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The late AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka once said, “Just transition is just an invitation to a fancy funeral.”

The 2023 auto workers strike may represent the first occasion where workers have put a Just Transition from fossil fuels at the core of their program for their industry. They not only included it, they struck to implement it – and won. They thereby laid out a new approach to Just Transition that could well become the centerpiece of a new strategy for the labor-climate movement.

The auto workers “stand-up strike” fought to impose a transition to climate-safe electric vehicles with high-wage union conditions on the entire auto industry. As UAW president Sean Fain put it, “The UAW supports and is ready for the transition to a clean auto industry. But the EV transition must be a just transition that ensures auto workers have a place in the new economy.” The UAW calls for “strong labor standards tied to all taxpayer funding that goes to auto and manufacturing companies.” The EV transition “must include strong union partnerships with the high pay and safety standards that generations of UAW members have fought for and won.”

The auto workers strike won major elements of such a Just Transition plan. For example, six thousand jobs in four new GM battery plants will be covered under the UAW’s master agreement, putting n end to this particular piece of the “race to the bottom.” Ford and Stellantis workers won the right to strike the entire company over any plant closing – potentially making it extremely costly for a company to close high-wage unionized plants and move production to low-wage, non-union locations. Union safety committees will have paid time and contract rights to challenge workplace hazards, making it harder to turn a buck by forcing workers to work in unsafe conditions.

Other unions should take note. As momentum builds in the US and worldwide for a transition to a climate-safe economy, workers in all industries need to develop strategies like the UAW’s to make it a Just Transition. 

Some labor organizations have already started. For example:

•  The Teamsters’ several years ago developed a plan for “multimodal transportation” to redesign the entire freight system to be worker- and climate-friendly.
• Railroad Workers United has developed a plan to completely reorganize America’s decaying railroad system under public ownership.
• Warehouse Workers for Justice has developed a plan for the warehousing industry called “For Good Jobs and Clean Air: How a Just Transition to Zero Emission Vehicles Can Transform Warehousing.” 

The UAW strike produced a new level of cooperation between unions and environmental groups. Why not make the development of Just Transition plans for the rest of America’s industries a further step in that cooperation?

By Bakari Height, LNS Transit Organizer

 For the sixth year, the Transit Equity Network of Labor Network for Sustainability will celebrate Rosa Park’s birthday with a nationwide Transit Equity Day February 5. Transit rider organizations, labor unions, and transit equity advocates will take attention-grabbing actions locally around the country to dramatize the need for just transit for all.

 We are doing a two-pronged approach for Transit Equity Day this year. We will hold a week of conversations with a DC-focused congressional staff briefing on why funding service on transit is imperative with respect to Hank Johnson’s bill. We will also be promoting the same local actions during the week of Transit Equity Day, but encourage participants to tune their focus on why operations funding is important to their local communities. The Transit Equity Network of the Labor Network for Sustainability will partner with the National Campaign for Transit Justice will provide material to help you spread this message so that we can make our voices louder.  

 For more information on how to sign up or participate, go to Transit Equity - Labor Network for Sustainability (labor4sustainability.org). Follow us on all of our social media channels and tune in to our livestream on our Transit Equity Network and Labor Network for Sustainability channels on Monday, February 5th at Noon EST. 

Additionally, check out Bakari's recent article, "Infrastructure Bill Offers Too Little Progress on Climate and Equity" on StreetsBlog USA

By: Sydney Ghazarian, LNS Organizer

Through bold strategy and collective action, United Auto Workers (UAW) have won historic gains in their 2023 contracts with the Big 3 Auto companies– gains that turned the tide against an unjust transition to electric vehicles and demonstrated that climate progress and economic justice can and must be won in tandem.

UAW’s ratified contracts with the Big 3 include:

• Provisions for expanding unionized EV work. The agreement with General Motors includes a commitment to future battery plants being included in the national agreement with UAW – meaning they will be good union jobs. Other contracts include guarantees for lower barriers to unionization at specific battery plants and commitments to the expansion of EV production already being done by unionized workers at existing plants.
• A 25% wage increase, including an 11% bump in the first year plus restoration of cost-of-living adjustments.
• An end to wage tiers that kept some employees at lower pay than others — a historic and important win for ensuring that EV work is both high-paying and union.
• An end to permanent ‘temporary’ employee status, with temps converting to full employment status after 9 months of work. This win will result in thousands of temporary employees who have spent years working at the company being able to reap the pay and benefits of employment status as soon as the contract is ratified.
• The right to strike over plant closures at all three automakers, which will provide the UAW critical leverage against the Big Three shipping jobs to anti-union states and overseas.
• Reopening the Belvidere Assembly Plant to manufacture EV batteries and serve as a parts depot — one of the only Big Three plants ever reopened after a closure
• The Stellantis agreement includes a moratorium on outsourcing, as well as product and investment commitments, giving workers significant leverage over corporate decision-making.
• Many critical provisions that provide protection for employees during transitions, such as allowing some employees to maintain their seniority from closed or idled plants, transfer rights, and increased moving allowance. 
• Many significant investments in providing a safety net for workers during a transition, such as increased investment in retirement, tuition assistance, and a year of healthcare coverage following indefinite layoffs.
• The contract will expire on April 30, 2028 so that workers can strike on May 1st- International Workers Day. President Fain has called on other unions to align their contract expiration dates, as to maximize their collective power.

The UAW Solidarity Committee– which consists of climate and social movement organizations and is coordinated by the Labor Network for Sustainability– created a brief on the UAW strike outcomes to share with movement partners. You can read more here.

In October this year, California Labor for Climate Jobs (CLCJ) launched as a new, state-wide coalition of fourteen California labor unions with express intent to promote a worker-led transition to a just and climate-safe economy. As a coalition of unions, CLCJ is uniquely pro-worker and pro-climate, and represents teachers, oil workers, utility workers, domestic workers, healthcare workers, city, county and state employees, farmworkers, janitors, autoworkers and more. CLCJ unions include a broad array of workers who are experiencing the impact of climate change. 

“As a home childcare provider in Fairfield, I have worked through power outages, extreme heat, and hazardous smoke that endangered me and the kids I care for,” said Allison Davis, a member of United Domestic Workers. “We are calling for strong smoke and heat standards, disaster insurance and rights for workers in disaster zones so that these conditions don’t become the new normal for workers.”

Climate also impacts airport workers, for example, who clean airplane cabins between flights, toiling in tight spaces with no air conditioning, which increases their vulnerability to illness and death in extreme heat. And at the same time, oil workers face job loss as climate policies move to phase out the fossil fuel sector and shift to renewable energy. With 2023 as the hottest summer on record, the region’s first-ever National Weather Service tropical storm watch, and billions of dollars lost annually to floods and wildfires, more action is needed in Sacramento to reach the state's climate goals and protect workers.

This fall, CLCJ released the California Worker Climate Bill of Rights, calling on legislators to enact policy solutions that will protect workers from climate hazards such as extreme heat, fires, smoke and floods that have endangered the livelihood and health of a broad cross section of California workers. Members in the coalition have pledged to stand in solidarity with each other as they fight for a worker-led transition to be able to make a living on a healthy, living planet. 

LA Times Coverage by Sammy Roth: https://calaborforclimatejobs.org/boiling-point-can-climate-activists-and-labor-unions-find-common-ground/ 

For more on California Labor for Climate Jobs: https://calaborforclimatejobs.org/

For the California Worker Climate Bill of Rights: California Worker Climate Bill of Rights

By Veronica Wilson, LNS California Organizer

For the second year in a row, SMART (Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation) International Union hosted a “Cleanup Kingspan Virtual Summit,” inviting organizations to stand with workers fighting for “good” “green” jobs. Labor Network for Sustainability co-sponsored the summit along with Center on Race Poverty and the Environment, Communities for a Better Environment, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and California Green New Deal Network (CA GNDN). The summit was a chance to hear from workers at Kingspan plants in California who are calling for a “Just Transition” – living wages and healthy workplaces for the people who manufacture the “green” products we need to reduce emissions from buildings. 

Kingspan is a $15B company based in Ireland manufacturing building efficiency materials like insulation and skylights. Workers at two Kingspan factories in Modesto and Santa Ana, California described indoor air pollution, a lack of basic protective equipment, persistent cough, headaches, throat and nasal irritation, and shared why they’re calling out Kingspan for greenwashing. Rafael Cabrera said, “Health & Safety at Kingspan is important to me because a company that prides itself on being environmentally sustainable should make sure their employees work in a safe & healthy work environment.” 

