Read in Browser (Highly Recommended) »

The Labor Network for Sustainability is pleased to introduce you to our new Co-Directors, Joshua Dedmond and Liz Ratzloff. Both are experienced activists in labor, environmental, and other movements who have been promoted from the LNS staff to serve as Co-Directors. 

Joshua Dedmond

A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Joshua is greatly involved in his community. He is the son of a Baptist Minister and a Registered Nurse. He considers his work as an organizer as an extension of his religious convictions and ministry and an opportunity to present an alternative of liberation to the people who are held captive by oppressive systems of exploitation. Joshua has been a part of some of the most recent fights for labor and collective power in the South.

 Joshua began his career as an organizer with the UAW’s Global Organizing Institute. He worked primarily on the campaign for Nissan’s workers organizing to have a free and fair union election at the Nissan America plant in Canton, Mississippi. He has also worked as an organizer for low wage workers in the Fight for $15 and a Union, and their Mid-South Organizing Committee. He has worked as an Organizer for State and Municipal Employees in Mississippi and as a local organizer for the CWA. During the 2016 election cycle he also served as the Central Mississippi Field Director for the Bernie Sanders campaign for President.

 Joshua says:

 I am extremely grateful to have this opportunity to work as a Co-Executive Director for the Labor Network for Sustainability. It is my hope to serve with Liz as we work to constantly ground the mission of LNS as a relentless force in the labor and climate justice movements.  I look forward to developing real and practical alternatives to the decaying fossil-fuels industry, and making an invigorated push to work towards an economy that is regenerative and benefits everyone. I look forward to engaging with labor, the climate justice movement, and local formations in establishing a movement for good jobs on a living planet.

 Liz Ratzloff

 Liz Ratzloff started working with LNS in October 2021 to research the effects of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle electrification on workers and how to ensure the transportation sector is a source of high-quality, family sustaining jobs and contributes to a sustainable and equitable future.

 Liz got her start as an organizer fighting for abortion access and local LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections as a college student in Michigan. While getting her Masters in Environmental Informatics and Conservation Ecology, Liz began working as the staff organizer for the University of Michigan graduate employees union, AFT Local 3550. In 2020, Liz organized a campus-wide strike for a safe and just pandemic response and led efforts to establish a multi-union People’s Budget, centering the priorities of workers and the broader community through participatory budgeting.

 Liz founded and chairs the Just Transition Committee at the AFL-CIO Huron Valley Area Labor Federation where she is building a strong, labor-climate movement to move the local economy off of fossil fuels, while ensuring good jobs for workers. Liz is also the Vice President of the Huron Valley Workers Organizing and Research Center (HV-WORC), which provides research and education in support of worker efforts to organize.

 Liz says:

 I’m incredibly grateful to be in this new role and have the opportunity to work alongside staff, workers, and communities in continuing LNS’s mission to build towards a transition to a society that is ecologically sustainable and economically just. As a labor organizer and environmental scientist, I strongly believe that in order to address urgent environmental challenges like climate change, pollution, and natural resource depletion, we must transition away from a fossil fuel-powered and extractive economy toward a low-carbon, regenerative, and resilient economy. We can ensure workers and communities aren’t left behind in the process by fostering deep relationships between the labor and climate movements and building power at the grassroots level. Our success in building grassroots power is dependent on about ability to center the voices of those most affected by the climate crisis and the policies we enact, including rank and file union members, young workers, frontline communities, and Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. 

Barely 10% of U.S. workers are union members, and barely 6% of private-sector workers. We are seeing workers, especially young workers and workers of color, responding to this contradiction by developing new forms– such as “bargaining for the common good” and the “self-organized unions” of workers at Amazon and Starbucks. And we are seeing a growing discussion of new strategies – like the new book The Future We Need: Organizing For a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century reviewed below.    

 Or take the climate movement. The devastating floods, fires, rising seas, heatwaves, intensifying hurricanes, and other results of climate change being experienced around the world are leading most people in the United States and around the world to fear for their own and their children’s futures. Yet the governments of the world are not even meeting the inadequate targets they have set themselves for greenhouse gas reduction – with the result that climate scientists are saying that we now have little chance to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. And in the US there has been no legislation to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while the federal Inflation Reduction Act is paying for programs that will actually increase the burning of fossil fuels. As described below, the climate movement in response is turning to local and state climate action like the California legislation passed last summer, and to grassroots labor organizations like the Educators Climate Action Network.  

 The Labor Network for Sustainability is also changing. A new generation of staff members brings extensive involvement with youth-oriented movements for climate, labor, and justice. New programs, like the Young Workers Project, the Southern Organizing Project, and the Green New Deal from Below Project are responding to the new potentials created by a changing politics of climate, labor, and justice. LNS’s new Co-Directors, introduced below, are drawn from this young and diverse staff. They are leading LNS into a new era – while continuing our basic 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. 

