Photo: Peoples Climate March | Wikipedia Commons, Anthony Crider

“Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy” – the initials spell THRIVE. It’s a new economic renewal plan recently endorsed by the Labor Network for Sustainability. It provides a bold and forward-looking agenda to address the interlocking issues of racist policy, global pandemic, and ongoing climate crisis.

The THRIVE Agenda has been endorsed by the following labor unions:

• Amalgamated Transit Union
• American Federation of Teachers
• American Postal Workers Union
• Association of Flight Attendants-Communications Workers of America
• Communications Workers of America
• Service Employees International Union 
• United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America

The THRIVE Agenda is an economic renewal plan that lays out eight pillars to put millions of people back to work, building a more just, healthy, and equitable society. The Agenda will: 

• Create millions of good, safe jobs with access to unions.
• Build the power of workers to fight inequality.
• Invest in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
• Strengthen and heal the nation-to-nation relationship with sovereign Native nations.
• Combat environmental injustice and ensure healthy lives for all.
• Avert climate and environmental catastrophe.
• Ensure fairness for workers and communities affected by economic transitions.
• Reinvest in public institutions that enable workers and communities to thrive.

The THRIVE Agenda was created by the Green New Deal Network and endorsed by more than 250 labor, climate justice and civil rights organizations.

Learn about the Agenda and the eight pillars here »

Photo Credit: Brian Burch

by Leo Blain

On Saturday, September 9, at 6 a.m., a crowd of approximately 40 young people marched down Country Club road in Greensboro, North Carolina, before stopping in front of the home of U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to demand his resignation for his attacks on the United States Postal Service and mail-in voting. The action was organized by the Sunrise Movement, which has come to be known for its highly visible actions calling on power-holders to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. Tim Greene, a former recording secretary and current delegate to the Triad Central Labor Council spoke on behalf of the Triad CLC in support of the Sunrise activists.

In an interview after the event, Greene said that his goal was “to let young people know that there are still union activists in North Carolina.” We can “help them in their arena as well.” Greene recognized that the Triad CLC would not be able to support all Sunrise Movement priorities. However, he did note that “Sunrise seems to be specifically interested in helping the post office” and “maintaining good-paying jobs.” That shared priority was why Greensboro Sunrise hub coordinator Haydyn Foulke was led to invite Greene to the event. Foulke said,

We’re really concerned with preserving the USPS and the APWU (American Postal Workers Union). Even though ultimately nationally some of our goals might not be exactly the same, I think locally we align on a lot. We want to build community coalitions. It’s about relationships, and it’s about standing together on the things we align on.

Could this kind of collaboration between the Triad CLC and the Greensboro Sunrise hub be a model for other CLCs and Sunrise hubs to follow? Foulke thinks “it’s essential that we start this kind of collaboration, and hopefully this can be a good first step towards collaboration between Sunrise and CLCs.”

Leo Blain is the Social Media and Online Community Manager for the Labor Network for Sustainability

Photo: Christopher Michel, Wikimedia Commons.

California is now facing the most devastating effects of climate change in its history. Within two weeks in August, the state experienced a record heat wave with 130 degrees Fahrenheit in Death Valley, which may be the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth. There were 11,000 lightning strikes over 72 hours, setting more than 300 wildfires including two of the three largest in California history; burning a million acres; requiring tens of thousands to evacuate; generating a rare “fire tornado’; and creating the worst air quality in the world.

Climate scientists expect such effects to occur even more frequently as global warming rises temperatures and reduces precipitation. As California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said, “Climate change is real. If you are in denial about climate change, come to California.”

The fires are leading to a broad reconsideration of the greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions that are principally responsible for climate change. Governor Newsom said,

While it's nice to have goals to get to 100 percent clean energy by 2045, that's inadequate to meet the challenges that this state, and I argue this nation, faces. We're going to have to fast-track our efforts. We're going to have to be more aggressive in term of meeting our goals much sooner. 

Governor Newsom was responding to pressure from Californians for immediate action on climate. See this powerful video message from youth climate justice organizer Tiana Renee Arredondo–narrated from a Fresno evacuation center–which says that during the first half of his term Governor Newsom has allowed approximately 7,000 new oil and gas projects. It calls for a halt to all fossil fuel projects and an equitable transition for workers and communities.  

Press time update »

Photo Credit: Victoria Pickering, Juliana v. U.S. Press conference at the U.S. Supreme Court.

When 21 children and youth sued the federal government demanding that it halt policies that are destroying their Constitutional right to life and liberty, many legal commentators were skeptical that courts would give any legitimacy to such a claim. But after years of litigation, the federal district court in Oregon agreed to hear the Juliana case–in effect putting the government on trial for climate destruction. Now Congress is considering The Children's Fundamental Rights and Climate Recovery resolution supporting the principles underpinning the Juliana case. The Labor Network for Sustainability recently issued the following statement on why the Juliana case, and the legislation supporting it, are important for organized labor:

Two days after the election of Donald Trump as President, the youth plaintiffs in the Juliana 21 case won a federal court ruling that may be as important as the Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation. The court found that “the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society.” A stable climate system is quite literally the foundation of society, “without which there would be neither civilization nor progress.”

