by Leo Blain

#GivingTuesday, happening tomorrow, Dec. 1, is an opportunity for people to use their individual power of generosity to support the communities that are important to them. Whether you’ve just discovered one of our Just Transition Listening Project webinars or have been with us since we first started working to bridge the labor and environmental movements more than a dozen years ago, we thank you for being a part of the LNS community!

The support of our individual community members helps us to work towards a more ecologically sustainable and economically just future for all. We hope you’ll join us tomorrow with other members in our network in supporting LNS by joining our organization or making a donation. Thank you!

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

Photo: Copyright Stephen F. Somerstein via Getty Images

by Judy Asman

With the dawning of a new era, the Labor Network for Sustainability and allies are more excited than ever to host Transit Equity Days (yes “Days”) 2021. Official announcements of Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, 2021 actions will kick off on Monday, Dec. 21, the same day Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition hosts its Virtual Rally: Baltimore Transit Equity Solidarity Day.

If you've participated in Transit Equity Day since 2018, you know the Transit Equity Network has selected Feb. 4, Rosa Parks' birthday, as its day of action because she is an iconic figure among many of the civil rights era who chose the tactic of refusing to give up her seat on the bus. We want to make the connection to this act of resistance to highlight the rights of all people to high-quality public transportation powered by clean/renewable energy.

Tomorrow, Dec. 1, marks the 65th year since Ms. Parks' history-changing act, which sparked a 381-day bus boycott leading to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the Montgomery federal court's ruling that racial segregation on buses violated the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court decision took place on Dec. 20, 1956, making Dec. 21 of that same year the first day in history when Blacks in America chose where they wanted to sit on integrated buses. Sixty-four years later, on Dec. 21, 2020, the Transit Equity Network will join with allies of the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition to celebrate this landmark date and rally online for #transitequity in the current struggle for local and national funding toward safe, equitable and accessible public transportation propelled by renewable energy. 

Stay tuned for more about Transit Equity Days 2021 and RSVP today for the Dec. 21, 2020 Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition rally here.

Judy Asman is Communications and Information Director at Labor Network for Sustainability

Join us at a special time!

In the face of the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and global economic malady, workers around the world are facing transitions in their jobs, their environments, and their communities. The worldwide transitions we are facing demand a worldwide response. From the experiences of metalworkers in South Africa to the coal miners in Spain, to workers across sectors in Latin America and across the world, the struggle to make those transitions just is truly global. 

Join us at noon Eastern on Sat., Dec. 5, as we learn from each other.

With the likelihood of a federal government sharply divided between Republicans and Democrats, states are likely to play an expanded role in shaping the American future. The aspirations for a Green New Deal may have support from the presidency and the House, but they are likely to be fiercely contested in the Senate and perhaps the Supreme Court. Bold action to address climate and inequality could emerge at the state level. The Labor Network for Sustainability’s new discussion paper “States of Change: What the Green New Deal Can Learn from the New Deal in the States” explores how the role of states in the original New Deal can illuminate the strategies, opportunities, and pitfalls for the Green New Deal of today and tomorrow. The discussion paper concludes,

Even before a national GND is in place, states are laying the groundwork for GND programs. They are amplifying actions like the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the strikes by teachers for safe COVID-19 policies to incorporate them in state policy. They are supporting the national movement for climate justice. And they are starting state-level “Little Green New Deals.” As the original New Deal demonstrated, a national movement of reform can realize some of its most significant achievements at a state level.

Read the report »

The science is clear on climate change: we must rapidly phase out fossil fuels. But tens of thousands of workers have jobs in fossil fuel and related industries. How do we secure a just transition that guarantees good jobs with benefits for these workers in the new clean energy economy? The California legislature recently commissioned a comprehensive report called “Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs and Climate Action Plan for 2030.” The webinar “A Just Transition for Labor: What Will It Take?” features Carol Zabin, author of the report, along with  Shrayas Jatkar, a Policy Specialist at the California Workforce Development Board, the state agency charged with implementing the report’s findings, and labor attorney Mark Kyle.

