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You can read it in the IPCC report; you can see it in the media; and you can experience it for yourself in the floods, fires, heatwaves, droughts, epidemics, and ecosystem collapse going on in every part of our country and every country in the world.

In an obvious reference to climate change, the recent blockbuster Don’t Look Up! portrays an entire country in denial about an approaching threat –a comet set to collide with the Earth. The political catchphrase “Don’t look up!” appeals to a “what, me worry?” complaisance that has undermined efforts to address the climate emergency. But poll data and action in the political arena show that more and more people are “looking up” and demanding action on climate.  

Among those who are “looking up” are a growing number of members and leaders of labor unions. For example, a dozen unions just launched the Maine Labor Climate Council to create jobs and reduce injustice through programs to protect the climate. According to Cynthia Phinney, President of the Maine AFL-CIO (and a board member of the Labor Network for Sustainability), the new IPCC report confirms that “climate crisis is an existential threat that’s here and now.” But “when working people stand together to tackle this crisis, it becomes a lot easier to imagine a future much better and brighter than the one we currently face.” Indeed, “This bold act of standing together to face down climate peril is what motivates our coalition of labor unions, the Maine Labor Climate Council.”

At the opposite section of the country, Rick Levy, President of the Texas AFL-CIO, says,

The IPCC report today shows that climate peril is real. But when I see labor unions across the state of Texas come together through the Texas Climate Jobs Project to fight for healthy schools, for more union jobs, for clean and plentiful energy, and for an equitable, worker-centered economy that benefits us all, I know that climate hope is real, too. 

Workers and unions are not only “looking up,” they are going to work building a climate-safe world. According to Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York and New York State Building and Construction Trades Council,

 Whether you live in New York or New Delhi, people across the world want the same things: clean water to drink, unpolluted air to breathe, fresh food to eat, and safe, stable shelter to call home. Building trades members in New York are ready to get to work building the future. 

[Read the full statements of these and other labor leaders on the IPCC report here]

In this issue of Making a Living on a Living Planet, the newsletter of the Labor Network for Sustainability, you will find reports on the burgeoning labor-climate movement. You will find out how grassroots efforts around the country are producing jobs by producing climate-safe energy. How the United Mine Workers engage with a new factory creating hundreds of jobs in West Virginia, particularly targeting workers who have lost their jobs in the state’s declining coal industry. How reducing fossil fuel use could weaken the Russian invasion of Ukraine. How executive action by the Biden administration could create large numbers of jobs by fighting climate change. And how American voters two-to-one support Green New Deal legislation to fight climate change while expanding jobs and justice. 

For more than a dozen years the Labor Network for Sustainability has been working with unions and other worker organizations to help organized labor address climate change. Now things are looking up for that work. That’s what can happen when people “look up.”

The United Mine Workers just announced that it will partner with energy startup SPARKZ to build an electric battery factory in West Virginia in 2022 that will employ 350 workers. The UMWA will recruit and train dislocated miners to be the factory’s first production workers.

 “We need good, union jobs in the coalfields no matter what industry they are in,” said UMWA International Secretary-Treasurer Brian Sanson. “This is a start toward putting the tens of thousands of already-dislocated coal miners to work in decent jobs in the communities where they live.”

 The first markets for the company’s batteries are expected to be for material handling vehicles like forklifts, agricultural equipment, and energy storage.

Source: bit.ly/UMWAEnergyJobs

The Labor Network for Sustainability has joined more than 610 organizations in 57 countries to call on world governments to ban Russian oil and gas and to rapidly phase out all fossil fuels in the name of peace. The letter was initiated by Ukrainian climate activists and backed by Roman Shakhmatenko, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection, who said: “We have to stop being indifferent. We should end using gas, oil and coal.” It calls on governments to “End global fossil fuel addiction that feeds Putin’s war machine” once and for all. It calls on governments to “ban any import of fossil fuels from Russia” and “rapidly phase out all fossil fuels,” ending this “fossil fuel addiction.”

