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Rudy Gonzalez, Exec. Dir. of the SF Labor Council, spoke for the labor participants at a pre-march press event.

One highlight of the day was creation of the largest street mural ever painted in the streets surrounding SF Civic Center in front of City Hall. Teams of artists outlined the murals in advance. Painting was completed by volunteers from among the marchers as they arrived in Civic Center from the march up Market Street from Embarcadero Plaza. One of the murals was created by the Labor Contingent.

Cynthia Hernandez, the Executive Director of the South Florida AFL-CIO, recently gave a presentation on South Florida unions initiative to address climate change to a LNS videoconference, Cynthia can be heard 14 minutes from start time.

Cynthia says, “Miami and South Florida are ground zero for sea level rise. Also for hurricanes. We also have a crippled infrastructure. We are the next Puerto Rico.”

In 2016, the AFL-CIO Labor Council in Miami realized:

we needed to have a conversation around the impact of climate change, not just on our members, but on our communities. So we realized that we could no longer ignore the fact that climate change is having an impact on all of us. We also wanted to get ahead of climate change policies and think about where new organizing opportunities were arising as a result of climate change.

So in 2017 the Council began to build “a labor and community coalition to address climate change,” to “find solutions through organizing campaigns and a policy lens to build worker power in South Florida.” The coalition included AFSCME Florida, SEIU, International Union of Operating Engineers, South Florida Building Trades, United Teachers of Dade, and community partners who were working on climate change.

An important step was to conduct a survey of union members “to identify he most pressing climate issues their members were facing.”

View survey »

Here are a few important findings:

Workers who work outside “noticed that heat waves were getting hotter and hotter,” which was difficult “for someone who work long hours directly in the sun.”

For transit workers and others paid by the hour, “during natural disasters their hours were getting longer and longer,” but also “their work was being disrupted” so that “many of them would be unable to work, and therefore lose pay.  

Longshore workers at the Port of Miami were without work at the Port of Miami during the last hurricane season because the Port was closed. After several days the Port was reopened, and workers were having to work longer hours to make up their lost time.

Because South Florida and Florida is a tourist economy there has been a sharp decline in employment during hurricane season because there were fewer and fewer visitors booking hotels and coming to Florida.

When the interviewers talked to teachers, “many of them identified children as the most severely impacted by natural disasters.” Many children from low-income neighborhoods of color depend on the two free meals they receive at school, which are breakfast and lunch. “Unfortunately when schools are closed, as they were last year for a two week period, often these children go hungry.” Also, “teachers were directly impacted because the school year was extended, so they had to work two more extra weeks at the end of their season.” Teachers also noted that classrooms and schools were damaged because of the weather.

In the construction industry union members “are extremely impacted by heat.” In addition, “They lose work because of flooding.”

Many workers reported unsafe working conditions during hurricanes; hospitals, for example, were “not being adapted to extreme weather conditions.”

Workers often have to “work excess hours” without “time to look after their own homes.” Many folks were living in evacuation zones; “they were still forced to go in work.” Many “had to leave behind their homes, their families,” and “many of them actually refused to go in to work because they had to take care of their homes or because they were in evacuation zones and became climate refugees.” Their unions were able to get their jobs back.

The bottom line of the survey of South Florida union members: An overwhelming 80% of our survey respondents said that they were worried about climate change affecting them personally.”

The coalition recently held a retreat to organize a campaign around these issues. “Public school bus drivers have begun to test the temperature readings on school buses.” Soon agricultural workers will start taking temperature readings in the fields. The coalition has also developed “a curriculum and workshops on the basics of climate change in South Florida” and is sharing it with unions and their members. And it helped coordinate the September 8 People’s Climate Movement march in South Florida.

The youth climate movement Sunrise has issued a call for a federal Jobs Guarantee that would provide jobs for all, focused on the transition to a climate-safe economy. Sunrise is a movement “to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.

Two Sunrise leaders, Varshini Prakash and Sarah Meyerhoff, called in their article “It’s Time for the Climate Movement to Embrace a Federal Jobs Guarantee” for a policy through which “the government directly employs anyone who wants a job but doesn’t have one.” Polling firm Civis Analytics says a jobs guarantee is one of the most popular issues they’ve ever polled 52% in support and 29% opposed. Polling by Sunrise indicates that support for a jobs guarantee focused on climate protection is even more popular.

Sunrise’s “Climate Jobs Guarantee Policy Primer” says that by making a Jobs Guarantee a headline demand for the climate movement, we can end the “jobs vs. environment” fallacy forever, rally unprecedented public support behind climate action, and ensure that JG proposals include jobs for a just and rapid transition to a zero-carbon, climate-resilient economy.

LNS is working with Sunrise and other groups to develop a labor-friendly strategy for a climate jobs guarantee.

A report commissioned by Canada’s Building Trades Unions says that “meeting Canada’s job goals could generate millions of jobs in the building trades by 2050.” The report, “Jobs for Tomorrow: Canada’s Building Trades and Net Zero Emissions,” shows that meeting Canada’s climate goals could generate “over 3.9 million direct jobs in the building trades by 2050, and 19.8 million jobs if induced, indirect, and supply-chain jobs are included.” The report finds:

The construction industry has a vital role to play in meeting Canada’s climate goals by supporting production in other sectors, including electricity generation, efficient buildings, and new transportation infrastructure.

Canada’s ability to meet our climate goals will be based on the construction of new facilities for the generation of electricity using renewable sources, including hydro, wind, solar, tidal, biomass, and geothermal energy.

In addition, it will require the construction and maintenance of more efficient buildings and transportation infrastructure.
These net zero initiatives will require the work of a variety of tradespeople, including masons, boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, electrical workers, glaziers, HVAC, linemen, ironworkers, and other construction trades.

Bob Blakely, Canadian Operating Office for Canada’s Building Trades Unions, says, “This study shows the important and continuing role for our members as we transition to a low-carbon economy.

The Labor Network for Sustainability: Making A Living On A Living Planet

The mission of the Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) is to engage workers and communities in building a transition to a society that is ecologically sustainable and economically just. We work to foster deep relationships that help the labor movement engage in the climate movement and the climate movement understand the economics of climate change and the importance of organized labor as a key partner in confronting the climate crisis.

We work with trade unions, worker centers and labor support organizations to advance a climate action program that will help the labor movement be a leading force for a just transition to a climate safe and equitable economy. This includes building a network of leaders and rank and file activists in the labor movement to confront climate change called the Labor Convergence on Climate.

We also work with climate and climate justice leaders to develop approaches to more effectively build partnerships with the labor movement, to understand the central importance of work in peoples’ lives and assure that good jobs are an essential element of a just transition. We encourage these organizations to integrate workers' rights policies in their agendas.

LNS serves also as a primary resource on just transition within the climate and labor movements. We identify and analyze policies related to just transition, develop principles that advance the rights of workers and communities who will be impacted in the transition to a climate safe economy, and we share information about just transition victories and effective strategies.

Donate today to Labor Network for Sustainability and help us build a future that works for all of us.