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Sims’ lived experience is evidence of the power and potential of organized labor. The granddaughter of Louisiana sharecroppers and the daughter of a single mother, Sims has seen the power of unions to change lives. The Great Migration brought Sims’ grandfather to Washington, where his union job provided economic dignity for his family. Her mom’s union job pulled their family out of the cycle of poverty. As a young mother, it was Sims’ union job that allowed her to build economic security – and activated her as a leader in Washington’s labor movement.

As President of the largest labor organization in Washington state, representing the interests of more than 500,000 members in 600 different unions, Sims strongly believes that climate chaos and income inequality are the two existential crises of our generation. She is focusing her tenure at the WSLC on strengthening the labor movement and building a clean energy economy that prioritizes the needs of workers and their families.

• The LNS-initiated Transit Equity Day bringing together transit workers and transit-hungry communities to fight for “Stronger Communities Through Better Transit.”
• Architectural workers organizing to demand “A Just Transition for the Building Sector.”
• Auto workers and the climate movement joining to fight for a just transition in the auto industry.
• A coalition of unions, environmental, environmental justice, and community groups in California winning policies to protect workers in the transition to climate-safe energy.

Notwithstanding such initiatives, organized labor has been slow to change its approach to climate change. Does that mean it is too dug in to ever change? We tell below how, between October and February, the AFL-CIO has dramatically shifted its position on the war in Gaza, now calling for a cease-fire and “provision of desperately needed shelter, food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance to Gazans.” If organized labor can so rapidly shift what appeared to be its immovable position on Gaza, why not on protection of the climate?

(Photo credit Laura J Nash)

April 11th - 12th in Chicago, LNS and the US Climate Action Network (USCAN) are bringing representatives of the labor-climate movement together from across the Midwest to learn from one another, deepen relationships, and develop collective strategies in pursuit of a just transition. The meeting will focus on building collaboration between the regional and local projects of those in attendance, in addition to reports on the states of emissions and just transition for the Midwest, federal grant opportunities, and the USCAN Fast, Full, Fair Fossil Fuel Phase-Out campaign.

Climate change and the fossil fuel industry pose a number of risks to the Midwest, including threatening the fresh water reserve of the Great Lakes and straining the aging infrastructure of Midwestern cities. The Midwest has 20% higher per capita greenhouse gas emissions compared to the national average despite a shrinking manufacturing sector (including both green manufacturing and union jobs). Yet the region is well positioned to be a climate haven - if the climate and labor movements can ensure a just transition for workers and reinvestment in community resilience.

Space is limited so we are asking those interested in attending to apply here. Applications are due by March 1st, and you can expect a response by March 15th. We encourage organizations to apply with one representative who can bring the work back to your local networks. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Chris at chris@labor4sustainability.org

The Poor People’s Campaign is holding a day of nationally-coordinated direct action in 32 state capitols and D.C. on March 2. They are demanding:

• abolishing poverty as the 4th leading cause of death in the US 
• a living wage ($15+)
• full voting rights 
• no more voter suppression
• worker’s rights & labor rights 
• healthcare for all 
• affordable, adequate housing 
• an end to gun violence, profit & proliferation 
• clean air & water 
• environmental justice 
• fully-funded public education
• just immigration laws 
• an end to systemic racism, white supremacy, & the extremist political agenda

For more information, and to join in your state: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/march2/

The fix?

A new piece of legislation introduced last month by Congressman Hank Johnson from the Atlanta area would change that. The bill titled, “Stronger Communities through Better Transit Act” will provide high-quality transit to communities across the country.  

A Newsweek op ed by John Samuelsen, international president of the Transport Workers Union and John Costa, international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, explains how the Act would work:

The legislation would allocate $20 billion annually for four years, specifically so agencies could "make substantial improvements in transit service." That's $80 billion for operations, not capital projects.

With such financial support, agencies could significantly boost their current schedules and run buses and trains more frequently. They could robustly extend the hours of operation on routes and lines that now are shut down for the night. And they could add entirely new service, like a local or express bus route, in tragically underserved neighborhoods.

For Height’s full op ed: https://chicagocrusader.com/honor-rosa-parks-not-through-words-but-action/ 

For Samuelsen and Costa’s full op ed: https://www.newsweek.com/working-people-need-congress-fund-mass-transit-opinion-1866491 

ART WORKS is chock full of examples about how art communicates and
inspires, educates and agitates; and helps us all organize!

For those of us who work for social change, a stronger democracy, equality,
labor and environmental rights, and the nourishment of the soul and the
betterment of the human condition, this book is essential reading.
I have always said that art is a critical complement to activism, for no
matter how brilliant our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that
makes the difference and builds a movement. Ken Grossinger proves that
in ART WORKS!

For more about ART WORKS: https://thenewpress.com/books/art-works

Joshua Dedmond is not only Co-executive Director of the Labor Network for Sustainability – he is also Program Director for Cooperation Jackson, a pioneering effort to use coops to foster economic equity, sustainability, and community empowerment. 

On his recent podcast “Beyond Capitalism: Embracing Cooperative Economics,” Joshua describes how cooperative economics, from worker-owned cooperatives to community land trusts, are helping build resilient, inclusive, and sustainable communities. 

Joshua’s interview starts at 18:45 on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gIF2sNLWk

The Architecture Lobby (TAL) is a grassroots organization of architectural workers that advocates for just labor practices and an equitable built environment. Founded in the United States and international in membership, TAL brings experience and expertise from many design fields—architecture, construction, planning, landscape, engineering, academia—to protect the rights and livelihoods of all workers. The Lobby’s Green New Deal Working Group focuses on organizing for ecological justice as it relates to architectural labor, the built environment, and sustainable futures for all.   

To hear a discussion of “A Just Transition for the Building Sector” by members of the Lobby’s Green New Deal Working Group: https://failedarchitecture.com/podcast/a-just-transition-for-the-building-sector-w-architecture-lobbys-gnd-working-group/  

And for more on the building sector and just transition, watch the LNS Young Workers Convergence Building Trades Panel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBT2HmeMrnE

The UAW strike against the auto industry Big Three won not only better wages and conditions for auto workers, but also forged a pathway for a just transition to climate-safe vehicle production for the US auto industry. How did it happen? Learn the inside story from Tim Thomas, assistant director of the UAW National Political Community Action Program, and Sydney Ghazarian, Director of Strategic Campaigns at the Labor Network for Sustainability.

To watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1kF_65bEQE

In an interview for the podcast series “Organize the Unorganized: The Rise of the CIO,” labor historian and LNS co-founder and Senior Advisor Jeremy Brecher recounts the rise of industrial unionism in the 1930s: 

Workers wanted unions. And from all their previous experience, either most workers were excluded from the craft unions, or the craft unions were extremely weak in confronting modern industry on behalf of anybody except tiny, residual, skilled craft groups that were able to hold onto some power within modern industry. It was not a vehicle for them to realize power because their power had to be based on the hundreds of thousands of employees facing gigantic corporations like General Motors and US Steel coming together as a mass force in order to have the power to actually shut down and have an impact on those large modern industries.

So the core attraction of the CIO unions was that workers wanted collective power, and they understood they needed to have some kind of self-organization for that. And the CIO at that critical time, when that desire was very strong, came forward and essentially created organizing committees: the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, the Rubber Workers Organizing Committee, and so on. They said, “We will be the proto-union for you folks in this whole industry. Just sign up and then you’ll be organized in a way that you can be a collective force against your employer.”

For the full interview: https://jacobin.com/2024/01/organize-the-unorganized-congress-of-industrial-organizations-labor-history-unions

For the first time ever, global average heating exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for a 12-month period. Climate scientists have declared 2023 the hottest year on record. In 2015 the Paris Agreement aimed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most harmful climate change impacts. These figures mean we’ve already breached that limit.

Source: https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/first-year-long-breach-15-degrees-celsius-could-be-more-enduring-without-accelerated

By LNS California Organizer Veronica Wilson

Workers in California have allied with environmental, environmental justice, and community groups to move the state closer to a just transition to renewable energy. 

California has a strong movement for Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), which allows municipalities to bargain with electricity suppliers over both price and environmental responsibility. Nine Community Choice Aggregators are united in a joint power procurement agency called California Community Power. 

California’s Workforce and Environmental Justice Alliance has been pushing California Community Power to establish policies to protect workers in the transition to climate-safe energy. In a recent win, Ava Energy in the East Bay adopted these policies – the fourth member of California Community Power to do so. According to Andreas Cluver, Building Trades Council of Alameda County:

Any approach to climate action must also factor in the sustainability of our workforce. By passing this package of policies, Ava Community Energy uplifts local workers while fulfilling its obligation towards responsible environmental stewardship. We look forward to partnering with Ava on these important community projects. 

This marks a pivotal moment for workers and communities as the region looks to ramp up investments in green technology and decarbonization. Ava’s new policies underscore the positive impact CCAs can have on labor standards, environmental stewardship, and community well-being.

Learn more about the Alliance’s impactful work: https://action.greencal.org/action/wej 

(Photo credit Hannah Benet, Survival Media Agency)

The Lead the Charge coalition, a diverse network of local, national, and global advocacy partners working for an equitable, sustainable, and fossil-free auto supply chain, is releasing its 2024 Leaderboard results this month. Their scorecard evaluates over 20 automakers’ efforts to account for, remedy, and prevent environmental and human rights harms, including workers and indigenous rights issues in their supply chains. In a panel organized by Mighty Earth, Public Citizen, and Sunrise Project and moderated by Veronica Wilson of LNS last fall, UAW Region 6 locals noted their union fights for standards across the supply chain because all workers deserve respect and dignity on the job everywhere. Human rights advocates underscored that the US Senate conducted an investigation into forced Uyghur labor used by suppliers throughout the auto industry. In an LA Auto Show action following the panel, activists called out companies with messages that “EVs are the future” and “Drop coal and cut ties to forced labor.” The Lead the Charge coalition is exemplary of climate and labor rights solidarity vital to the fight for a just transition to a clean energy future that doesn’t leave workers behind.

Review the 2024 auto supply scorecards: https://leadthecharge.org/scorecards-summary/

On February 8, 2024 the AFL-CIO issued this “Statement on the Situation in Israel and Gaza”:

The AFL-CIO condemns the attacks by Hamas on October 7th and calls for a negotiated cease-fire in Gaza—including the immediate release of all hostages and provision of desperately needed shelter, food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance to Gazans—and reaffirms our support of a two-state solution for long-term peace and security.

This contrasted with an AFL-CIO statement on October 11, 2023 which made no call for a cease-fire and said “we are concerned about the emerging humanitarian crisis that is affecting Palestinians in Gaza and throughout the region” without calling for any action to address it.

The new statement follows a groundswell of labor support for a cease-fire in Gaza. On February 16, seven national unions and over two hundred local unions announced the formation of the National Labor Network for Ceasefire (NLNC) to “end the death and devastation” in the Middle East, and to expand support for the ceasefire among unions nationally. 

Together, unions calling for a ceasefire represent over 9 million union members – more than half the labor movement in the United States. They include American Postal Workers Union (APWU), the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the National Education Association (NEA), National Nurses United (NNU), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the United Electrical Workers (UE), joined by two hundred local unions and labor organizations. 

A recent study found that the climate warming greenhouse gas emissions released during just the first sixty days of the war in Gaza -- 281,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide --   were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. More than 99% can be attributed to Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza. 

For February 8 AFL-CIO statement:  https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-statement-situation-israel-and-gaza 

For the website of the National Labor Network for a Ceasefire (NLNC): https://www.laborforceasefire.org 

For more on the impact of Gaza war on global warming: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change

This issue of Making a Living on a Living Planet initiates the new series, “Champions”, featuring current and historic figures who can inspire the struggle for a worker - and climate - safe world.

(Photo credit People For Community Recovery)

Hazel Johnson was widely known as the “mother of the environmental justice movement.” Born in the “Cancer Alley” of south Louisiana in 1935, she moved to Altgeld Gardens public housing development in Chicago’s South Side. The project had been built on top of old sewage canals, toxic landfills and a nearby industrial incinerator. Seven years after they moved in, Johnson’s husband died of lung cancer. 

Johnson decided to investigate her neighbors’ health and discovered a very high cancer rate, linked to nearby industrial dumping sites, an incinerator, and sewage that ran directly through her neighborhood. In the early 1980s she formed People for Community Recovery. 

Johnson was instrumental in introducing federal legislation that recognized the disproportionate burden of pollution on communities of color, and established environmental justice as a new facet of the civil rights movement. After years of being put off by the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1994 environmental justice advocates won passage of the Environmental Justice Order, which established a working group between eleven federal agencies “to deliver environmental justice to all communities across America.”  

Johnson’s vision ranged from her neighborhood to the entire globe. In January 1995, not long after the public recognition of global warming, she told a journalist, “we have abused the planet mercilessly for years, and now we are paying the price.” 

For more on Hazel M. Johnson: https://veritenews.org/2024/01/25/hazel-johnson-new-orleans-environmental-justice/

Our Mission

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: