Forward » | Read in Browser (highly recommended) »

It’s time. New “climate change indicators” from the Environmental Protection Agency shows that global warming is now threatening our health, safety, homes and communities–not to mention our jobs. The accelerating drive to protect the climate reflects the threat that climate change poses to our lives and livelihoods.  

A torrent of proposals–described in this issue of Making a Living on a Living Planet–are defining how those goals can be realized. The Labor Network for Sustainability has just issued a discussion paper called “Making ‘Build Back Better’ Better” laying out a strategy to make those goals synergistic rather than competing. LNS has worked hard and successfully to build union support for the THRIVE Agenda, a program to realize the goals of Build Back Better that has just been submitted to Congress. Leaders in the environmental justice movement who serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council have issued recommendations for climate investment in disadvantaged communities and against nuclear energy and carbon capture projects. Jacqueline Patterson of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program lays out faulty climate solutions to avoid. And the International Energy Agency, often described as the world’s leading energy policy advisor, has issued the report “Net Zero by 2050” laying out a “Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector.” And Evergreen Action laid out plans for a Civilian Climate Corps modeled on the New Deal’s immensely popular and successful Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. 

Meanwhile at the grassroots level, workers and communities are mobilizing to protect the climate. In Maine, for example, indigenous people, housing advocates, environmental groups, and labor unions formed a united front to fight for climate-related bills in the state legislature. And LNS’s Young Workers Listening Project has launched a survey and organizing project to give the views and visions of young workers an opportunity to be heard.    

The changing economics of the energy industry have been leading to the closing of coal mines and coal fired power plants. We report on three efforts to provide a transition for coal industry workers. The Biden Administration has established a Coal Country Task Force, for which LNS has been providing background information. The Utility Workers of America, which represents many power plant workers, has issued a report offering a roadmap for supporting coal workers and communities. And the United Mine Workers of America, which represents Appalachian coal miners, has called for a “real transition” that will provide jobs and livelihoods for mine workers and their families and communities. Later in this issue, learn how transit rider advocacy group MARTA Army was formed in our ally feature of Bakari Height and in Labor vs. Bigotry, we highlight an important town hall hosted by the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), speaking to a pivotal moment during Asian Pacific American Heritage month.

Solidarity,
Jeremy Brecher

The Labor Network for Sustainability has just released “Making ‘Build Back Better’ Better: Aligning Climate, Jobs, and Justice,” a discussion paper on Biden’s "Build Back Better" program. The paper notes that

Many particular interests will seek to benefit from the overall Build Back Better program–and that’s good. But as Congress and the public work to shape the ultimate form of that program, we also need to keep our eyes on the ultimate prize: combining climate, jobs, and justice.

“Making ‘Build Back Better’ Better” asks the question, “What policies can integrate the needs of working people, the most oppressed, and our threatened climate and environment?” It answers that there are “six essential elements that must be integrated in order to realize the Build Back Better we need for climate, jobs, and justice”:

• Managed decline of fossil-fuel burning
• Full-spectrum job creation
• Fair access to good jobs
• Labor rights and standards
• Urgent and effective climate protection
• No worker or community left behind

Read and use for discussion »

Pictured: Celina Barron of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11, RENEW; Quote from Verona Collantes.

From now until September, you can complete this survey »

Young workers have never known a world without climate catastrophe and the debates that come along with it. Instead, they are often caught in the middle, with the opportunity to take action through movement building such as what we saw with the Climate Strikes of 2019.

Facing an uncertain future–with the health of our planet and communities and the security of jobs becoming increasingly precarious–it is past time to create big, bold solutions where young voices are central to organizing in the labor-climate movement. What exists is a need for a project to build spokespeople who can articulate and fight for the vision of young workers.

That's where we come in.

Modeled after the Just Transition Listening Project, the Labor Network for Sustainability has convened a committee of young workers, concerned and curious about climate change and impacts on their future.

These workers are on an journey to talk to peers about their shared or differing experiences–whether they grew up in polluted areas and know first-hand the health implications, or are wondering about future job prospects and security, or are questioning, or confident in, the solutions being taken to avoid a tipping point in climate disaster. But it's the multitude of voices that matter most.

And that's where you come in. 

The YWLP committee is asking those who are 35 years or younger to take 5 minutes to complete this survey, which we will be used as a pipeline to identify and build leadership among young workers in the labor and climate movements. 

You can also share this survey with others by forwarding it to someone you know or amplify using our social toolkit.

Graphic: Rep. Andy Levin, District 9, Michigan, delivered the opening remarks at the March 26, 2021 Congressional Briefing on Workers and Communities in Transition–part of the Build Back Better, #BuildBackFossilFree series. Watch and share »

As Congress grapples with climate policy, it must also grapple with the social and economic effects of climate protection.

In March, after nearly a year of interviewing more than 100 workers and community leaders about how their lives and communities have been affected by factory closings and other major shifts in local and regional economies, the Labor Network for Sustainability and partners released its report “Workers and Communities in Transition: A Report of the Just Transition Listening Project.” 

The report captures “the voices of workers and community members who have experienced, are currently experiencing, or anticipate experiencing some form of economic transition.” Now LNS has presented its findings in a Congressional Briefing designed to help lawmakers better understand the concerns of working people about the impact of climate policy in their jobs, livelihoods, and communities. You can see it too! 

Watch and share »

Knowing that the push to stop climate disaster will mean a transition that will impact communities historically reliant on fossil-fuel production, the E.O. called for the creation of an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization (IWG) housed in the Department of Energy. It would prepare plans to “prioritize federal money (e.g. workforce programs, grants, loan programs, technical assistance, financing, procurement) to support and revitalize the economies of coal and power plant communities.”

In mid-March, team members from the Labor Network for Sustainability were called upon to provide input to the IWG. Bolstered by research LNS is already undertaking, team members were able to provide recommendations that were reflected in the finished report issued in April. Relying on LNS’s Just Transition Listening Project, the recommendations identified federal programs ready to be marshalled immediately for the communities in transition and lay out how and why existing programs must be massively expanded.

Building on this work, LNS has organized meetings with trade union leaders of the two Western State Federations and most of the Appalachian States to present plans to meet the needs of unions and their communities in the energy transition. LNS is in a unique position–with its research-based insights and its ties to the labor and environmental movements–to help formulate the coalition needed to ensure a rapid transition to renewable energy while also ensuring the prosperity of the communities who will be impacted in the process.

With thoughtful planning and sustained resources, workers and communities that depend on coal for their livelihoods and economic activity can be part of the clean energy future. The report,
 Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape, offers a roadmap for how to do that.

The analysis estimates the cost of providing a comprehensive set of resources to coal miners and coal-fired power plant workers who will face job losses before reaching retirement age. This includes five years of full salary replacement including health insurance and employer retirement contributions, as well as flexible options for free education for both dislocated workers and their children. These comprehensive resources will cost between $33 billion over 25 years to $83 billion over 15 years, a small fraction of the trillions of dollars that must be invested in the energy system to reach net zero CO2 emissions by midcentury.

Read the full report »

The statement also calls for a “true energy transition” built around three goals: “preserve coal jobs, create new jobs, and preserve coalfield families and communities.”

The strategy to preserve coal jobs relies heavily on carbon capture and storage. (See the forthcoming LNS study on Carbon Capture for an evaluation of the climate and jobs impacts of this technology.) The strategy for new jobs includes a variety of proposals for manufacturing, hiring preference for former miners, mine land reclamation, prevailing wage requirements, and passage of the PRO Act.

Perhaps most novel for the Mine Workers union is the strategy to preserve coalfield families and communities. It includes: 

• Wage replacement or differential if employed;
• Family health care coverage;
• Pension credit/401(k) contribution;
• Tuition for further education for miner and family for Bachelors’ degree, Associate degree or Technical/Career certification;
• National training program for dislocated miners and spouses, geared to preparing workers to meet jobs associated with II.(a.), above, or other industrial jobs; to be provided by career training centers with proven track record of successfully training miners;
• Direct grants to coalfield counties/communities/school districts to replace lost tax revenues for 20-year period;
• Targeted infrastructure rehabilitation and development funding to coalfield communities – roads, bridges, broadband, schools, health care facilities.

Read the statement »

The International Energy Agency, often characterized as the world's leading energy policy adviser, has issued a new report called Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. The report states that "to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, annual clean energy investment worldwide will need to more than triple by 2030 to around $4 trillion," which would "create millions of new jobs." To take one example, quadrupling global solar power by 2030 "is equivalent to installing the world's current largest solar park roughly every day" for the rest of the decade.

According to the IEA,

Beyond projects already committed as of 2021, there are no new oil and gas fields approved for development in our pathway, and no new coal mines or mine extensions are required. The unwavering policy focus on climate change in the net zero pathway results in a sharp decline in fossil fuel demand, meaning that the focus for oil and gas producers switches entirely to output – and emissions reductions – from the operation of existing assets.

"The clean energy transition is for and about people," said IEA chief Fatih Birol. "Our roadmap shows that the enormous challenge of rapidly transitioning to a net-zero energy system is also a huge opportunity for our economies."

Composite: Labor Network for Sustainability.

On May 13 the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, made up of leaders in the environmental justice movement, issued recommendations for how to implement President Joe Biden’s “Justice40” pledge to provide 40 percent of benefit from his environmental policies to disadvantage communities. The recommendations included promoting rooftop solar in low-income areas, taking steps to protect workers from things like heat and pesticides, and increasing air pollution monitoring. 

The Council also expressed opposition to nuclear and carbon capture projects and projects to expand capacity for fossil fuel production in a report issued Friday. It described such projects as “examples of the types of projects that will not benefit a community.”

Read the recommendations »

 Above: After introductory remarks by Alvina Yeh, Executive Director of APALA, the Labor Town Hall on Anti-Asian Racism segued into a powerful conversation on leadership and bigotry within the labor movement that included APALA founder Kent Wong, who heads up the UCLA Labor Center, Tefere Gebre, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, and Monica Thammerath (facilitator), National Educators Association and APALA National President.

by Judy Asman

May is known as Asian Pacific American Heritage month and considered commercially as a time when groups representing islands, nations–and island nations–throughout the entire Pacific region host celebrations showcasing food and entertainment, which define our traditions and tell our stories.

But this year, the annual commemoration came with different undertones.

With a disturbing and dismal rise in anti-Asian hate crimes–particularly amid the pandemic and stoked by what many believe was attention-grabbing anti-Asian racist remarks and tweets by the most recent U.S. President, groups like the Asian Pacific American Alliance of Labor (APALA), AFL-CIO, leveraged this year's Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) occasions to call attention to recent acts of bigotry–but with historical context shedding light on how Asian immigrants were once ignored within the labor movement. That is, until mass and relentless grassroots organizing changed all of that.

In addition to sharing a Labor Toolkit on Anti-Asian Racism, the alliance that addresses the workplace issues of the 660,000 AAPI union members, hosted a Labor Town Hall on Anti-Asian Racism to discuss how to build a labor movement "inclusive of Asian American workers and that fights to end anti-Asian racism with the same fervor as we fight for workers’ rights," and how to "commit its leadership and each member to recognize anti-Asian racism in our unions historically and now, and commit to stop treating Asian American workers as disposable, as perpetual foreigners, or as invisible."

In the opening panel, Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, talked about what it's like to be a person of color in labor, noting the importance of remembering the past and how far we've come since the Chinese Exclusion Act and the labor movement's role at that time. Gebre adds that it took until the year 2000 (emphasizing twice how recent that was) for the "AFL-CIO to actually recognize immigrant workers are valuable and that immigrant workers are actually worth fighting for."

But today, instead of segregated unions, Gebre adds that some of the largest unions in this country are led by people of color. "We have to recognize and celebrate that, and look back and see how much people sacrificed to get to that point."

What does Gebre say is the risk now? To ensure the racism of today does not continue to mean "tokenism."

Deeper discussion and broader perspectives from the voices throughout APALA can be heard/viewed during the 90-minute town hall. 

You can also take the Labor Pledge on Anti-Asian Racism. Also, some good reads by Saurav Sarkar for Labor Notes: "Pandemic Discrimination Against Asian Americans Has Long Roots."

Judy is the featured staff member is this issue. You can read about her below. 

Want to know what traps to avoid as we address climate change? In her op-ed published by Thomson Reuters, Jacqueline Patterson, director of the environmental and climate justice program at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), lays out “12 false climate solutions, faulty patterns, and harmful omissions to avoid.”

Her recommendations for “What not to do on climate” range from “technofixes” to “propping up polluters.” Read it here »

President Joe Biden issued an executive order in January to create a Civilian Climate Corps. The Corps is included in his American Jobs Plan infrastructure proposal. A new report from Evergreen Action tells how such a corps can put 1.5 million Americans to work on climate mitigation and resilience projects, such as retrofitting homes and businesses, restoring public lands and waterways, installing clean energy infrastructure, and assisting vulnerable community members. Building the Civilian Climate Corps: How New Deal Ambition Can Mobilize Workers for America's Clean Economy provides a roadmap for how Congress can make the Civilian Climate Corps a reality.

• Full report »
• Partner toolkit »

Trade unions in six European countries have issued a group of reports on The Road to a Carbon-Free Europe. Country reports that include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland , Norway, and Sweden summarize the national climate goals and policies, especially as related to Just Transition. 

A Synthesis Report brings together the main findings, and presents the resulting policy recommendations, jointly adopted by the Council of Nordic Trade Unions and the German Trade Union Confederation.

Because Germany and the Nordic countries are export-oriented economies dependent on trade, and facing similar challenges in the emissions-heavy sectors of their economies, the authors note many common opportunities for zero-emission innovations and technology, and urge the unions to collaborate.

This video from EPI is a good way to understand the basic issues the PRO Act is designed to address: 

7 Anti-Union Shenanigans the PRO Act Would Fix 

New data from the Environmental Protection Agency shows that climate change is happening–and speeding up–around the U.S. Its 54 climate change indicators show that wildfires are larger and starting earlier in the year; heat waves are more common; seas are hotter; flooding is more frequent; temperatures are hotter; ragweed pollen season is beginning earlier.

Global warming is making life harder for Americans, in ways that threaten their health and safety, homes, and communities. EPA administrator Michael S. Regan said:

There is no small town, big city or rural community that is unaffected by the climate crisis. Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts up close, with increasing regularity.

(Source: The New York Times, "Climate Change Is Making Big Problems Bigger," May 12, 2021, Christopher Flavelle) 

A May 17 article in the Maine Beacon by environmental journalist Dan Neumann presents a wide-ranging account of the growing cooperation among Maine unions and a variety of partners. The article, “Tribes, youth, labor uniting behind Maine’s climate justice movement,” describes how this cooperation is working in the state legislature:

During this legislative session in Augusta, a diverse coalition made up of students, Indigenous people, housing advocates, environmental groups and labor unions came together to back a slate of climate-related bills. The policies they are advocating for would do everything from have the state fully recognize tribal sovereignty, to building energy-efficient affordable housing units with strong labor standards, to creating green job opportunities in low-income areas.

The article quotes Matt Schlobom, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO:

There’s ample history in Maine of paper mill workers and environmentalists being pitted against each other using a jobs-versus-environment frame,” said Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO. But I think there’s a growing recognition in the labor movement that we have these overlapping crises — a deep structural crisis of inequality, racial injustice and climate instability and we need comprehensive responses.”

Tired of "the system"? Take a look at The New Systems Reader, edited by James Gustave Speth and Kathleen Courrier. (Disclosure: Gus Speth is a longtime friend and supporter of the Labor Network for Sustainability.)

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously said, "There is no alternative." The New Systems Reader in contrast bears the subtitle Alternatives to a Failed Economy. It provides a feast of alternatives that it encourages us to think about, discuss, and synthesize into "something much better" than existing corporate capitalism–into what it calls "the next system." The 30 essays in this volume lay out varying pathways ranging from "local self-regulation" to "top-down reconstruction" and from "the rewiring of values" to the "rewiring of ownership." But all are designed to move beyond modest tweaks to the status quo to a "next system" that is "equitable, green, democratic, and just."