By Bakari Height, LNS Transit Organizer

Earlier this month, LNS wrapped up one of LNS’s most visible events -- Transit Equity Day. Transit Equity Day is a national day-of-action where many local transit advocates, environmental justice organizations, and labor unions come together to increase awareness of the vast amount of transit inequities within their transit system - as well as their solutions. The LNS website featured over 30 actions across the nation for the February 4th event, which is the birthday of Rosa Parks, the fearless leader who stood up to the segregation bussing laws in the 1950s. LNS has added its own spin on it within recent years with a two-hour livestream on YouTube. The replay can be played here.  

 This year’s live stream featured many groups from every part of the country such as California, Texas, New York, and even Rhode Island and Massachusetts.  One conversation with a local ATU member detailed an ongoing strike in suburban DC and how the public can support their campaign. Additional livestream topics included disability rights, Equity on Amtrak, school bus transportation, and a new threat to public transit known as “Predatory Microtransit”. We even featured a reel from a transit equity group in Australia!

 These conversations fuel even more project ideas and methods of building support for climate justice through focusing on one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions - tailpipes from gasoline-powered vehicles.  Public transportation is severely underfunded, but could be the great solution to decreasing carbon emissions, alleviating traffic congestion, providing jobs for many building trades and transit workers, and serving as the setting for affordable housing. There are many intersections that public transit can make, and the Transit Equity Network will explore those through upcoming panels and livestream discussions on their new YouTube channel - Transit Equity Network. 

By: Oren Kadosh, LNS Staff

 Union educators organizing with the Educators Climate Action Network are planning to mobilize their coworkers and with youth movements for action during the week leading up to Earth Day 2023 (April 17th - 22nd). They are calling on educator union locals to pass their own version of this resolution committing to join the week of action. Their demands of school districts and elected officials include modern, healthy, fully-resourced green schools; divestment of pension funds from fossil fuels coupled with reinvestment in the green, sustainable economy; and a commitment to truth and teaching climate justice across curriculum. Get educators involved by signing up here or passing around digital flyers (version 1 and/or version 2). An easy-to-use toolkit to help educators participate however they can will be made available soon.

Image Source: Antonio Rodriguez- stock.adobe.com

Some state and federal programs cover property damage caused by natural disasters, but there have been no support programs for workers who lose work because of floods, hurricanes, heatwaves, fires, and other results of climate change. Now Sonoma County, a vineyard and farming area north of San Francisco Bay, has just established a pilot program to provide low-income residents disaster relief funds for lost wages. 1,100 people have already applied for funds, the majority farm workers who will receive a one-time payment of $250 to $800, Workers, especially in the vineyards, have been advocating for such a fund for years. While the payments are far from adequate, they represent a step in the recognition of the devasting impact of climate change on workers.

 For more on this story check out The Guardian article ‘Help us fight’: California farmers ask for more aid after deadly storms

 For a 2010 LNS discussion paper laying out the probable impact of climate change on California workers, see “Coming Now to a Job Near You!  Why Climate Change Matters for California Workers.” 

Pictured: LNS President Joe Uehlein poses with AFGE Local 704 Executive Board member Emily Crispell

On February 15 staff at the US Environmental Protection Agency rallied to demand more adequate staffing for the agency that protects our environment and our climate. Council 238 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents EPA employees, said:

The EPA is facing a staffing crisis that is making it impossible for the lawyers, engineers, inspectors and others tasked with protecting our environment in this climate emergency to do our jobs. We need aggressive action from the agency to build out and maintain our workforce for us to even begin tackling the ambitious climate goals laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure and Jobs Act.

Joe Uehlein, president of the Labor Network for Sustainability, spoke in support of EPA workers. Here’s the text of Joe’s talk:

The people who work in this building and in EPA offices across the nation are the first line of defense for people and the planet. Their jobs and their conditions should never be cut.

I believe that our government, which of course means the people, has the compassionate responsibility to see to it that our air and water be cleaned up and remain clean. It is the role of government to make certain that polluters are held in check. This is the best way for our society to make the transition from viewing our world as something to be dominated to something that must be loved and respected.

If we damage the environment we damage ourselves. It’s no accident that people are referring to the climate catastrophe as the sixth extinction. We have known the threat for a long time and we’ve done precious little to prevent the damage we’re now seeing. This time it’s suicide.

The AFGE members who work for the EPA dedicate their lives to addressing this sacred challenge. And it’s not about money, we have the money, we found trillions to bail out the banks in 2008-9. If the planet were a bank we would have already saved it.

The Labor Network for Sustainability is dedicated to creating a world where everyone can make a living on a living planet, and we cannot achieve that goal without these union members who work to protect planet and people every day. We at the Labor Network for Sustainability honor you!

 You can watch a recording of the rally here.

A new “Commentary on Solidarity and Survival” on “The Green New Deal in the States” by LNS co-founder and senior strategic advisor Jeremy Brecher features the wide-ranging climate legislation and executive action taken by California in 2022. These measures require:

•  3,200 foot setbacks from homes, schools, and hospitals for new oil and gas wells. 
• 90% of electricity carbon-free by 2035 and 95% by 2040.
• State carbon-neutral by 2045.
•  Organic waste in landfills cut by 75% by 2025.
• Grocery stores must donate unsold food to food banks.
• New fracking projects are banned by 2024.
• Zero-emission vehicles must be 35% of sales by 2026, 68% by 2030, and 100% by 2035.

According to Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new laws will create four million jobs.

These are only a few examples of programs recently adopted by states around the country to realize the core goals of the Green New Deal: climate protection, labor rights, countering historical injustices, protecting workers and communities from side-effects of energy system transition, and ensuring food, housing, education, and economic security for all. For example:

Climate protection: Shutting down fossil fuel facilities, building new fossil free energy systems, and forms of energy efficiency ranging from low-emission building standards to electrification of vehicles to reduced energy demand.

Worker rights: Expanded labor rights and standards include requirements for prevailing wages, project labor agreements, and employer neutrality on union representation.

Justice: Policies to counter historical injustices range from recruitment, training, and job ladders for workers from discriminated-against demographics to priority for closing power plants in highly polluted climate justice communities.

Just transition: Measures to protect workers and communities range from investment in communities impacted by climate policies, to transition assistance for workers, to requiring employers to provide preferential employment opportunities for affected employees.

Social welfare: New social benefits have ranged from free meals for all public school students, to low-emission low-income housing, to job training centers in low-income neighborhoods.

According to “The Green New Deal in the States,” these programs are all part of an emerging “Green New Deal from Below.”

You can subscribe to Jeremy Brecher’s Strike! Commentaries on Solidarity and Survival by signing up here.

Image Source: Antonio Rodriguez- stock.adobe.com

Unions representing over half-a-million New York state workers are demanding the legislature allocate ten billion dollars to capitalize a Climate and Community Protection Fund. The fund would include:

•  The Climate Jobs and Infrastructure Account aimed at building out New York’s clean energy economy while reducing emissions and growing good, green union jobs for all.
• The Community-Directed Climate Solutions Account designed to provide direct assistance to community-level organizations and projects driving community-directed climate solutions within disadvantaged communities.
  
• The Community and Worker Transition Assistance Account directed at providing direct support to impacted workers and communities.
• The Energy Affordability Account to help working families across New York afford  their home, transportation, and energy costs.
   

Unions endorsing the demand include Local No. 3 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Professional Staff Congress-CUNY/AFT #2334, Teamsters Joint Council 16, AFSCME District Council 37, New York State Nurses Association, Sheet Metal Workers Local 58, United Auto Workers Region 9, United Auto Workers Region 9A, Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2, and United University Professions, along with ALIGN and Jobs to Move America.

There is a lively debate on how workers can fight for better conditions and a better world today. Proposals range from tweaks like labor law reform or bigger union organizing budgets to efforts to replacing collective bargaining with individual employers with government-sponsored industry-wide national bargaining tables, from replacing “union jurisdiction” with multi-union organizing coalitions. to “solidarity unionism” focused on direct action on the job by independent “worker-led” unions.

Two new books make a significant contribution to that discussion.

Kim Kelly’s Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor describes the heroic battles of workers to gain their rights and create a better life for all working people. It illuminates those who have often been left out of historical accounts, like “poor and working-class women, Black people, Latino people, Indigenous people, Asian and Pacific Islander people, immigrants of all backgrounds, religious minorities, queer and trans people, disabled people, the sex workers and undocumented people whose work is criminalized, and people who are incarcerated.” Many of them have been excluded not only from the history books, but from the self-declared “House of Labor” itself. This is labor history for the era of diversity.

Fight Like Hell not only recounts worker action in the past, it describes how these struggles are continuing today. Contemporary accounts range from the effort to win a union election at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama to recent struggles for equal rights for Black, LGBTQIA, and sex workers. Like workers in the past, such workers today have to put their jobs, their well-being, and sometimes even their lives on the line to win the most elementary rights on the job.

Erica Smiley and Sarita Gupta’s new book The Future We Need: Organizing For a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century makes a significant and original contribution to that debate. Smiley and Gupta are respectively the present and past executive directors of Jobs with Justice, a labor rights organization with coalitions in over 30 cities and states advocating that all workers should be able to bargain collectively. Jobs with Justice provides an ideal location to observe both the difficulties and the new developments in worker organization. The Future We Need showcases “the creative strategy of Black workers, immigrant workers, southern workers, and workers from the global south” as “models to be scaled up in ways that viably challenge trends in today’s global economy” so that we can build “a society that works for all of us.”

For more, see Jeremy Brecher’s review “New Foundations for the House of Labor” here.

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: