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But unions and allies are beginning to develop their own plans to make the transition to fossil-free energy just and fair for workers.

Some of these efforts are occurring at the state level. In California, 20 unions are advocating for the California Climate Jobs Plan, an economic program to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030–while creating 1 million good jobs. A new Connecticut Climate and Community Investment Act creates job standards and community benefit agreements to ensure that such climate jobs will be good jobs–and will be available to the communities that need them most. 

Meanwhile, the Labor Network for Sustainability publication “Workers and Communities in Transition: A Report of the Just Transition Listening Project," based on interviews with more than 100 leaders from labor, environmental justice, communities of color, tribes, farmworkers, seniors, and youth, is contributing to the national effort to come to terms with the impact of climate protection on workers. Authors of the report recently keynoted a convening on community-driven coalitions for just transition. And the report was featured in an extensive article titled “Biden Says He Backs a Just Transition for the Climate Crisis. Advocates Say, ‘Prove It.’”

As the fossil-fuel industry continues its efforts to turn climate protection and worker protection against each other, the Labor Network for Sustainability continues its efforts to build a movement that can prove they are not only compatible but mutually reinforcing.

Solidarity,
Jeremy Brecher

Above: United Steelworkers Local 675 represents fossil-fuel workers who support the California Climate Jobs Plan to invest $70 billion to create one million good jobs as part of an equitable transition to renewable energy. Graphics credit: Kelly McCurdy.

Twenty California unions, including three representing thousands of oil workers, back a California Climate Jobs Plan, calling for investments recommended in a report led by economist Dr. Robert Pollin that will create one million good jobs and a 50% reduction by 2030 in the carbon emissions that cause global warming.

Los Angeles Times reporter Sammy Roth broke the story and in his article said, ..." this isn’t a group you’d expect to get behind climate action. But that’s exactly what they’ve done." Roth talked to oil workers, a public nurse and SEIU member, and a community college instructor, member of the California Federation of Teachers.

According to Roth,

The full list of unions endorsing the report is here. They’ve been discussing energy transition issues in California for more than a year and reached out to Pollin after seeing similar research he had done in other states. ...

The report estimates the Golden State could create 418,000 clean energy jobs per year through a program to cut climate pollution in half over the next decade. It could create even more jobs–626,000 per year–through investments in related areas such as water infrastructure, leaky gas pipelines, public parks and roadways, some but not all of which would also reduce emissions.

The report proposes “wage insurance” for fossil fuel workers to guarantee new jobs with three years’ worth of total pay at the same level as their old fossil fuel employment, as well as coverage for pension obligations, retraining and relocation. The cost? $470 million per year, or 0.02% of California’s expected GDP.

Sources 

• Read the full report, fact sheets and stories highlighting the uniqueness of this effort here »
• “Why a California oil workers unions is getting behind clean energy,”  Sammy Roth, "Boiling Point," Los Angeles Times, also published in the LA Times print edition Business Section A9, June 14, 2021.
  

On Monday, June 21, Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for the Working Poor and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung United States | Canada hosted a webinar on the green revolution and forging a “just transition” that centers workers in a shift from fossil fuels and toward climate resiliency.

Speakers included Alexander Bercht of German trade union IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (IG BCE), Mark Rowlinson Blue Green Canada, José Bravo of Just Transition Alliance, moderated by Knut Panknin of FES.

Watch the recorded stream here »

On Earth Day 2021, Climate Jobs NY launched the Carbon Free and Healthy Schools campaign, based on the belief that "together we can make NYC schools carbon free, healthier and safer, create good union jobs, and save schools millions in energy costs" while making NYC schools a model for the nation.

In June, Climate Jobs NY leaders met with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to talk about federal infrastructure investments and the importance of investing in schools.

And the over past few weeks, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten–a strong voice for the Green New Deal, the THRIVE Agenda and transit equity–and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew have toured New York City schools with solar power and energy efficiency technology, highlighting the need for action across all of the City’s schools. Watch a video of one of their visits here. 

Climate Jobs NY says, with this initiative, in NYC alone they can:

• Save more than 75,000 tons of carbon emissions every year, the equivalent of planting over 400,000 trees
• Address long-standing facilities issues, including outdated
• HVAC systems, making schools healthier and safer for students and the school community
• Save schools $70 million on energy costs every year
• Create thousands of good-paying union jobs for our communities

They are encouraging others to show their support. Here are some additional resources:

• Petition to support the initiative
• Crain’s Op-Ed from key leaders of the campaign
• Video of a student leader talking about the need for carbon-free and healthy school

A recent convening by the Climate Advocacy Lab was keynoted by Mijin Cha (Occidental College) and Jeff Johnson (Labor Network for Sustainability) discussing the need for community-driven coalitions in the pursuit of just transition with Climate Advocacy Lab Training Manager Dominique Thomas. The discussion was based on LNS's new report Workers and Communities in Transition: Report of the Just Transition Listening Project.