Perhaps the most impactful introduction came from within MARTA itself. Now-former MARTA chief spokesperson Lyle Harris proclaimed “MARTA Army Now,” and with that statement sparked the creation of a remarkably effective, entirely volunteer initiative that has since seen broad success in improving and even humanizing public transit in Atlanta. 

Also present at transit camp was Bakari Height. Harris’ idea for MARTA Army–a group that could “fix the things MARTA couldn’t get to”–resonated with Height. Other attendees felt similarly and later in the camp approximately 50 people gathered around a shared love for and exasperation with MARTA. 

“We just had a good old fashioned pitch session. We nailed down all our grievances, everything we didn’t like about MARTA. …We also got to meet other people who shared the same sentiments that we did,” described Height. 

And thus, MARTA Army was born. Led by Height and others from the first meeting, MARTA Army began formalizing, researching, and strategizing around the shared vision of a group led by transit riders working hand in hand with transit agencies to improve Atlanta’s public transit. 

With the help of Lyle Harris, Height and others within MARTA Army pitched their idea to the MARTA board. To their surprise, they were enthusiastic about a rider-led, grassroots action group aimed at improving transit rider experiences. 

Since then, MARTA Army has seen a string of successful campaigns. From trash can installation initiatives based on GIS data to a Bus Stop Census to transit-oriented book clubs and more, MARTA Army’s organizing and advocacy has been wide ranging and deeply affecting for transit riders across Atlanta. 

It’s all a matter of scalability, says Height: “We want something that's doable but also makes a big impact. We want to be able to connect with people. One of MARTA’s biggest issues has been customer service. With MARTA Army, we’re consistently there.” 

Height, who previously worked within the Atlanta Department of Transportation, hasn’t limited his transit advocacy solely to Atlanta. He sees MARTA Army’s model as deeply applicable to transit systems across the country and was recently hired by the Philly Transit Riders Union to do just that.

He’s also been instrumental in the Labor Network for Sustainability’s transit equity efforts around Transit Equity Day. Height shows no sign of slowing down, though. He’s eager to see the energy from Transit Equity Day reverberate across the country, hopefully sparking organizing and advocacy similar to MARTA Army’s year round.

Leo is a Content Producer for the Labor Network for Sustainability.

While earning her Master’s in Journalism and Public Affairs from American University, Judy interned at C-SPAN as a producer and researcher for the weekly program “America and the Courts” and as a producer for Potomac News Bureau and County Cable Montgomery in Maryland.

After graduating, Judy became a freelance radio reporter for Indigenous media outlets: Native America Calling, KUNM in Albuquerque and KTNN on Navajo Nation. Later, Judy moved to the other side of the media desk, working in print and digital communications for a Southern California utility and a professional association for critical-care nurses.

Around the same time, Judy freelanced for publications throughout Orange County and Los Angeles as a leisure and food columnist until she evolved her small business to provide Web design, content and publicity services to non-profits and businesses around the U.S. that ranged from start-ups to mid- to large-size operations. A longing to pursue her passion in fitness led Judy to retire her business and become a group fitness instructor and personal trainer, holding multiple certifications including her personal training certification from the American Council on Exercise. 

When Judy started with LNS in 2018, she was contracted to help the organization with outreach for its Los Angeles Labor Convergence on Climate and then was hired full-time to serve as administrative manager. She felt a calling to learn more about LNS and serve the organization, feeling the need for a “command performance” by everyone in this country, regardless of current occupation, to join the movement to resist the continued disenfranchisement of communities affected by corporate greed and environmental racism.

In 2019, Judy was asked by LNS to take on communications projects that would eventually lead to the development of a "formal" communications "department" and was officially titled as LNS Communications and Information Director in the spring of 2020. In this capacity, she has been most grateful to collaborate with young organizers of allied organizations within the LNS network where she has had the opportunity to mentor those with perceptive, curious and rich minds, who will continue to drive social justice movements forward.

Judy continues to balance her life at LNS with her life in fitness. But her number one priority is caring for and spending as much time as she can with her 11-year old Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.

Judy can be reached at judy@labor4sustainability.org.

Making a Living on a Living Planet is published by the Labor Network for Sustainability: