The Labor Network for Sustainability joined more than 1,100 organizations in a letter asking President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and to use his executive authority to fight climate change. It called for Biden to keep his promise that “environmental justice will be at the center of all we do addressing the disproportionate health and environmental and economic impacts on communities of color.”

In November 2022 the Biden Administration prepared to sell oil and gas permits for 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico – the largest such sale in US history. Now a federal court has halted the sale because of the failure to adequately assess the impact on climate change.

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.

Labor Network for Sustainability is proud to be among 45 climate and environmental justice groups calling on the green building community to stop partnering with Kingspan, an international building materials company that’s so-called ‘green’ manufacturing processes are polluting the indoor air and local watershed (learn more here).

Tom Morello has also walked the tightrope of rock and politics, rock and labor, and now rock and climate change. Inspired by Joe Strummer and the music of the Clash — wearing a Clash t-shirt with “the future is unwritten” over the heart — Tom has set out to make his mark in creating a future where everyone prospers, and the planet thrives. His advice to activists: “Dream big and don’t settle. Aim for the world you really want without compromise or apology. Find the courage, and help others find theirs, to forge a more humane, just, and peaceful planet.”

Liz Ratzloff started working with LNS in October 2021 to research how the workforce will be affected by the electrification of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and how we can ensure a Just Transition for workers and communities in the transportation sector.

Preliminary results from a survey by LNS’s Young Workers Listening Project provides a startling picture of what young workers think about climate and labor. According to a just-released article in The Forge…

As part of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) passed by the U.S. Senate on August 10, 2021 includes $39 billion in new spending for transit. The bill is now in the House where it will be considered with the overall reconciliation package.

As with many organizers drawn to work with the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), Pamela Tau Lee saw first-hand the workplace cruelties and injustices of her ancestors and throughout the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities when she was a young girl. Founder of the Chinese Pacific Association and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Tau Lee recently shared her experience at APALA’s 16th Convention themed, “Rooted in Legacy: Towards a New World Beyond Borders & Across Oceans,” of which she was the opening keynote.

Members of Rutgers American Association of University Professors – American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) are joining with student allies in celebrating a vote to divest from fossil fuels by the Rutgers Board of Governors and Board of Trustees.

Graphic: Sierra Club. Anyone interested in how to address the concerns of both labor and environmentalists in upcoming legislation  should take a look at the new Sierra Club report “How to Build Back Better: A 10-year Plan for Economic Renewal.” Although the Sierra...

How do we spread the word about what it will take to have an equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the crises of climate, jobs, healthcare, racism and democracy that it has so aggravated? Members of New York’s large DC37 union have an innovative way: The...