Above: Watch the recording on YouTube.

In case you missed it, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 8 p.m. Eastern, the Labor Network for Sustainability and friends hosted "Young Workers and Just Transition," the fourth in a series of webinars as part of the Just Transition Listening Project.

Moderated by Climate Justice Alliance Policy Coordinator, Anthony Rogers -Wright, the panel featured young workers in the labor and climate justice movements: 

• Celina Barron, International Brotherhood of Workers Electrical Local 11 RENEW
• Eboni Preston, Greening for Youth; Georgia NAACP, Labor and Industry Chair
• Judy Twedt, United Auto Workers, Local 4121
• Ryan Pollock, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520
• Yolian Ogbu, This is Zero Hour

Watch this event now to glean insight into the challenges these young movement leaders face when initiating dialog around transitioning to a sustainable economy that offers equitable and just opportunities for future workers. Also learn about LNS' Young Worker Project and to hear what's next.

Special thank you to the following on the Labor Network for Sustainability team: Joshua Dedmond, Veronica Wilson and Leo Blain; and Vivian Price, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, California State University Dominguez Hills for their organizing and technical support before and during this important conversation.

At its July convention, the American Federation of Teachers adopted a resolution backing the Green New Deal proposal to counter climate change. Saying that the labor movement must be at the center of shaping climate policies, “including tax-base support for impacted communities, wage replacement and parity for affected workers”—along with retirement protections, and job and training guarantees—the resolution declares that the AFT will work to “ensure that no worker is left behind.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten said:

"The Green New Deal is a blueprint into a better future for us all. It creates the conditions for a more just economy by prioritizing real people over corporate profits, putting a check on energy corporations, and elevating our bus drivers, nurses and sanitation workers, who, among others, are the frontline workers experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis on a daily basis. In doing so, we can more adequately focus the needs of historically marginalized communities that have disproportionately suffered from environmental injustice, racism and systemic exclusion from well-paying jobs. 

“This is about what kind of world we leave for our next generation. Our educators and paraprofessionals, nurses and healthcare workers, and public employees wake up every day to support and educate young people so they are ready and able to serve their communities. This resolution tells that generation: You can have a real impact, and we stand with you in this fight."

David Hughes, a member of American Association of University of Professors, American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) Rutgers, who helped draft the resolution, said “Our government has got to respect science and protect us.” He added that adoption of the resolution allows the AFT to give Biden a push in the right direction on environmental policy.

The resolution backs funding for Green New Deal programs through progressive taxes on the rich, including a Billionaire Net Worth tax, and reductions in Defense Department spending that is not related to veterans.

During the floor debate, delegates adopted an amendment endorsing a “national green schools campaign” calling for retrofitting and installation of solar panels at public schools across the nation. Read more »

Read the entire resolution »

Above: Detail of Inglewood Oil Field. Author: Antandrus at English Wikipedia.

More than one million people live within five miles of the massive Inglewood Oil Field, the largest urban oil field in the nation, sprawled across Culver City and the historically African American neighborhood of Baldwin Hills. For decades, residents have called on local and state elected officials to strengthen health and safety protections from industrial oil operations near their homes, schools and parks. On August 13, the Culver City council directed its staff to develop a framework and timeline for the phase out of oil wells in the city’s 78-acre portion of the Inglewood Oil Field and create jobs in the process.

The plan was supported by labor unions including United Steelworkers Local 675 and the California Nurses Association. Tveen Kirkpatrick, R.N. with the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses United, noted, “Every day nurses across California treat children with asthma and we see firsthand the connection between environmental and public health. We are proud to stand with the communities closest to toxic operations in Culver City and call for a shutdown of the Inglewood Oil Field. California should look beyond fossils to a future where workers and communities don’t pay the price for the oil industry’s pollution with their bodies.”

Local environmental justice, labor and health advocates are urging councilmembers to seize this opportunity to model a Just Transition. They have asked the city to hold oil operators responsible for cleanup costs, and ensure that a properly trained and local unionized workforce is paid a living wage for the remediation of wells. 

Read more »

Above: "Central Valley Farmworkers Speaking Out Over Brutal Working Conditions Of Heat, Smoke, Pandemic." Author: KPIX CBS SF Bay Area. 

A new report, “On the Front Lines: Climate Change Threatens the Health of America’s Workers,” was recently released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the BlueGreen Alliance, and several labor organizations. It includes 14 first-hand stories from outdoor and indoor workers impacted by climate change.

According to Juanita Constible, principal author of the report and a climate health expert at NRDC, “The climate crisis isn’t just endangering the health and safety of outdoor workers, it’s also a serious threat to indoor workers. Janitors, bus drivers, public health workers, and others deemed essential in the pandemic, are on the frontlines of harm. This dual public health crisis demands that our country ramp up more robust health protections for workers now. The good news is that protecting worker health from the impacts of the climate crisis is fully within our grasp—but it will get harder the longer we wait to act.”

 A House bill, the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act (H.R. 3668), shows what government could do to address heat stress. It is supported by the AFL-CIO and dozens of labor organizations. A companion bill has just been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kamala Harris. Read more »

Above: The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has a form on their website, which members can use to report health and safety concerns from COVID-19.

According to a recent Bloomberg article, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is “stepping in where the government has failed,” running its own coronavirus contact-tracing program for 1.3 million members.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak hit, the union has sent agents into grocery stores, meatpacking plants and food-processing facilities. They talk to workers and comb work schedules to figure out who might have been exposed. Then, they notify the employer’s human resources department and direct workers to free testing sites, some provided by the union.

Marc Perrone, international president of the union, noted the vacuum in government response to the pandemic. “In such disarray, workers must fend for themselves.”

Graphic: Noelle Bell, Center for Biological Diversity

Thirty labor and environmental organizations nationwide have petitioned the federal government demanding the Trump administration use the Defense Production Act to get personal protective equipment to essential workers. 

The emergency rule-making petition has been sent to the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security. It requests a nationwide inventory, increased production and prioritized distribution of respirators, gloves, gowns and other equipment needed to protect workers from COVID-19.

Jean Su, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity who wrote the petition, said "The same types of abuses that are being lodged against workers and workers' rights are the same types of abuses and exploitation that corporations and the government are thrusting on the environment." 

Above: Watch the livestream from the July 20 Strike for Black Lives on the Service Employees International Union Facebook page.

On July 20, national unions and labor and political groups took part in an unprecedented “Strike for Black Lives.” The action was led by the Service Employees union (SEIU) and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Union supporters included the Teamsters’, the American Federation of Teachers, the United Farm Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, the Communications Workers of America, the Amalgamated Transit Union, and UNITE HERE.

The action focused on four demands: Justice for Black communities, that elected officials use their authority to rewrite the rules so that Black people can thrive, that corporations dismantle racism, white supremacy and economic exploitation including at work and that every worker has the opportunity to join a union. Participating workers often added their own demands for better pay and COVID-19 safety measures.

While organizing for the action focused on 25 cities, actions occurred in 200. 1500 janitors struck in San Francisco.6.000 nurses picketed 85 nursing homes in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Outside St. Louis McDonald’s workers marched for higher wages. In Detroit they marched for better coronavirus protection. In Memphis, AT&T call center and logistics workers demonstrated. In New York, 100 UPS workers demonstrated in front of their workplace to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest growing inequality. In Washington, DC strikers demonstrated at the Capitol to support the HEROES act.

Labor historian and LNS research and policy director Jeremy Brecher commented that “This may be the first time in history that major American unions have called for strikes and other workplace action to affect broad social issues.” It was also unusual in its spread “across industries and occupations,” and in “combining strikes and other forms of protest action.” Read more»

Photos: On Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, in Highland Park–Los Angeles, County–California, Angelinos stood with postal workers to demand respect, while joining thousands around the country to call for $25 billion in funding and the reversal of service cuts. "It's the people's post office!," one sign says.

Since the Coronavirus crisis hit, USPS has become more essential than ever, from delivering life-saving medicine, to sustaining our democracy through mail-in voting. It has also become more endangered than ever, facing a massive budget crisis. Postal workers and the public are united in urging Congress to pass $25 billion in emergency COVID-related relief for USPS.

The movement for our public Postal Service has three immediate demands of our elected officials and of Postmaster General DeJoy:

• Provide at least $25 billion in immediate support for the Postal Service
• Stop the mail slowdown policies introduced by Postmaster General DeJoy
• Ensure public confidence in voting-by-mail by providing all necessary resources for the most timely delivery of election mail possible.

Public outcry has already forced Postmaster General DeJoy to backtrack on plans to reduce service. But the Post Office still needs to have its services funded.

Jessica Ellis
@baddestmamajama