With an emerging priority of boycotting Russian oil and gas, fossil fuel expansion must be immediately halted, and nations worldwide must commit to the rapid and just transition away from all fossil fuels. Reliance on coal, oil and gas is the intentional embrace of death, misery, and collapse at a global scale. 

“Stand with Ukraine,” www.with-ukraine.org 

How can climate-safe energy start replacing Russian fossil fuel exports right now? Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, and others propose an “Energy Marshall Plan” that would use the Defense Production Act to boost manufacturing of electric heat pumps, efficient electric appliances, and renewable energy technology. 

For their full proposal, see their letter to President Biden here.

A dozen Maine unions launched a new coalition this March to push for pro-labor environmental initiatives. The coalition, called the Maine Labor Climate Council, includes:

• Amalgamated Transit Union Local 714

• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 490, 567, 1253, 2327 and 104

• International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornament & Reinforcing Iron Workers Local 7

• International Union of Operating Engineers Local 4 

• International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 35

• North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Locals 349 and 352 

• Laborers’ International Union Local 327

• Maine AFL-CIO

• Maine Education Association

• Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council

• Maine Service Employees Association SEIU 1989

• Southern Maine Labor Council

According to Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney, “The twin crises of climate change and inequality demand bold and urgent action.” 

We believe that the choice between good jobs and a livable planet is a false one, and our report lays out a path to head in the direction of both. The Maine Labor Climate Council is committed to tackling inequality and climate change together and being laser focused on creating good jobs as we develop Maine’s clean energy economy.

The Council issued a “Maine Climate Jobs Report” which recommends that the state:

• Install 25,000 Public EV Charging Stations by 2030 

• Transition 50% of Maine’s School Bus Fleet to Zero-Emission Electric Vehicles by 2025 and 100% by 2030 

• Double and Electrify City Bus Operations by 2030 

• Construct High-Speed Rail to Bangor, Maine 

• Retrofit and Install Solar on All K-12 Public Schools by 2035 

• Net-Zero Emissions for New Construction by 2030 

• Retrofit 50% of Residential Units by 2040 

• Build 19,000 Affordable Units by 2040 

• Provide 100% Renewable Electricity By 2035 

• Plan and Fund a Just Transition 

• Ensure High-Quality, Union Jobs in Maine 

Read the full Maine Climate Jobs Report here.

Read Maine AFL-CIO’s President Cynthia Phinney’s Bangor Daily News guest column “It’s time for climate policies that put working people first” 

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents 98 members of the House of Representatives, has just called on President Biden to declare a climate emergency, jumpstart renewable and just energy production, ban federal fossil fuel leasing, end fossil fuel subsidies, and take executive actions aimed at advancing environmental justice and making clean air and water accessible for all.

The CPC echoed the demands of leading climate groups including the Build Back Fossil Free Coalition, an alliance of 1,100 organizations demanding that Biden declare a climate emergency and use executive authority to address the climate crisis. Ashley McCray, organizer with the Green New Deal Network says, “We stand alongside the CPC to demand Biden use his executive powers to declare a Climate Emergency and ban drilling on federal lands and waters. Our collective futures depend on bold climate action now.” 

According to Build Back Fossil Free,

President Biden has the authority today to use the Defense Production Act to create well-paying, union jobs building just, renewable energy technologies; begin to phase out the quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution created by fossil fuel production on federal lands and waters; and declare a climate emergency to reinstate the ban on crude oil exports, which would have health and climate gains equivalent to shutting down 42 coal plants.

Read the full Congressional Progressive Caucus proposals for Biden Administration executive here. 

For Build Back Fossil Free statement on Congressional Progressive Caucus proposals see: buildbackfossilfree.org/cpc-release  

Source: www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2022/3/11/the-green-new-deal-is-incredibly-popular

New polling finds the Green New Deal is incredibly popular. The think-tank Data for Progress asked voters whether they supported each of three laws embodying basic elements of the Green New Deal. After they heard descriptions and price tags of the Green New Deal for Cities, the Green New Deal for Public Schools, and the Green New Deal for Public Housing Acts, likely voters supported each by way more than two-thirds of voters. 

