An estimated 7.6 million people joined the global climate strike September 20-27, making it the largest demonstration against climate change in the world’s history. There were more than six thousand events in 185 countries. 1.4 million participated in Germany; 1 million in Italy; 600,000 in Canada; 500,000 in the US; 350,000 in Australia; and 350,000 in the United Kingdom.

The strike was part of an on-going series organized by young people around the world. This time the youth asked adults to join them. A wide swath of U.S. unions were among those who answered the call.

On a Labor Network for Sustainability video call, unions from around the country reported back on their participation. Here are some of the highlights:

Service Employees Locals of Service Employees International Union and Fight for $15 turned out in 16 cities – New York, Boston, Washington DC, San Juan, Detroit, Tampa, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, St Louis, Columbus, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.

SEIU locals turned out members, provided financial support to student organizations, supported logistics and social media. Nationally, SEIU promoted the strike through a multi-day social media campaign including a solidarity video with SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry. SEIU Local 1 Member leader and veteran school janitor Erica Sanchez told a Chicago rally, “It’s the youth who are leading the way. For months, young people have been going on strike to demand climate action. And today, adults are joining them to build a multigenerational movement. I’m here not just for myself but for my daughter. She must be able to live in a safe, healthy world. Any further delay will deny our generation and future generations a livable, just future.”

Teachers American Federation of Teachers locals and members participated in the strikes in New York City, New Jersey, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and many other locations around the country. AFT President Randi Weingarten, who marched with AFT members from the United Federation of Teachers (New York City public schools), the Professional Staff Congress (City University of New York) and United University Professions (State University of New York) in New York City, sent a message to AFT members: “From students walking out in solidarity against gun violence, to young people marching for action on climate change across the world, we see powerful examples of what happens when young people take action for change.” For a report on educator participation from the AFT News: Global Climate Strike demonstrates mass movement to address climate change

The AFT local at Rutgers University along with other trade unionists, students, and community members organized a Central Jersey Climate Coalition that demanded Rutgers become carbon-neutral by 2030 – whereupon the president of the university appointed a committee to make a plan to be carbon-neutral by 2030 chaired by one of its advocates. The national AFT is now forming a climate working group.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association, associated with the National Education Association and the largest union in Massachusetts, passed a resolution supporting a strike for the Green New Deal and encouraging the National Education Association to do the same. It supported the student strike, recruited teachers to work with student strike groups, organized buses for high school and college students to attend strike events, and plans to continue working with youth climate strike organizers.

Communications Workers CWA members from Districts 9 and 1 and locals 9119, 9404, 9410, 9412 and 9415, among others, joined the climate strike. D9 Vice President Frank Arce wrote to all D9 Locals:

Massive wildfires, category 5 hurricanes, years long dought and unprecedented flooding, sea level rise, heat waves and crop failures, all exacerbated by the human created climate breakdown. This is a critical moment in human history. Global fossil fuel emissions from our use of oil, coal, and gas are still going up, driving our climate crisis further towards catastrophe. All around the world youth have been going on school strike to demand urgent climate action to protect their health, safety, lives and futures. Collective action and power may be our last and best chance.”

Lead Activist Amanda Bratcher of CWA’s youth program America’s Next Generation said,

"We're proud to support the climate strikes. It's way past time for us to demand genuine solutions to a crisis that's already wreaking havoc for so many people around the world, whether it's in the form of extreme weather such as Hurricane Dorian or increased risk to workers from heat-related illnesses or critically endangered infrastructure in our communities."

UE The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America was the first industrial union to pass a resolution supporting the global climate strike. UE members participated in the actions in Burlington and Montpelier, VT, Pittsburg PA, Chicago, and California. UE affiliate Warehouse Workers for Justice helped lead support for Amazon workers in Chicago and elsewhere. More >>

San Francisco Bay Area On September 20, 200 union members marched in the Labor Contingent, three miles through downtown San Francisco along with 40,000 other participants. Workers demanded that world leaders take immediate, bold action on climate change and to raise standards for working people. Spirited chants included “Green New Deal, Make it Real! Just Transition, that’s our mission!” and “One Job Should Be Enough, One Planet is All We Have.” Union members joined other Bay Area actions in Berkeley, Santa Rosa, Chico, and Sacramento.

Three central labor councils endorsed and turned out: San Francisco Labor Council, Alameda Central Labor Council, Contra Costa Labor Council. Twenty-four unions participated in the labor contingent, including CWA, CNA, Peralta Federation of Teachers, SEIU 1021 and 2015, United Educators San Francisco, Oakland Education Association, Unite Here Local 2, IFPTE L21 and 20,  Sheet Metal Workers, ILWU, IWW, Inland Boatman Union, AFSCME 3299, UAW 5810/2865, California Faculty Association, BFT, Sierra Club Union, Jobs with Justice, Carpenter 2236, Teamsters, and AFGE. Other actions with labor participation included a painting of street murals in the San Francisco financial district and an oil company blockade. Labor participation was mobilized by Labor Rise for Climate, Jobs, Justice, & Peace, an affiliate of the Labor Network for Sustainability.

New York Eleven New York unions officially endorsed the climate strikes, including:

• 1199 Service Employees International Union
• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees DC37
• Communication Workers of America
• International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 16
• New York City Labor Council For Latin American Advancement
• New York State Nurses Alliance
• Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York
• Service Employees International Union 32BJ
• United Federation of Teachers
• United Food and Commercial Workers Local 888

Unions particularly active in turning out members included AFSCME District Council 37, New York State Nurses Alliance, City University of New York PSC, and SEIU 1199.

Above: Labor Street Mural in San Francisco - September 25, 2019.

Above: LNS Senior Organizer Mike Cavanaugh (L) and Maria Castaneda, Secretary-Treasurer 1199 SEIU United Health, Care Workers East represent the labor contingent during the New York #climatestrikes.

Above: Solidarity during the Amazon action in Chicago during the worldwide September 20 #climatestrikes.

After months of organizing, hundreds of Amazon employees walked off their jobs September 20 demanding that the company do more for climate protection. According to Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, more than 1,800 employees in over 25 cities in 14 countries had pledged to take part in the action. Over 3,000 walked out in Seattle. One speaker told the crowd, "We are a community united across tech, across countries," she said. "We are not Google. We are not Amazon or Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Twitter. We are human beings and we need each other right now."

Earlier this summer, more than 7,500 employees backed a climate change resolution that called on Amazon to adopt an aggressive climate plan. The resolution was voted down by shareholders, but the day before the September 20 strike Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled an ambitious climate plan aimed at reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Organizers attribute Bezos’ action to pressure from its workers. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice said,

Amazon’s newly-announced ‘Climate Pledge’ is a huge win for Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, and we’re thrilled at what workers been able to achieve in less than a year. But we know it’s not enough. The Paris Agreement, by itself, won’t get us to a livable world. Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we’ll be in the streets to continue the fight for a livable future.

Watch video of the Amazon rally and press conference >> 

Cat Han, a 30-year-old software developer at Amazon and one of the main organizers of climate efforts at the company said, “This has been the culmination of a lot of work from a lot of employees so it’s just been so energizing and so inspiring being here.” From Amazon, she wants strong commitments to global climate leadership, including an end to the company’s cloud computing contracts with the fossil fuel industry. “We have to address a lot of the dealings that we have with oil and gas companies and the funding that goes into the lobbying groups that support climate denial,” she said. 

Actions in a number of cities supported the Amazon strikers. USA Today reports:

In Chicago, ahead of the main march, several labor groups rallied outside Amazon's downtown offices in support of Amazon workers who planned to walk off the job to demand Amazon take action against climate change.  Dozens of protesters, led by Warehouse Workers For Justice and Sunrise Movement Chicago, held signs and chanted “Fossil fuels have got to go” and “Amazon’s a big polluter, do your part to save our future.” They also planned to join the city’s larger climate strike.

Several unions also supported the Amazon strike. The Teamsters’ union announced in a statement, “Teamsters across North America stand in solidarity with the Amazon workers who are walking out of work as part of the Youth Climate Strike Week of Action.”

When workers come together, we have real power and this is only the beginning. Throughout the history of our union, we have seen again and again that when workers have a voice in how their companies do business, they can make transformative changes to make workplaces and communities safer, healthier and more sustainable. The Amazon workers joining this strike are leading the fight to force one of the world’s richest and most powerful companies to leverage its resources to address climate change.

The statement added,

From warehouse pickers to delivery drivers, workers on the front lines of climate change are the ones who are forced to work under extreme weather conditions, like wildfires, polar vortexes and the type of extreme heat that sent workers in warehouses across the country to hospitals this summer. And as the ones who are so often the first and worst impacted by environmental changes, it is essential that working people have a voice in the conversation about how we address these challenges. 

Thousands of tech workers from Amazon, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Square were also planning to join the climate strike.

Above from Left: Brandon Rhodes, Texas/Gulf Coast AFL-CIO Field Director, Ginny McDavid, President of the Harris County AFL-CIO, Lia Millar, AFL-CIO and 350.org fellow, and Shelley Baker, also an AFL-CIO 350 Fellow are living examples of the camaraderie among union members and labor allies such as 350.org, who helped to spearhead and implement the September 2019  #climatestrikes within the labor movement. 

Fridays Youth around the world will continue the weekly Friday school strikes for climate they have been conducting for the past year.

Next strike The global climate strike coalition will shortly announce the date for a climate strike in November or early December.

Earth Day April 22, 2020 will be the fiftieth anniversary of the first Earth Day. Mark your calendar: Planning is already under way for a global climate strike on a truly historic scale!

Strike Circles The youth Sunrise Movement, which has done so much to popularize the Green New Deal, is encouraging people to form Strike Circles in high schools and communities. Strike Circles are groups of 7-20 young people who will gather weekly with six weeks of training videos leading up to the November climate strike.

Workplace Strike Circles, anyone?

Above: With the human race facing the threat of mass extinction amid global climate change, the Green New Deal, the foundational outline for labor protection in the climate justice movement, was a prominent message during the September 2019 #climatestrikes.

Two prominent international labor lawyers, one of them an official of the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, have just published an article in Equal Times saying “Unions Must Join the Global Climate Strike to Avert a Climate Catastrophe.” The authors, who write in a personal capacity, are Ruwan Subasinghe and Jeff Vogt. Subasinghe is Legal Advisor to the International Transport Workers’ Federation and Jeff Vogt, director for the Solidarity Center’s Rule of Law department and previously the legal director of the International Trade Union Confederation.

The authors argue that, at least in some circumstances, climate strikes may be legal under international law. The Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA) of the International Labor Organization has stated that

organizations responsible for defending workers’ socio-economic and occupational interests should be able to use strike action to support their position in the search for solutions to problems posed by major social and economic policy trends which have a direct impact on their members and all workers in general, in particular as regards employment, social protection and standards of living.

The CFA has “given its imprimatur” to protests and strikes concerning a range of issues including trade agreements, labor law reform, pensions, tax policy, social protection and similar demands. The CFA should find a climate strike to be similarly protected. “Indeed, there is no issue today that has a more direct, immediate and serious impact on the world of work than the climate emergency.”

They propose “recognition of the right to strike” where “an employer engages in activity which is demonstrably harmful to the environment.” This would extend the principle that “workers can remove themselves immediately from dangerous work” without fear of retaliation. They ask, “What can be more dangerous than activity that threatens our workplace, our communities and indeed life on Earth as we know it.”

With only 11 years left to avert climate catastrophe, “trade unions must be given the means to help prevent irreversible damage from climate change.”

LNS joined Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, Oil Change International, and other environmental groups to express their solidarity with United Autoworkers members striking at General Motors. Their letter read:

On behalf of our millions of members and activists nationwide, we write to express our solidarity with the nearly 50,000 autoworkers striking against General Motors. It is disappointing that the stubbornness of management has led to this point.

Corporate greed is the ultimate cause of our combined economic and environmental crises. As environmentalists, we support the United Autoworkers in their fight for good, family-sustaining jobs. Climate change and other environmental problems cannot be solved without investing in workers and supporting strong union contracts.

Ten years ago, General Motors was bailed out by both US taxpayers and the UAW, which gave major concessions to share in the burden when times were hard. The intervening decade has seen both record corporate profits and more offshoring of US jobs. We are disturbed by the reports of the termination of health care benefits, leaving people’s health and medical care in terrifying limbo. We know you can do better. We send our solidarity to the striking workers of UAW and urge you to agree to a fair contract now.

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