The report was based on interviews with over 100 leaders from labor, environmental justice, communities of color, tribes, farmworkers, seniors, and youth about a just transition, including their experiences from past transitions. The report advocates building a just transition through a combination of ambitious vision and practical, strategic policies. Polices don’t need to start from scratch, and can build on existing programs, such as expanding the successful (but under-funded) Trade Adjustment Act to include climate displacement, improving medical insurance (continuance of coverage is a key pain point in worker transitions), and creating a Federal office of just transition modeled on Colorado’s. Transitions are inevitable, but justice is not.

To start a free account with the Climate Advocacy Lab and watch this video, among many of their other hosted webinars, visit https://climateadvocacylab.org.

Graphic: Above features a quote from an interviewee of "Workers and Communities in Transition: A Report of the Just Transition Listening Project," a source heavily mentioned by Rachel M. Cohen for In These Times. 

A recent article in In These Times by journalist Rachel M. Cohen features the report of LNS Just Transition Listening Project. According to Cohen,

A report published in March by the Labor Network for Sustainability, which supports unions in tackling climate change, featured lessons and interviews with more than 100 workers, Indigenous leaders and community representatives about navigating workplace closures, the climate crisis and major upheavals in local economies. The Just Transition Listening Project spotlights some encouraging examples of what a just transition might look like, such as the Redwood Employee Protection Program of 1978, a federal initiative that supported dislocated timber workers. That program provided up to six years of pay, benefits, vacation, relocation and retraining for full-time and seasonal workers and a three-year bridge to retirement for those 62 and over.

In addition to extensive quotes from authors of the report, Cohen’s article reports on the ways that just transition concerns are–and are not–included in Biden’s Build Back Better proposals and in legislation currently being shaped in Congress.

Read “Biden Says He Backs a Just Transition for the Climate Crisis. Advocates Say, ‘Prove It.’”

As the Canadian government is drafting a Just Transition Act, the energy workers group Iron and Earth has launched a petition in support of its four-point plan to spend $110 billion on a green recovery. Iron and Earth explains:

As fossil fuel industry workers, and friends and family of those in the energy industry, we know fossil fuels have contributed significantly to our lives and economy. We also know it’s time to forge a sustainable energy future that creates over a million new careers.

Canada’s energy workers have the skills needed to build the new, net-zero economy and kickstart Canada’s recovery from the pandemic.

That’s why we have developed a four point plan to rapidly mobilize our workforce and upgrade our economy to meet the demands of this transition and recovery.

But in order to create these jobs and make green recovery happen, we need massive federal government investment now.

Right now, the federal government is deciding how much to invest in the future of energy workers and economic recovery. This is our chance to win bold federal investment and ensure long term job security for every energy worker in Canada.

To get feedback from oil and gas workers throughout Canada, Iron and Earth are conducting a poll, a survey, and interviews with workers in those industries about what matters most to oil, gas, and coal workers.

• Iron and Earth petition
• Iron and Earth “Prosperous Transition Plan”
• Iron and Earth survey

Congressman Henry C. "Hank" Johnson of District 4 in Georgia, recently discussed the "Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act" with transit equity advocates allied with LNS. H.R. 3744 was introduced to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure earlier this month. This bill would establish a program to provide funding to support operating costs of public transportation. This would mean greater access to safe, reliable and affordable transit services to essential workers, people with disabilities and communities that are underserved or are in rural areas such as those on tribal land. This additional funding would lead to expanded high-quality transit service, expanding jobs and training for transit workers.

• Read the bill »
• Watch the recording »
• Amplify and ask Congress to support »

by Transit for All PA!

On Tuesday, June 29th, more than 100 transit riders, transit workers and allies in the Transit for All PA! coalition convened on the Capitol steps to kick off the fight for a dedicated $1.65 billion dollars in annual funding for Pennsylvania public transit. 

• Watch video of the rally
• Follow Transit for All PA! on Twitter

Residents of Johnstown, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Lancaster, Harrisburg, York, State College, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia traveled hundreds of miles to tell their stories to legislators about why fully-funded transit is essential to PA’s economic recovery, to address climate and air quality issues, and to grow equity and access for thousands of underserved residents in both rural and urban communities. 175 residents also sent more than 300 letters to their PA legislators to call on them to support the Transit for All PA platform on Tuesday as well. 

Because of our advocacy, three more legislative supporters from key committees signed onto the Transit For All PA platform on Tuesday: Senator Kane, Senator Kearney and Representative Hohenstein! Now, more than 85 organizations, elected officials and businesses from across the state have sjgned onto this grassroots vision for transit, funded through progressive sources and with policy recommendations to ensure that this funding grows ridership and equity in all of our communities.

