[LNS has been hearing from members that some in the environmental movement have been struggling with how to talk with labor allies about climate change.  So we decided to put together some talking points to help enviros jump start these vital conversations.  Next up is a companion piece for labor movement folks on "Talking to Environmentalist About Climate Change."]

* Like it or not, climate change is coming: Focus on the inevitability of climate change and impact on the working lives of current union members. For example: Sir Nicolas Stern, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, predicts that global warming will have an economic impact greater than the Great Depression and World Wars I and II combined. (more…)

By Joe Uehlein, Labor Network for Sustainability

[PDF version of this report is available here]

Thousands of “green jobs” have been created by President Obama’s stimulus package; millions more will be created by proposed climate legislation; tens of millions will be required to create the low-carbon economy that scientists say is necessary for the survival of the earth as we know it.  Further, nearly all existing jobs will have to be made “greener” as existing workplaces convert to more climate-friendly production.  Both new and existing jobs that contribute to reducing the emission of carbon and other greenhouse gasses (GHGs) have come to be known as “green jobs.”

Environmentalists and the public should ensure that the new green jobs provide the right to have a union, and then encourage the workers to organize and employers to recognize and cooperate with them.  Here’s why. (more…)

by Tim Costello and the Labor Network for Sustainability

[PDF version of this report is available here]

["Labor and Climate Change" is a briefing paper that provides activists inside and outside the labor movement a way to understand the interests and concerns of different segments of organized labor in climate change issues.  It was the last major work by Tim Costello, who died in December, 2009.]

This briefing paper provides a strategy for addressing organized labor’s stake in climate change. Its goal is to provide activists inside and outside the labor movement with the information they need to help shape effective, worker friendly climate protection policies and garner support for them from organized labor. (more…)

Over the past couple of years, the American labor movement has become an enthusiastic supporter of expanding “green jobs” that fight global warming. But policies to reduce carbon emissions to levels scientists say are safe have been a harder pill to swallow. Now, in a significant breakthrough, three significant unions have come out for the science-based emissions targets called for by the IPCC.

As 250 international union delegates arrived in Copenhagen for the global climate summit, a statement by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and a joint statement by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) called for a 25 to 40 percent reduction on 1990 levels for developed countries by 2020. (more…)