Image: Created by Leo Blain, Labor Network for Sustainability. Logo by Amalgamated Transit Union.

February 4, 2020 is Transit Equity Day when people in dozens of cities will demand public transportation systems that provide for the needs of everyone.

February 4 was chosen for Transit Equity Day in honor of Rosa Parks, an iconic figure of the civil rights era, whose refusal to give up her seat on the bus was a catalyst for the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Uplifting her act of resistance highlights the rights of all people to high-quality public transportation powered by clean and renewable energy. Transit Equity Day is a collaborative effort of several organizations and unions to promote public transit as a civil and workers’ right and a strategy to combat climate change.

Transportation is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in this country and gasoline-powered vehicles also emit harmful pollutants that disproportionately affect already overburdened communities. At the same time, our public transportation system is in need of major overhaul. Our over investment in highway expansion and single occupancy vehicle use have left low-income communities stranded in transportation deserts without accessible, affordable options to travel to and from the places they need to go.

Transit equity means re-ordering our priorities to put people at the center of the transportation system, elevating the workers who make our transit system operate and addressing the climate crisis we all face.

Transit Equity is an essential element to a just transition from the fossil fuel economy to clean, renewable energy systems in order to confront the climate crisis. The expansion of non-fossil fuel public transportation is a start. Questions? Contact TransitEquity@labor4sustainability.org

Above: Images from around the U.S. from the Sept. 21, 2019 Climate Strikes. (L-R) Top Row: Rutgers, New Brunswick, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.; Row 2: Chicago and New Haven, Connecticut; Row 3: California: Los Angeles and San Francisco; Bottom Row: New York City.

Get inspired! The Virtual Convergence will feature examples of great work happening across the country in preparation for the Earth Day Climate Strikes: organizing to broaden labor movement support for climate action, education and mobilization of union members, and raising labor’s voice in the fight for climate action.  

Get Organizing! The Virtual Convergence will launch a national effort to support local organizing in unions and labor communities to be part of this momementus action.

Above: The Bus Route Report Card, presented during LNS's Virtual Convergence 3, highlights the grassroots actions of Music City Riders United and Workers Dignity in Nashville. Transit Equity Day will be an opportunity for these organizers to showcase the results and call for continuous improvements to bus stops, schedules and clean transit for all communities. Watch the webinar to learn more.

Thank you to all who attended LNS's Virtual Convergence 3:

To prepare for Transit Equity Day taking place February 4, 2020, LNS featured a panel of union leaders and civil rights activists to talk about the roots of Transit Equity Day and the actions labor and transit advocates are hosting across the country. The panel featured:

• Jane English, Program Manager of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP, who  moderated the panel
• Bruce Hamilton, International Vice President, and David Roscow, Assistant to the President for Communications, from the Amalgamated Transit Union
• Laura Chu Wiens, Executive Director, Pittsburghers for Public Transit
• Ashley Bachelder, Interim Co-Director Workers Dignity
• Angelique Johnson, Music City Riders United

View the recording »

Our next Virtual Convergences will take place on February 12, focusing on Earth Day Climate Strikes and May Day, and March 12, discussing Just Transition. Both will start at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Environmental Protection Agency workers protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and ensure a healthy environment for everyone. In the face of devastating climate change, we need them more than ever. The Trump Administration is gutting the EPA—slashing funding, cutting staffing levels and erasing years of research.

In preparation for negotiations, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and AFGE local 704, which represents EPA scientists, engineers, enforcement officers and environmental specialists is demanding a 10-point EPA Workers’ Bill of Rights including the right to scientific integrity in their work and the right to enforce environmental laws without political interference.

The union is asking you and your union to go online and sign on to the petition supporting their right to protect us all.

• Petition »
• Partner toolkit »

When you sign on, please send a message telling the folks at AFGE Local 704.

By the way, EPA workers have a long history of resisting political efforts to gut climate protection. As far back as 2007, unions representing 10,000 EPA employees publicly protested Bush administration efforts to impose climate denialism on their scientific work. Read more on this »

Above: American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, September 7, 2019. Source: Marc Nozell, Merrimack, New Hampshire.