If you are a Pennsylvania resident and want to support this action to make sure public transit continues to move the state, click here.

Workers at the federal Environmental Protection Agency are running a campaign to divest fossil fuels from their pension funds.

“For EPA employees, this is something that is near and dear to our hearts,” said Nicole Cantello, an EPA lawyer and president of the America Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 704. EPA workers aren’t happy “being forced to invest in instruments that have fossil fuels and [greenhouse gas] emissions that are attached them.” Fossil fuel investments are also at risk of becoming “stranded assets” worth far less that currently claimed. Another EPA employee said, “This is about maximizing the returns of federal workers’ retirement, and it’s about upholding our commitment to the Paris Climate Accord that all the nations of the earth agreed upon.”

Workers are circulating at least two petitions calling for investment only in “funds that do not contribute to climate change or deforestation” and directing fund manager Black Rock “to support shareholder resolutions on climate change mitigation and deforestation.” They are also reaching out to other government employees; the petition has been signed by workers in more than fifty federal agencies.

• Learn more about the campaign
• Sign or learn more about the petition

Stock image, Canva.

In a major defeat for workers right to organize, the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down a 45-year old law giving union organizers access to workers on farms during their work breaks. Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, “The access regulation grants labor organizations a right to invade the growers’ property.”

A statement from the United Farm Workers said, “The Supreme Court ruling makes a racist and broken farm Labor system even more unequal for farm workers.” This decision “denies workers the right to use breaks to freely discuss whether they want to have a union.” Retweet this »

The next two months will be crucial in the fight to win passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act). While we haven’t seen language for the bi-partisan infrastructure bill, we have no reason to expect it will include the PRO Act. Senator Sanders’s budget resolution for a reconciliation package will include the PRO Act. Whether or not the bi-partisan plan moves forward, our key objective remains the same: Get to 50 co-sponsors on the PRO Act. Learn more about what you and your organizations can take at CWA-Union.org.

Video: "From Black Lung to BlackRock: Striking AL Coal Miners Protest Wall St. Financiers of Warrior Met." Author: Democracy Now

by Oren Kadosh

The ongoing United Mineworkers of America strike of 1,100 miners living and working in Brookwood, Alabama has ramped up from its April 1st beginnings regarding what should have been an easily kept promise by Warrior Met Coal to its hardworking miners.

The union workers are alleging that management is not bargaining in good faith toward a new contract, after the expiration of a 2016 contract in which the workers agreed to sacrifice their own earnings to keep their jobs alive as Warrior Met scooped up the operation from the previous owner’s bankruptcy, which saw 1,000 of their brethren laid off. To keep  some semblance of their livelihoods, the miners agreed with their new private equity-backed owners to, among other indignities, reduce their own earnings by $6/hour, lose vacation days, lose overtime pay, and be forced to descend into the coal caverns for upwards of 12 hours per day, 6 days per week.

The workers reasoned that they would help their new owners shore up and eventually share in the later thriving of an improved company several years down the line when it came time to negotiate a new contract.

That didn’t happen, and the strike is now entering its fourth month. The workers have been picketing all day and night, and the struggle has been dystopian in both modern and familiar senses. The strikers have been surveilled by drones, patrolled by armed private security, arrested, and even subject to multiple vehicular assaults that have sent several members to the hospital.

Despite this violence and the recent arrest of many picketing miners, we should all be inspired and motivated by their unwavering determination. The union, their families, the local community, and the wider labor movement have been doing their utmost to provide mutual aid and support to keep the fight and morale going. Some of the strikers recently even made their way all the way to New York City to demonstrate and protest directly against the faceless corporate suits who manage the private equity funds behind Warrior Met.

Such boldness and creativity is what we need to channel into winning a just clean energy future for these union members and their communities.

Oren is a fellow of the Labor Network for Sustainability

 by Carly Ebben Eaton, LNS Development Director

On May 24, student researchers from all 10 University of California campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory delivered more 10,000 authorization cards to the California Public Employee Relations Board to join the Unite Auto Workers. This means that over 17,000 new workers will have a union! Currently, only grad students who are working as teaching assistants at UC are represented, meaning sometimes grad workers have a union and sometimes they don't. It's pretty problematic. Nearly four years ago, workers fought to get California labor law changed to classify grad student researchers as employees and allow them to form a union, and UC student researchers are now a huge step closer to victory! Learn more about the campaign in Detroit Free Press, Inside Higher Ed, and Teen Vogue.

Portland, Oregon reached its highest temperature ever on June 28, officially reaching 116 degrees Fahrenheit, surpassing the previously historic temperatures as predicted. As of this writing, we learned The Washington Post reported that in British Columbia, temperatures recently peaked at 121 degrees.

A heat wave in a part of the world typically known for cooler temperatures year-round underscores the urgency to take action amid the climate emergency. We continue to approach a time when the resources we have available to withstand sudden and rapid changes in weather, and the subsequent natural disasters, due to climate change cannot keep pace.
From our President and Founder Joe Uehlein:

"This heat wave will be 'historic,' according to climatologists in Washington State. Record temps of over 100 degrees coming to the Pacific northwest. Portland could see 112 degrees; Redding, CA = 113 degrees. Most of the western U.S. is in worse shape. Coupled with two years of severe drought, this is a recipe for deadly, destructive fires.

"This is why it bothers me when people talk about avoiding the worst impacts of global warming and climate change. We're already experiencing massive ecosystem collapse, manifold sustainability challenges, and deadly/destructive climate chaos. Retweet this »

Climate change is real. We are in a race against the clock. Learn how you can be a part of the movement to protect workers in climate transition.

The New Jersey Work Environment Council has honored Todd E. Vachon, PhD, Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN), and faculty member in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR), “for outstanding work throughout the challenging COVID-19 pandemic.”

LNS commented, “The Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) is honored to work with Todd in our fight for climate, workers and equity. Each day, we’re inspired by his enthusiasm, dedication and wisdom.”

The following are job listings posted in the month of July. Please check with the representatives of each to see if they are still available before applying.

• Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) is hiring two labor-climate organizers. The ideal candidates are strategic thinkers who have organizing experience in the labor movement, an understanding of union campaign strategies, labor movement dynamics, and building worker power and who wants to join the fight for transformative climate change. Learn more and apply.
  
  
• Railroad Workers United (RWU) is hiring a part-time (10 hours/week at $20/hour) staff person to assist the organization with membership processing and renewals, fundraising, and other clerical support staff duties. Applicants must be self-starting and highly motivated, should be familiar with various software and online platforms, and have experience in the labor, environment, and/or social justice movements. Learn more and apply.
  
  
• Pittsburghers for Public Transit is hiring a Community Organizer! We are seeking a full-time community organizer to start in Summer 2021! The community organizer will work out of our Garfield office but may work part-time remotely. The primary responsibilities will be to mobilize grassroots action for more equitable, affordable, and sustainable transit service. The organizer will directly engage riders, bus operators and residents in community campaigns for expanded transit funding at the state and federal level, for fair fares, and for affordable housing and equitable development that puts people first. Learn more and apply.
  
  
• Service Employees International Union is hiring for a newly created position: Senior Environmental Justice Coordinator to support SEIU local unions in the areas of member/leader engagement and education including the support for already formed or soon to be established local union EJ committees, support for local unions participating in state based climate related tables and coordination and support for carrying out national mobilization goals in the states. A few pluses include: organizing chops, coalition work, some knowledge of climate policy, either based in DC or willingness to be there when needed plus ability for additional travel to local unions. Please take a look at the linked job description below. If you know of people who would be interested, please share. Learn more and apply.

A native of Chicago, Mike began working in the labor movement in 1973 as an organizer building community and student support across the Midwest for striking garment workers of the Farah manufacturing company in El Paso and San Antonio Texas. He went on to organize hospital workers, clothing and textile workers, warehouse workers, public employees and more with a focus on building labor-community alliances for social and economic justice in states throughout New England, where he eventually became the Secretary Treasurer of the New England Regional Joint Board of UNITE.

After leaving his union in 1999 to accept a position at the national AFL-CIO in Washington DC, Mike held a number of senior positions in the Federation’s Field Department working to build and strengthen the nationwide network of State Federations, Area and Central Labor Councils. When the 2013 AFL-CIO Convention elected Tefere Gebre, the first immigrant, refugee, and central labor council leader to be elected to the top leadership as its Executive Vice President, Mike joined Tefere as his Executive Assistant, a position he held until retiring from the national federation in 2018.

Mike has a B.A. in Studies for Social Change from Knox College in Galesburg Illinois, and a Masters Degree in Labor Studies from the University of Massachusetts. His wife Dianne of Portland Maine is Nurse Practitioner currently working in Queens, NY. Their children Jennifer and Brendan and their spouses Daniel and Michelle live in New Jersey as do their two grandchildren, (around whom the world rotates) Michael Graceon (6 years) and Liam Gregory (3 years).

Mike brings a lifetime of organizing experience and a passion for building a progressive labor movement to the important work of LNS. For all of our children and grandchildren–our efforts must be consistent and long term to build a just and sustainable economy, environment and society.

Photo: Mike C. with Maria Castañeda, Secretary-Treasurer of 1199 Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers East and Labor Network for Sustainability Board Director at the 2019 Climate Strikes in Manhattan.

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