Photo: From the Sunday, March 17,2019 edition of The Washington Post. Omaha's Monument to Labor submerged in water--a result of winter storms causing the Missouri River to overflow. The image symbolizes our current climate crisis and the need for labor to take urgent action toward just transition.

On Friday, June 28 through Sunday, June 30, 2019, the Labor Network for Sustainability will hold its Third National Labor Convergence on Climate in Chicago. In the spirit of this year's theme, which is:

Strengthening Labor's Voice to Help Shape the Green New Deal

...this year's Convergence will result in an action agenda for labor around climate change as well as a draft strategy for organizing around that agenda. If you're interested in joining us, or if you want to nominate another person to attend, please click below to complete and submit our online form. You may nominate up to five (5) individuals, but you will need to do so using one form per nominee.

We are seeking candidates who:

• Want to engage the labor movement in climate protection steps that achieve the targets for greenhouse gas emissions that are required by climate science and provide a just transition for impacted workers.
• Are active in trade unions, worker centers, and worker organizing as rank-and-file members, leaders, or staff.
• Are active in climate protection activities within and beyond their union.
• Will help connect the Convergence with diverse racial, ethnic, gender, regional, age, occupational, organizational, and other constituencies. You can nominate up to five individuals; one form per nominee.

by Veronica Wilson, Labor Network for Sustainability

Photo credit: School Strike 4 Climate

SF Labor Statement in Support of a Green New Deal

Labor resolution shows unified support for a Green New Deal with strong labor and community provisions.

The San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO is publicly calling a Green New Deal “that includes a strong and binding commitment” to support workers and communities impacted by the transitioning economy. The announcement comes following a unanimous vote by the Council’s executive leadership on March 25th, 2019 and a unanimous floor vote at the April 8th delegate meeting.

Unions in San Francisco are faced with the undeniable consequences of climate change and building upon a 2017 AFL-CIO national resolution on climate change, are weighing in with a renewed sense of urgency. If we are to have a just economy, it must include environmental policies that support workers and a just transition for our communities.

“An economy that only works for energy bosses and their corporate allies must be challenged. And to challenge it, we have to think beyond the trap of pitting workers against climate change policy. As we see our firefighters, nurses and utility workers face the impacts of climate disaster on a daily basis, we have to keep frontline workers and disproportionately impacted communities at the forefront of a just transition to a cleaner and healthier economy. A new green economy must be shaped now and with this in mind.” - Rudy Gonzalez, Executive Director

• Read the national resolution »
• Read the SF resolution »

Report by Martha Hawthorne, SEIU 1021

On April 8 the San Francisco Labor Council passed a resolution: "A Green New Deal Must Have Strong Labor and Community Provisions." The resolution was submitted by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Locals 6 and 1245 and amended unanimously by the delegate body to endorse the Green New Deal Resolution co-sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey:

The San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO, goes on record to request the AFL-CIO endorse House Resolution 109 and Senate Resolution 59 -Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal, and urges all Congressional Representatives to cosponsor the Resolutions.

Conny Ford, Office and Professional Employees International Union 29:

“When your 8-year-old granddaughter asks you what are you doing to stop climate change, it is another strong reminder of the urgency of this work. I want to make sure that for those of you who have not read the actual language of HR 109, here is one of many articles referring to Labor:

Article G - ‘ensuring that the Green New Deal mobilization creates high-quality union jobs that pay prevailing wages, hires local workers, offers training and advancement opportunities and guarantees wage and benefit parity for workers affected by the transition’

Please note that this resolution was written by IBEW 6 and 1245. The jobs component is strong and gives us a strong voice at the table when future decisions are made and, just as importantly, gives me the opportunity to tell my granddaughter that the SF Labor Movement is doing everything we can to build a future for her and her kids and grandkids."

 In support of the resolution, Maria Guillen, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021, shared a Haiku she wrote,

“The Youth are protesting - Don’t buy us toys when we need Clean air and water.

The youth are marching, Damn adults in denial, Their future calls them.

The youth will not quit,
Perhaps Labor taught them well, When we fight, we win.

Labor, is change hard?
Not as hard knowing we fail, Keeping status quo.

Forest fires blaze
Ice caps melt into tear drops Hurricanes untamed

Please support amendment. Let there be a green new deal. Let’s save the planet.”

• Read Martha's entire article, "San Francisco Labor Council Endorses Green New Deal"  »

Bill promotes major investments in infrastructure, maintenance and expansion of existing manufacturing, increased usage of apprenticeships and collective bargaining rights

Below is the official news release distributed by Maine AFL-CIO on Tuesday, April 16. For more information, please contact Matt Schlobohm, Maine AFL-CIO at matt@maineaflcio.org.

Augusta - The Maine AFL-CIO endorsed LD 1282, a state Green New Deal for Maine, at a press conference in Augusta today.  Sponsored by Rep. Chloe Maxmin (D-Nobleboro), the bill requires electricity providers to procure 80 percent of their supply of electricity from renewable sources by 2040. LD 1282 requires the development of a plan to make major investments in infrastructure, maintenance and expansion of existing manufacturing and industrial facilities, promotion of collective bargaining rights and the expansion of solar on schools. The bill also requires increased use of registered apprenticeships, as a percentage of the total workforce, on new projects that generate electricity. 

Matt Schlobohm, Executive Director of the Maine AFL-CIO, said, “We face twin crises of skyrocketing inequality and increasing climate instability. Climate change and inequality pose dire threats to working people, to all that we love about Maine and to our democracy. The work of moving towards a renewable economy must be rooted in workers’ rights and economic and social justice.”

“To ensure that a transition to a renewable energy economy is equitable and just, we need to rewrite the rules of the economy to tackle the climate crisis and raise wages, guarantee workers’ freedom to organize and build an economy that works for all, not just those at the top,” Schlobohm continued.  “We have the opportunity to create thousands of high road jobs in our state while addressing climate instability. That will only happen if workers and unions have a vision to address the climate crisis and have a seat at the table in crafting bold climate protection policies.”

LD 1282 creates a task force with strong labor representation to develop a comprehensive plan to achieve a “high quality job creation, retention and training strategy including:”

A. Major investments in upgrading, rebuilding and developing the State's infrastructure;

B. Maintenance and expansion of existing manufacturing and industrial facilities, including paper mills;

C. A comprehensive approach to encourage Maine and US DOL registered apprenticeship and training programs in rural and urban communities of the State for jobs that contribute to preserving, sustaining or enhancing environmental quality, commonly referred to as green jobs; and 

D. Ensuring workers have a voice in these jobs through collective bargaining rights.

The bill will also include language requiring that there be increased usage of registered apprenticeships on all new energy construction projects phased in over the coming years. Additionally, LD 1282 creates a task force focused on the energy transition and its impacts that includes union representation. Rep. Maxmin reached out to unions early in the process to seek feedback and to shape the policy. 

The Maine AFL-CIO is a statewide federation of 160 local unions representing 40,000 workers.

Approved February 21, 2019

WHEREAS, climate change is an urgent crisis confronting people all over the world: extreme weather, rising sea levels, and pollution are wreaking havoc on the planet; and

WHEREAS, the climate crisis exacerbates already-existing systemic injustices along racial, regional, social, and economic lines; and

WHEREAS, the climate crisis highlights growing income inequality and a decline in labor standards in the United States; and

WHEREAS, SEIU 509 has recently worked, mobilized and advocated along with other unions, environmental organizations, and communities impacted for a science-based solution to the impacts of climate change

WHEREAS, the climate crisis has had a disproportionate impact on “frontline communities” (including Indigenous communities, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth); and

WHEREAS, the Green New Deal Resolution, sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey, was introduced, February 6, 2019 in the U.S. Congress; and   

WHEREAS, the Green New Deal Resolution is an extremely ambitious framework for a series of projects and policies to achieve the following goals, among others, by the year 2030:

• net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for frontline communities and workers;
• millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security for all;
• investments in U.S. infrastructure, industry, and society to sustainably meet the challenges of the 21st century;
• clean air and water, climate resiliency, sustainable livelihoods, and access to nature for all for generations to come; and
• justice and equity for frontline communities by repairing current and historic harms;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Joint Executive Board of SEIU Local SEIU 509 wholeheartedly endorses the Green New Deal Resolution and urges its swift adoption by the U.S. Congress; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Joint Executive Board reaffirms its commitment to a 100% clean and renewable energy economy, including:

• A massive investment in energy efficient infrastructure to ensure clean drinking water, affordable and efficient public transportation, energy efficient buildings and schools; 
• Good jobs, labor peace and union-friendly policies in the green energy economy; and 
• Investment in good jobs in communities historically dependent on the fossil fuel industry so that no workers and no communities are left behind. 

LNS’s policy and research director Jeremy Brecher lays out what labor needs from the Green New Deal in a special issue of In These Times on “Getting to Zero.”

The Green New Deal presents the American working class with the greatest opportunity for improving our lives and gaining power since the original New Deal of the 1930s. Responding to climate change will require the creation of millions of jobs, from pipefitters to machinists to scientists and educators, which has the potential to establish a new policy framework that makes workers’ rights and organizing central to the way our economy works.

But currently, the Green New Deal exists only as an outline of goals – as usual, there are some devils in the details.

Read full article »

Photo: Chicago Sunrise Movement Rallies for a Green New Deal, February 27, 2019. Used with permission by Creative Commons. Taken by Charles Edward Miller. 

An article by Candice Bernd in Truthout asks, “What would a just transition actually mean for fossil fuel workers, and what must proponents do to win labor’s support?” She provides answers from LNS President Joe Uehlein, Executive Director Michael Guerrero, and Dave Campbell, treasurer-secretary of United Steelworkers Local 675 in Los Angeles.

According to Guerrero:

It’s going to take the unions stepping up and organizing in these industries to strengthen them, and if the Green New Deal can create the political space for that to happen, then I think it helps everybody.” But if labor doesn’t get on board and play a leadership role soon, he says, then some unions are going to be left behind as policies are shaped without them. “This is an all-in moment.”

Read full article »