How can unions educate their members about climate change? The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) just provided a sterling example. The entire current issue of its magazine American Educator is devoted to teachers and climate change. It is available free online.

Several articles indicate ways to teach about climate change, not only in science classes but in language arts and other fields. “Science Teachers in the Hot Seat” describes the difficulties faced trying to teach this controversial issue—and how to deal with them. 

The introductory article by AFT president Randi Weingarten evaluates youth climate strikes as “A Beacon of Hope on Climate Change.” She writes, “In the fight for environmental justice, much of the leadership is coming from students—and their teachers couldn’t be prouder.”

Ryan Pollock, an inside wireman with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) writes about the recent AFL-CIO Convention in Texas:

Not only were many of my fellow trades siblings—plenty of whom work in the fossil fuel industry or represent fossil fuel workers—strongly in favor of the GND at the start of the convention, but the political struggle to get most everyone else on board required minimal effort. In the end, our state AFL-CIO passed a GND-style resolution. This victory is a powerful model for conventions across the country; it shows how resolutions like this one can become a standard labor demand.

I discovered a pro-GND resolution passed by the Alameda, California Central Labor Council (CLC). After reading the Alameda resolution, I wondered if I could pass something similar in my own CLC (Austin, TX), to which I’m a delegate. After tweaking the language of the Alameda resolution to make its references to the crisis in California more relevant to Texans, I submitted the resolution at the July meeting of the Austin CLC. After some explanation and discussion, the resolution passed unanimously.

Over the next few days, entire districts of building trades threatened to walk out of the convention if my resolution even made it to the floor of the state convention. The resolution was modified to replace GND with “Federal Environmental Policy" and references to “young climate activists” and “Congress” were removed, but its substance remained the same.

Thereupon “the resolution went to the AFL-CIO floor and passed unanimously, no discussion required.”

For Ryan Pollock’s full account and his recommendations for what trade unionists can learn from this experience, see “A Green New Deal Can Win, Even Among Building Trades Unions" »

Above: "We are Climate Warriors Local Union 1!," LNS President Joe Uehlein (left) said as he opened his speech at the December 13, Fire Drill Friday in front of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Pictured right is Ira Arlook, Chief of Advocacy Campaigns at Fenton Communications.

On December 13, trade unionists and supporters demonstrated at the U.S. Capitol for “Good Jobs for a Green Future”—and then sat down and were arrested for refusing to leave and end their protest. The civil disobedience action was part of “Fire Drill Fridays,” a weekly series led by Jane Fonda. The December 13 action for “Jobs, Communities, & Just Transitions” was partially organized by the Labor Network for Sustainability and many participants in the network participated in the action. Jane's fellow actor and "dear friend" Sally Field also spoke, recounting the labor struggles of Norma Rae, whom Field played in the eponymous film. Sally also participated in the civil disobedience.

Above: Clint Sobratti, a bus driver in Montgomery County, Maryland and member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1994, enthralled attendees at the December 13, Fire Drill Friday. Clint described his day-to-day experiences of working through pollution to ensure public transit riders of all ages arrived to their destinations on time and safely; he called for the critical need for a solid just transition plan to protect workers and communities in the badly needed shift from fossil-fuel powered public transit to buses and trains that rely on clean, renewable energy.

A teach-in the night before featured LNS Executive Director Michael Leon Guerrero as well as Winona LaDuke, Samantha Smith, and Jane Fonda (check out the LNS Facebook page for highlights and the interview) (more details below). The call for the teach-in said:

The climate emergency requires us to rapidly transform our energy system and key industrial sectors in many ways – and it is up to all of us to ensure this is done in a way that benefits workers and communities. If we do this right, transforming our energy systems and industrial base can and will create millions of good union jobs that provide a living wage, full benefits, a safe workplace and the right to collective bargaining.  

Above: In Washington, D.C., on Thursday, December 12, 2019, LNS Executive Director Michael Leon Guerrero, participated in Jane Fonda's Thursday Night Teach-In on Jobs, Communities and Just Transitions with Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth (far left), and Samantha Smith, Just Transition Centre (second to right). 

Particular care must be taken to support transition policies and programs for those workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel industry. Workers in coal, oil and gas gave much—often their health—to power our country and create prosperity, and we owe them respect and fairness in this transition. A truly just transition will include wage guarantees for displaced workers, pension guarantees, health insurance benefits for their entire families and additional financial support and programs for those who choose to relocate or acquire the skills necessary for making the transition. 

It is true that climate change is an enormous challenge,  but responding to it provide us the opportunity to rebuild many things in our society and this time, we can do it right. A bold new economic and environmental legislative and cabinet-level agenda with investments in 21st century industries and infrastructure can ensure the transition off fossil fuels will be good for the climate, good for the economy and good for workers and communities.

Fire Drill Fridays at the U.S. Capitol wrapped up the initial phase of actions with a large rally on January 10, with some 150 people being arrested on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, demanding that fossil fuel corporations and their financial sponsors be held accountable for the climate crisis they are creating. Starting in February 2020, Fire Drill Fridays will be held in Los Angeles and other cities across the nation—focusing on Fridays for climate action in solidarity with youth around the world who have been sounding the alarm that "Our House is On Fire - Join Us in the Streets." More information can be found at: www.firedrillfridays.com

See more photos »

The American Postal Workers Union has taken on the climate crisis within the national union structure by following up on their last national convention resolution “Climate Change, Jobs and Justice.” At its recent national All-Craft conference held in Las Vegas, the APWU held a special meeting on Climate Change, and circulated a detailed survey to nearly 300 local leaders about the impact of the climate crisis on the jobs, livelihoods and communities of their members.

A majority of survey respondents indicated that the effects of the growing climate crisis have impacted their jobs and households, with over a third of the respondents affirming that their pay and benefits were interrupted and were threatened by the effects of climate change.  A wide range of responses detailed the many ways in which the fires, floods, power outages, heat and storms continue to have an impact the lives of workers in the U.S. Postal Service, all across the country.  Conversely, only a handful of respondents have had any communication from management about how the USPS is addressing the growing threats to work and workers from the climate crisis.

APWU local leaders overwhelmingly responded that they want their union to engage in the fight against climate change destruction, and offered dozens of recommendations for their union to consider as it takes up the fight on behalf of their members and all workers to fight for environmental protection, economic fairness, and social justice.

Related Links

• Let us Rise in 2020! (By Debby Szeredy) » 
• Q&A With LNS's Mike Cavanaugh »

When work on public infrastructure is performed by union labor there are many benefits for workers, communities, and the economy as a whole. However, too many infrastructure workers are denied union representation. And many devices—such as subcontracting, performing work off-site, and public-private partnerships—make it possible to evade employer responsibilities for allowing workers to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. 

One vehicle for ensuring labor rights is the Project Labor Agreement (PLA). Public policy can require contractors to include such agreements in their proposals. For example, Connecticut’s recent Public Act 19-71 for purchase of energy from offshore wind requires developers to pay prevailing wages, negotiate project labor agreements and include plans for using skilled labor and approved apprenticeship programs. (While NY included similar provisions in its initial request for proposals, this is the first time they have been codified in statute). The legislation states:

In developing any solicitations pursuant to this section, the commissioner shall include requirements for contract commitments in selected bids that (A) require payment of not less than the prevailing wage, as described in section 31-53 of the general statutes, for laborers, workmen and mechanics performing construction activities within the United States with respect to the project, and (B) require selected bidders to engage in a good faith negotiation of a project labor agreement. Any solicitation issued pursuant to this section shall specify the minimum terms that such project labor agreements shall address.

The act also encourages use of apprenticeship training programs:

In responding to any solicitations issued pursuant to this section, a bidder may include such bidder's plans for the use of skilled labor, including, but not limited to, for any construction and manufacturing components of the proposal including any outreach, hiring and referral systems, or any combination thereof, that are affiliated with an apprenticeship training program registered with the Connecticut State Apprenticeship Council established pursuant to section 31-22n of the general statutes.

Construction trade unions in other states: Take Notice!