From a community perspective on the importance of cleaning up a company like Kingspan, Zach Lou from the California Green New Deal Network said "Equitable climate action must also mean making sure any company, like Kingspan, that wants to brand itself as part of the solution to the climate crisis, is also one that offers good jobs and treats its workers with dignity and respect. We're proud to stand in solidarity and support with these workers to call out Kingspan for its greenwashing and demand that they improve the health and safety conditions for all their workers."

For more: "Kingspan Workers Expose the Dark Side of a 'Green' Industry-" Clean Up Kingspan

Image Source: freshidea- stock.adobe.com

At a November Department of Energy panel on “Community Voices from the Ground” grassroots environmental justice advocates asked the Department to stop promoting large-scale polluting project in marginalized communities of color. John Beard, founder and director of the Port Arthur Community Action Network, said,

“DOE says it is committed to promoting environmental justice in all its activities. And yet, the agency continues to grant export authorizations to methane gas export terminals and explosive carbon bombs in low-income communities and communities of color.” 

The environmental justice advocates asked DOE to stop investing in hydrogen hubs, carbon capture and sequestration technologies at refineries and utilities, and direct air carbon capture technology aimed at sucking CO2 out of the atmosphere, calling them all “dangerous distractions.” Beard said producing hydrogen requires large amounts of energy that will “worsen the effects of climate change while allowing big oil and gas to reap more profits while our children get sick, our air is polluted, and our safety is compromised.” 

Simultaneously, at the White House Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said on a conference call with community groups and reporters that nearly 470 federal programs with billions of dollars in annual investment were being “reimagined and transformed to meet the Justice40 goal and maximize benefits to disadvantaged communities.”

Image Source: Antonio Rodriguez- stock.adobe.com

The abundance of climate-heating gases in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2022. A new report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) finds that climate-heating gases in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2022 and “there is no end in sight to the rising trend,” which is largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Greenhouse gas levels will continue to increase until emissions are cut all the way down to net zero, meaning global heating and the impacts of extreme weather will also continue to increase.

The heating effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose by 50% between 1990 and 2022, with CO2 accounting for about 80% of this increase. The Earth has not experienced similar levels of CO2 for 3-5 million years, when the global temperature was 2-3C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than today.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/15/climate-heating-gases-reach-record-highs-un-reports

 Image source: MaxSafaniuk- stock.adobe.com

According to the latest US government forecast, the US will extract more crude oil in 2023 than ever in history, more than twice as much as ten years ago. There will also be record-breaking natural gas production, with US exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) predicted to double in the next four years. Oil and gas production is predicted to continue at near-record levels until 2050, with one-third of global oil and gas expansion in the US.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/27/us-oil-gas-record-fossil-fuels-cop28-united-nations

Image Source: Satoshi Kina- stock.adobe.com

While it is often asserted that rich countries like the United States will be spared the worst effects of climate change, the recently released Fifth National Climate Assessment finds that temperatures in the US are actually rising faster than the global average. According to the authoritative report, Americans are suffering “far-reaching and worsening” consequences from the climate crisis, with worse to come. 

An article in The Guardian summarized some of the National Climate Assessment’s findings:

• The climate crisis is causing disruption to all regions of the US, from flooding via heavier rainfall in the north-east to prolonged drought in the south-west. A constant is heat – “across all regions of the US, people are experiencing warming temperatures and longer-lasting heatwaves” – with nighttime and winter temperatures rising faster than daytime and summer temperatures.
• People’s health is already being harmed by worsened air quality from smog, wildfire smoke, dust and increased pollen, as well as from extreme weather events and the spread of infectious diseases. Children born in 2020 will be exposed to far more climate-related hazards compared to people born in 1965.
• There are “profound changes” underway in the water cycle, raising the risk of flooding, drought and degraded water supplies for people in the US. Snow cover in mountains is decreasing, while the nation’s supply of groundwater is under threat from warming temperatures.
• Americans’ everyday and recreational activities are at risk, with a changing climate causing invasive species and harmful algal blooms that prevent access to beaches and fishing for certain species. Culturally important species for Indigenous people, some of them subsistence hunters, are shifting in response to temperature changes.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/14/us-national-climate-assessment-global-warming-report

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The UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Green Economy Program has just launched a Federal Infrastructure Funding Database. The database is a “one-stop center for unions, community-based organizations, employers, government agencies and others interested in applying for funds available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act.” The database tracks notices of funding opportunities from various federal agencies and provides a description of the grants, application links, key dates, webinar dates, and other useful information.

To access the database go to https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/forms/open-funding-database-request-form/ and fill out the brief form.  

By Liz Ratzloff, LNS Co-Executive Director

Recycling is not broken, but it is not in itself the full solution.

Those of us in the fight for climate justice have long heard that recycling is broken. “Most recycling ends up at the landfill.” “Recycling uses more energy than it saves.” “If you put one contaminant in the recycling, the whole load will go to the landfill.” I’ve repeated these sentiments without really knowing where I got them from. So recently I toured my local recycling center, Recycle Ann Arbor (RAA), which serves Washtenaw County, Michigan to figure out how recycling in my community actually works. Throughout the tour, workers emphasized two points. First, recycling is not broken. Second, recycling is not the solution. 

RAA is a non-profit and was founded in 1977 as a program of the Ecology Center. After starting one of the nation's first curbside recycling programs, RAA has expanded to operate one of the state’s largest community drop-off stations, reuse center, curbside recycling program, and construction and demolition material recovery yard. 

Within the first two minutes of the tour, the tour guide proudly stated that RAA workers are unionized and warned against the risk of greenwashing in the packaging sector. RAA makes recycling work by striving for zero waste and building a more circular economy, which includes economic, social, and environmental bottom lines. Workers sort piles of recyclables and then ship materials locally (within 20 miles) to companies that will better recover and remanufacture materials into new products. When asked about how well community members comply with their recycling guidelines, the tour guides were clear about the problems: industry is responsible for filling recycling centers with plastics. Industry blames the recycling system and consumers for plastic pollution, but the real problem is that industry is making too much plastic, most of which cannot be recycled. 

RAA co-founded the Alliance of Mission-Based Recyclers (AMBR) to guide future recycling policies and build credible, transparent systems. AMBR works towards this by advocating for the elimination of unnecessary plastics, expanding bottle deposit programs, and policies that put the responsibility on the producers. 

Read more about AMBR’s work here.

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Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union, has written in the union’s newspaper:

It is in the interests of postal workers and all working people at home and abroad to stop the madness of the bloated military budget and domination by the military industrial complex. As called for by APWU and AFL-CIO convention resolutions, let’s bring the war dollars home, insist that our tax dollars are used to improve our day-to-day lives and collective societal needs, such as health care, education, public transportation, affordable housing, childcare, food, clean water, addressing the climate crisis, and safe, good paying union jobs, including for veterans.  

Dimondstein’s statement comes as Veterans and Labor for Sensible Priorities, a coalition of trade unionists and veterans, is campaigning for H.R. 1134, a bill to move $100 billion from the military budget to funding social programs and dealing with climate change. 

The Climate Crisis and Militarism Project of Veterans for Peace, an initiator of the campaign, says, “The issues of climate crisis, workers and labor, environmental justice, and militarism must all be addressed. Not only the fossil fuel industry, but also the military-industrial complex must be reduced.” 

Just Transition, they say, means creating good union jobs to provide continued employment for workers currently in fossil fuel corporations and the military-industrial complex. Just Transition includes facilitating justice to communities damaged by corporate pollution, including monetary reparations and shutdowns of toxic industrial sites.

If “jobs” are not to be an argument for war, there must be a Just Transition for defense-related workers. 

For sign-on statement supporting H.R. 1134: bit.ly/VL4SP-signon

Image Source: @UAW on Twitter, December 14, 2023

The United Auto Workers international, which represents 400,000 workers and 580,000 retirees, called on December 1 for a cease-fire in Israel and Palestine. UAW President Sean Fain posted:

I am proud that the UAW International Union is calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe.

At a press conference outside the White House where protesters had been on hunger strike, Brandon Mancilla, UAW director, said, “A labor movement that fights for social and economic justice for all workers must always stand against war and for peace.” He also announced,

Our international executive board will also be forming a divestment and just transition working group to study the history of Israel and Palestine, our union’s economic ties to the conflict, and explore how we can have a just transition for US workers from war to peace.

The American Postal Workers Union,  UE union, the California Nurses Association, the Chicago Teachers Union and several other local unions and worker groups have issued public calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. You can view a roundup of unions calling for a ceasefire here.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/01/uaw-ceasefire-gaza

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To be a relentless force for urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement to secure an ecologically sustainable and economically just future where everyone can make a living on a living planet.

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