Check out the video and background material »

Photo: By Kim Hansen. Postprocessing (crop, rotation, color adjustment, dust spot removal and noise reduction) by Richard Bartz and Kim Hansen. Wikimedia.

North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) has just signed an agreement with Ørsted Offshore North America to create a national agreement designed to transition U.S. union construction workers into the offshore wind industry in collaboration with the leadership of the 14 U.S. NABTU affiliates and the AFL-CIO.

NABTU is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry that collectively represent over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Ørsted, the global leader in offshore wind development, Ørsted operates the Block Island Wind Farm, America’s first offshore wind farm, and is pioneering the development of offshore wind in the northeast and Midwest states.

According to a statement by NABTU,

Ørsted’s agreement with NABTU represents a transformative moment for organized labor and the clean energy industry. This framework sets a model for labor-management cooperation and workforce development in the budding offshore wind industry. 

These are the green jobs of the future, and this framework demonstrates that just transition can be accomplished through prioritization of workforce training and middle-class labor standards with family-sustaining wages, healthcare benefits, and pension security. 

Learn more here » 

This year many states have made bold moves to electrify transit. Not only is expanded public transit a crucial means to reduce climate-destroying greenhouse gases, it is also a crucial way to expand good, family-sustaining jobs through the transition to a green, electric-powered economy,

The group Jobs to Move America has developed the U.S. Employment Plan as a customizable, federally-approved policy tool that builds good jobs and equity into the public purchasing process. Any city, state, or public agency can build the plan into their bidding process to make their transit program a driver for a just, green recovery powered by union work.

Jobs to Move America says,

Every year, federal, state, and local governments spend nearly $2 trillion of our public tax dollars to purchase goods and services. Imagine if our trillions of dollars went even further. Imagine if every dollar spent on public purchasing also created good jobs in communities that need them most. Imagine if our public dollars also tackled racial and socio-economic injustices and helped build community power.

Earlier this year the state of New Jersey passed an EV Bill calling for all new NJ Transit bus purchases to be electric by 2032. Jersey Renews–an NJ-based coalition of environmental, labor and community groups dedicated to ensuring good, family-sustaining jobs in the transition to a clean energy economy–the New Jersey Work Environment Council, and Jobs to Move America recently sponsored a webinar on the U.S. Employment Plan as a driver of union manufacturing jobs in electric transportation, ensuring that the transition to a green, electric-powered economy creates good, family-sustaining jobs.

Watch the recording »

The Coronavirus pandemic and the economic depression accompanying it are already engendering new movements of both employed and unemployed workers. A series of commentaries by labor historian and Labor Network for Sustainability Research and Policy Director Jeremy Brecher describe how millions of people are experimenting with ways to address their problems through collective action in the COVID-19 era. 

“The Unemployed vs. the Coronavirus Depression,” describes the nascent movements of the unemployed, their limitations, and their future potential.

 “Self-Help in the Coronavirus Depression,” reviews rent strikes and mutual aid movements.

 “Workers vs. the Coronavirus Depression” described how workers in hundreds of workplaces conducted strikes and other forms of on-the-job action to demand safer working conditions and hazard pay in the pandemic.

“Striking in the Coronavirus Depression,” recounts two “mini-revolts” of the COVID-19 era, the Strike for Black Lives and the strikes and strike threats by teachers over health protections and school closings.

“People Power in the Great Depression” examines the grassroots response to the coronavirus as a whole.

Listen to the audio versions »

The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker who has experience in the labor movement, an understanding of union campaign strategies, labor movement dynamics, and policy that builds worker power and who is interested in developing their expertise and addressing climate change. Under direction of the Organizing Director, the Strategic Researcher will engage in a variety of research projects to advise campaign specific and overall strategies for this nimble and dynamic organization. A highly experienced candidate will help develop a broader strategic research program to strengthen the labor-climate movement. The strategic researcher will split their time between work in Maryland and work at the National Level. 

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 »