For the full data go to: www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2022/2/dfp-gnd-still-popular.pdf

Photo: Make Detroit the Engine of the Green New Deal! Becker1999, Wikimedia commons

Climate-safe energy is being produced locally all over the country in ways that also produce jobs and increase racial, social, and economic justice – fulfilling the basic principles of the Green New Deal. “Climate-Safe Energy Production – from Below,” a new commentary by Jeremy Brecher describes a range of those projects. 

In Denver, solar gardens are sprouting up all over the city. They are designed to contribute to Denver’s goals of 100 percent renewable electricity for municipal buildings by 2025; 100 percent community-wide renewable electricity by 2030; and 80% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, the Denver Housing Authority has launched the CARE Project (Clean Affordable Renewable Energy), including a two-megawatt community solar garden which serves 500 homes. The project offers reduced energy costs and renewable energy to low-income communities and a pipeline to employment in the solar industry for under-served communities. 

In Martha’s Vineyard, the Vineyard Power Coop won the first Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for offshore wind signed in the United States. The agreement provides for local jobs, control, and stable electricity prices. Vineyard Wind 1 will generate thousands of jobs through the development, maintenance, and operation phases over the next 25-30 years.

“Climate-Safe Energy Production – from Below” provides many additional examples. Community-owned, not-for-profit electricity suppliers known as public power utilities provide electricity to more than 2,000 communities across the U.S. Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) allows local governments to procure power on behalf of their residents, businesses, and the municipalities themselves, with more local control over their electricity sources, more green power than is offered by the default utility, and lower electricity prices. Many cities are buying green power -- Dallas TX is now purchasing 100% green power. In Boston’s Chinatown the Chinese Progressive Association is planning for a “community-owned energy microgrid to reduce emissions and bring electric power to those most impacted by environmental injustice.” 

Protecting the climate requires meeting the original Green New Deal proposal’s goal of 100% of national power generation from renewable sources within ten years. That requires greatly expanding climate-safe sources of energy. It involves an unprecedented transformation of the energy system, and that requires national investment and planning. But much of the transformation will actually be composed of local building blocks – and those can begin right now.

Read the full commentary at: www.labor4sustainability.org/strike/climate-safe-energy-production-from-below

See www.labor4sustainability.org/strike for all of Jeremy Brecher’s “Strike! Commentaries on Solidarity and Survival.”

This March Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act after 15 years of effort by labor and allies to fund and strengthen the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The Act includes crucial objectives of postal worker unions: It ensures the USPS is financially stable, ends the destructive pre-funding retiree health care benefits mandate, and guarantees six-day delivery reforms.

AFL-CIO statement: www.aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-applauds-passage-long-overdue-postal-service-reform 

The USPS is preparing to replace its aging vehicle fleet. According to the United Auto Workers (UAW), which supports the transition to electric vehicles, “The next generation postal vehicle is a huge opportunity to use public money to build a sustainable future.” However, the USPS has awarded a contract for $6 billion for the next generation of postal vehicles to a company that plans to move production from a union plant in Michigan to anti-union, “right-to-work” South Carolina. Further, the contract provides for fossil fuel internal combustion vehicles rather than clean-energy electric ones, a plan that experts say will accelerate global warming.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is circulating a petition that urges Oshkosh Defense and the USPS “to ensure that production of these vehicle promotes good union jobs and a cleaner future.”

Sign the UAW Petition here!

The grandson of a union coal miner, Joel believes that to win a Green New Deal in transportation, we need strong labor-community alliances between transit riders and workers. In pursuit of that goal, he has been working with rider groups around the country to organize Transit Riders of the United States Together (TRUST), a national network of rider unions sponsored by LNS. He currently lives in Santa Rosa, California with his wife and one-year-old son.

Our Mission

To be a relentless force for urgent, science-based climate action by building a powerful labor-climate movement to secure an ecologically sustainable and economically just future where everyone can make a living on a living planet.

Making a Living on a Living Planet is published by the Labor Network for Sustainability: