding labor and climate.

The Northeast Convergence was the second regional convergence organized by LNS this year and displayed the growing size and momentum of the labor-climate movement. The third national convergence will be held on June 28-30, 2019 in Chicago, IL. The purpose of the convergences is to encourage climate protection advocates to organize locally and nationally in their own unions; advocate for climate solidarity with workers around the world; build cooperation among climate protection advocates and caucuses in different unions; educate labor’s leadership and rank and file on the realities of climate change; transform the discourse and ultimately the policy of the labor movement; and inspire local labor unions and activists to engage with climate and climate justice organizations and activists in their own communities.

The latest IPCC Report and the U.S. Government’s own Fourth Climate Assessment released in November paint a bleak picture for the Earth and its inhabitants. The task ahead is enormous, but the struggle is more than worthy. Just ask yourself, what is more important than saving humanity? Alone, we feel powerless to affect the change that is needed to create a just and sustainable economy that works for all. But when we work together, there is no greater force beneath the sun. Let’s get back to work!

Last year, people took action in dozens of cities across the U.S. demanding that our local, state and federal governments make public transit accessible and affordable to all, create good jobs by expanding our public transit systems, and protect our health and climate by using renewable energy to power our buses and trains.

We choose February 4 as Transit Equity Day to honor Rosa Parks on her birthday. Her act of resistance by refusing to give up her seat on the bus in 1955 was a catalyst for the civil rights movement. It affirmed that everyone has the right to equal access to public transit.

Also, join us for a SOCIAL MEDIA DAY on DECEMBER 21 to honor the successful end to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Stay tuned for more information on this.

We will send a link to an Organizing Toolkit soon!

Educate

• Convene an educational event about public transit as a civil right and as a key strategy to confront climate change.
• Wear a button or sticker to your workplace showing support for public transit as a civil right.
• Get an op-ed published in your local newspaper.

Agitate

• Organize a direct action to support a local campaign for quality public transit for all.

Organize

• Get your union local, organization city council, transportation board and others to pass a resolution supporting public transportation as a civil right.
• Get your union to establish a climate action committee.

For More Information Contact

transitequity@labor4sustainability.org

Sponsoring Organizations

• Amalgamated Transit Union
• Chainbreaker Collective, Santa Fe, NM
• Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC
• Labor Network for Sustainability
• Labor Community Strategy Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Music City Riders United/Workers’ Dignity, Nashville, TN
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, Portland, OR
• Partnership for Working Families
• Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Pittsburgh, PA
• Sierra Club

Sponsoring organizations contribute money, in-kind support to the national organizing effort or participate on the Planning Committee for Transit EquityDay.

Endorsing Organizations

• 350.org
  

• Colorado Interfaith Power and Light

• Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

• Greenpeace, USA

• Jobs with Justice

PIctured from right: Speaking at podium, Mustafa Salahuddin, President of ATU Local 1336 and Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs board members Maisa Tisdale and John Humphries.

Pictured from left: John Harrity, LNS Board Member and Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs board members Maisa Tisdale, Guy West, Steve Schrag and John Humphries

Fortunately, a broad coalition of building trades unions, business groups, environmental organizations and transit advocacy groups joined forces in support of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the Special Transportation Fund from being used for any purpose other than transportation. After the legislature passed the measure two years in row, it was placed on the 2018 ballot.

Unlike Californians, residents of Connecticut are not very familiar with ballot measures. The last referendum was on the ballot in 2014. Despite polls showing broad support, that measure (which would have allowed early voting in elections) failed, largely because 15% of the people who voted for governor did not respond to the referendum question. And that “drop-off” rate was closer to 30% in urban areas.

So the critical challenge this fall was to ensure voters – and particularly urban voters - knew about the referendum and understood the importance of voting “Yes." So ATU locals across the state distributed informational cards to bus riders, and the Roundtable helped enlist the participation of a diverse array of local and statewide groups to participate in the education and advocacy campaign.

At the press conference in Bridgeport, the Roundtable’s board chair John Harrity (who is also a member of the LNS board) spoke of the detrimental climate and health impacts of transportation emissions and the potential job creation from investing in our transportation infrastructure. John concluded with a call-to-action: “In the long run, it just may be that the most important vote we will cast on Election Day – will be on this question. Vote yes and help save the planet!”

And the voters heard the call. The measure passed by an overwhelming majority exceeding 85% of those who responded to the question. Now the Roundtable and its allies will have to work to ensure that the funding is used to expand access to transit.

The following article originally appeared in The Stand on October 18, 2018

(Oct. 18, 2018) —Over the past two weeks, two important reports on climate have come out. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a 500-page report. Buried deep in the report is a projection that temperatures will rise seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. This is nearly four degrees Celsius, which would dramatically change life as we know it on Earth.

This level of global warming would create hundreds of millions of water and food refugees, create catastrophic sea level rise, create megastorms and droughts impacting the whole planet and cause the extinction of many species of life.

What has been the Trump administration’s plan of action in the face of such predictions?

• Freeze the Obama administration’s plans on making cars more fuel efficient
• Withdraw California’s ability to set their own carbon emission standards
• Allow states to regulate their own coal power plant emissions
• Relax requirements on how energy companies maintain and repair methane leaks
• Open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling

Trump’s plan: double down on fossil fuel production and use.

The other report, released last week by the working group of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, noted that Earth’s temperature has already risen one degree Celsius since 1880 and its temperature may well increase another half a degree Celsius by the year 2030 — only 12 years from now.

This means we will be subject to even more severe storms, droughts, flooding, sea level rise, loss of lives, property, and jobs, and political and economic demands arising from forced migration around the world.

But the U.N. Report also is hopeful. While pointing out that keeping the planet at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius is essential and to be successful will require unprecedented shifts to renewable energy systems and transport, “it can be done within the laws of physics and chemistry.”

The question really is one of political will as well as will there be a “just” or an “unjust” transition.

Clara, the transit worker quoted at the top of this article, nailed it. There is no question that there is enough money to make the transition away from fossil fuels, and indeed hundreds of billions of dollars were spent bailing out the world financial system over the last decade at the expense of working people. Her question is, do we value the planet as much as we do the banks?

The leading scientists in the world are telling us that we need to stop arguing over what carbon policy is the best one or whether we get one more mile of highway funding tomorrow and instead go all-in for saving our planet, our economies, our jobs, and our lives.

Of course, how these decisions are made, and by whom, makes a difference. Any policy that significantly lowers carbon emissions, builds high-quality labor standards into renewable energy investments, and provides a “Just Transition” for workers and our communities should be supported.

We can, as Emperor Nero did, fiddle while Rome burns. Or we can accept the clarion call of Mother Earth – “save me to save yourselves.” Or we can sit by and watch her cull the herd.

The Guardian reports:

Spain is to shut down most of its coalmines by the end of the year after government and unions struck a deal that will mean €250m (£221m) will be invested in mining regions over the next decade.

Unions hailed the mining deal – which covers Spain’s privately owned pits – as a model agreement. It mixes early retirement schemes for miners over 48, with environmental restoration work in pit communities and re-skilling schemes for cutting-edge green industries.

Montserrat Mir, the Spanish confederal secretary for the European Trades Union Congress, said the “just transition” model could be applied elsewhere.

“Spain can export this deal as an example of good practice,” she said. “We have shown that it’s possible to follow the Paris agreement without damage [to people’s livelihoods]. We don’t need to choose between a job and protecting the environment. It is possible to have both.”

Read the full Guardian article »

In August, Judy Asman joined our team as Administrative Manager. Judy comes to us with extensive background in administrative and project management, including owning and operating a Web design and PR firm. Judy started with LNS in July on an interim basis, playing a critical role helping LNS to organize the Los Angeles Labor Convergence on Climate Change. Her ability to approach tasks with both a broad and granular view are a tremendous asset to our organizing efforts. We benefit greatly from her 30 years as a professional in the communications and marketing sector.