A growing number of trade unions have been supporting the youth climate strikes, the Green New Deal and THRIVE programs, and other campaigns to create good jobs by protecting the climate. The Children's Fundamental Rights and Climate Recovery resolution supporting the principles underpinning the Juliana case. 

The House resolution supporting the Juliana case provides an important additional opportunity for labor to build its alliance with young people who are fighting for a future for our country, our world, and our workers. 

For background on the Juliana case and labor see “Juliana: Why Climate Rights Matter to Labor.” 

In "Striking in the Coronavirus Depression," Brecher writes: "The Coronavirus strikes are spreading. They are winning some improvement in worker protections in some localities and workplaces. Do they have a potential for wider impact? The story of West Virginia miners’ struggle for protection against Black Lung disease suggests they might." Photo: From Familias Unidas Por La Justicia, whose May 7 action is also mentioned in this piece.

How are workers responding to the threats to their health and livelihood created by the COVID-19 pandemic? A new series by labor historian and LNS director of policy and research Jeremy Brecher describes wide-ranging but underreported action. 

The series starts with a historical look backward at how workers used Unemployed Councils, self-help mutual aid, and strikes for “Fighting the Great Depression From Below.”

“The Unemployed vs. the Coronavirus Depression” gives a short history of unemployed organizing in the COVID pandemic.

“Self-Help in the Coronavirus Depression” looks at the rent strikes and mutual aid of the COVID era. “Striking in the Coronavirus Depression” describes the hundreds of strikes and wildcat strikes that have demanded safe working conditions and hazard pay in the COVID-era workplace. "Workers vs. the Coronavirus Depression” describes the Strike for Black Lives and the strikes by educators that have put workers power at the center of COVID-19 and racial justice–two of the most central national issues of this era. 

Above: Joe Uehlein on "How and Why We Formed LNS," remarks given at the September 18, 2020 Labor Day Fundraiser for the Labor Network for Sustainability. Watch the video »

Joe Uehlein is the Founder and President of the Labor Network for Sustainability, and Voices for a Sustainable Future. The former Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department and former Director of the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Campaigns, Joe spent more than 30 years doing organizing, bargaining, and strategic campaign work in the labor movement.

Joe also served as the Secretary to the North American Coordinating Committee of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, and Mine Workers unions (ICEM). Joe also served on the United Nations commission on global warming from its inception in 1988 through the Kyoto Accords in 1997 until 2003.

A founding Board Member of Ceres (Coalition for Environmentally responsible Economies), Joe has served on the Ceres board for 23 years. Joe is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and served as a senior strategic advisor to the Blue Green Alliance for five years. Joe is a current board member of USCAN (US Climate Action Network).

In the early 1970s he worked in an aluminum mill in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, as a member of the United Steelworkers of America, and then on heavy and highway construction projects in Central Pennsylvania as a member of the Laborer’s International Union of North America.

He also serves on the advisory board of the Future of Music Coalition. Joe is a musician, frontman to his band The U-Liners, and a member of the American Federation of Musicians.

How and Why We Formed LNS

by Joe Uehlein

We formed the Labor Network for Sustainability as a vehicle through which we could press for bold climate action in ways that address labor concerns without sacrificing what science is telling us is necessary, and what’s needed to address income inequality and worker power. LNS was founded on the belief that the crises of income inequality, climate change can and must be addressed at the same time, and in so doing we will advance the goals of both movements and offer the best hope for averting climate catastrophe. 

We started by conducting the first ever power structure analysis of the American labor movement with a special focus on climate and sustainability; and on how labor changes on big social issues like civil rights, immigration, trade and globalization, war, and single payer health care ~ all issues where labor morphed from a conservative posture to a more progressive posture. 

We published articles and studies that raise questions that challenge existing assumptions. And we threw down big on disruptive strategies like blocking the Keystone Pipeline with non-violent civil disobedience. 

Major themes and strategies emerged:

Climate change is the real job killer; not the answers.

Just Transition is a bedrock principle, not an add-on.

Keep the science front and center in our work.

Be a network, not a coalition.

And to focus on bottom up organizing couple with top-down strategies.

We build bridges to bring together these two great movements, labor and the environment, that made great gains when they worked together, but each time progress was made working together, something would happen that would drive them apart. We address these pitfalls and fault-lines head-on. 

We conduct workshops for labor organizations on climate change, and for environmental organizations on the history, structure, function and culture of the labor movement; so that deeper relationships can be cultivated. We held to our belief that if we are to win on climate, labor must be a central player.

The mission of LNS is to engage workers and communities in building a transition to a society that is ecologically sustainable and economically just. 

We are now at a critical juncture facing manifold crises and the demand on our work and on our team is greater than it ever has been. We are deeply grateful for your support. 

Remarks by Joe Uehlein at the September 18, 2020 Labor Day Fundraiser for the Labor Network for Sustainability. Watch the video »