Photo: Watch the video above in English and in Spanish.

In the last few months, as we’ve experienced the hottest ever recorded July globally and extreme floods in the Midwest, it’s undeniable that climate crisis is already impacting many of us, our communities, and our workplaces. Last year, the IPCC issued a report that drastic action must occur before 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change – we have to act now! 

In the face of this challenge, we must do what we do best: Organize! The youth who have been leading on climate are asking us to stand up with them:

“We have learned that if we don’t start acting for our future, nobody else will make the first move. We are the ones we've been waiting for...but it is not just up to us.

We feel a lot of adults haven’t quite understood that we young people won’t hold off the climate crisis ourselves. Sorry, if this is inconvenient for you. But this is not a single-generation job. It’s humanity’s job.

So, this is our invitation. Starting on Friday 20th September we will kick start a week of climate action with a worldwide strike for the climate. We're asking you to step up alongside us.

Alongside the youth and community, labor is stepping up.

Here's what you can do now:

1. Watch and share. Check out and share this two-minute video in support of climate action:
• In English
• En Español

2. Organize now. Download the LNS Climate Strike Toolkit for workers and leverage any material that helps your union, local, worker center, CLC, etc. to stand with student strikers on Sept. 20-27. 

3. Learn what’s happening in your area. Visit this map of climate strike events, which will continue to be updated as events are created. You can also create and add your own event!

4. Take pictures with signs about labor’s support. In advance of Sept. 20 or during the week of action, snap a photo with a younger person, a family member such as a child, grandchild, etc., with a sign that reads: “Workers support the climate strikes,” or “Labor supports the climate strikes,” or “Unions support the climate strike,” and post it to social media. You can also add your union’s name, local number, etc. 
• On Facebook and Instagram, please make sure tag @labor4sustainability and add the hashtags #climatestrike and #strikewithus to your post
• On Twitter, please also tag us @LN4S and use the hashtags above
5. Send an email like this to your own list. Perhaps your union, worker center or labor council has a leader’s newsletter, or caucuses that would be interested. 

Resources:

• Watch the LNS videoconference on how labor can support and participate in and support the climate strikes »
  
  
• See a report from Trade Unionists for Energy Democracy on "How Are Unions Around the World Responding to the Youth-Led "Climate Strike" Calls? »
  

Photo: August 3, 2019, Make Detroit the Engine of the Green New Deal. Credit: Becker1999 from Grove City, OH.

A poll by YouGov Blue on behalf of Data for Progress shows brought support for the Green New Deal from union members.

1,012 US voters were selected to be representative of US voters by age, race/ethnicity, sex, education, and region. Respondents were asked:

“As you may know, the Green New Deal is a proposal to significantly reduce carbon pollution and create jobs by spending billions of government dollars on infrastructure, wind and solar energy, and more efficient buildings and transportation systems. Based on what you know, do you support or oppose the Green New Deal?”

From what you hear in the media, you would be likely to expect that union members would be strongly against the Green New Deal. The actual response from union members? Sixty-two percent of union members support the Green New Deal. Only 22 percent oppose it. 

Previous research indicates that union members have long been more supportive of climate protection policies than Americans as a whole. A study by Todd Vachon and Jeremy Brecher based on data from national surveys found that union members are on average more likely than the general population to display pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. For example, in the General Social Survey (GSS), people were asked to agree or disagree with the statement: “We worry too much about the future of the environment and not enough about prices and jobs today.” Forty-three percent of nonunion respondents disagreed—but 48 Commupercent of the unionized respondents disagreed.

The Blue-Green Alliance, which unites large labor and environmental organizations, recently released the statement “Solidarity for Climate Action” calling for

Rapid GHG emissions reductions—based on the latest science and in line with our fair share—which would put America on a pathway of reducing its emissions to net zero emissions by 2050.

It adds,

The urgency required to stave off the worst impacts of climate change requires that by 2030 we are solidly on a path to net zero emissions.

The BlueGreen Alliance includes some of the U.S.’s largest labor unions, including:

• United Steelworkers (USW)
• Communications Workers of America (CWA)
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA).
• American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
• United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters (UA)
• International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation workers (SMART)
• International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC)

It also includes large environmental organizations, including:

• Sierra Club
• Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC)
• National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Environmental Defense Action Fund
• League of Conservation Voters

A recent article by LNS Research and Policy Director Jeremy Brecher in the Great Transition Forum argues that the climate movement has entered a new historic phase, pioneered by the Sunrise Movement, the Student Strike for Climate, and the Extinction Rebellion and expressed in the massive activity around the Green New Deal.

Brecher says one feature of this new phase, exemplified by the Green New Deal, is “a climate policy that is specifically directed to the needs of the working class.” That includes:

a universal guarantee of jobs for all; expansion of union rights; full employment; extensive apprenticeship and training programs; job ladders; restoration and expansion of the social safety net such as Medicare for all; and policies to eliminate the discrimination and marginalization of historically disadvantaged groups.

• Read the full article, “The Green New Climate Deal: What Is the Climate Movement’s State of Play?" »
• Read a related interview with Brecher "Against Climate Paralysis" »