We don’t win climate justice unless workers strike to stop the machine.
The climate crisis is driven by capital. The only force that can halt capital in its tracks is strategic, mass withdrawal of labor and sustained economic disruption. Many in the climate movement—especially frontline activists—have courageously endured severe repression, including incarceration, violence, and significant personal sacrifice, laying critical groundwork for our collective fight. Now, we must expand these courageous acts of resistance and we must get organized at the core of the economy. That means: workers. To win, the climate movement must center worker power and support the growth of a militant, bold labor movement that includes all labor—not just unionized, not just waged.
No labor movement will win without broader social movement solidarity. No climate movement will win without workers. We’re not just fighting fossil fuels and billionaires—we’re fighting the system that protects them. To beat it, we need a movement capable of shutting it down and building something better in its place.
May Day Is Climate Day
“May Day isn’t just a labor holiday—it’s a call to disrupt the economy in service of liberation. What better time to center climate in a fight for a better world?”
This May Day, climate groups should show up not just in solidarity, but in strategy.
We’re not marching for optics—we’re building toward mass strikes that can shut down the system and win the future.
- May Day can be where we seed the idea of climate-strike unionism
- It’s not a symbolic act of solidarity—it’s strategic preparation for economic disruption at scale.
- Climate orgs should use May Day to:
- Build relationships with unions
- Lift up worker fights
- Prepare their members to support or join strikes
From Protest to Power
“We’ve blocked pipelines and occupied offices—but they keep building, polluting, and profiting. What if we stopped them from making money in the first place”
- Direct action is powerful. But it becomes transformative when combined with mass labor action.
- Climate strikes by youth were the spark—worker strikes are the fuel.
- The big polluters aren’t scared of our petitions. They’re scared of shutdowns.
Militancy Is the Climate Movement’s Missing Ingredient
“The climate movement has been brave and resilient in the face of severe repression, including imprisonment and violence against frontline activists. But to truly challenge the dominance of capital, we must embrace militancy and insurgency, not just advocacy.”
Capital only responds meaningfully when profits are threatened—economic disruption is the language it understands. Labor’s power to disrupt production is unmatched, but labor cannot act alone. Climate movements must actively foster and support worker militancy by:
- Standing in unwavering solidarity with rank-and-file workers taking risks.
- Building genuine relationships with hesitant or cautious union leadership.
- Collaboratively developing bold, insurgent demands for a just transition.
Green Jobs Without Worker Power Is a False Solution
“What good are ‘green jobs’ if they’re nonunion, precarious, or exploitative? What good is decarbonization if it replicates racial and economic injustice?”
- The Inflation Reduction Act showed us: green money doesn’t equal green justice and decarbonization without justice is a trap
- Climate wins without labor risk greenwashing, corporate capture, and exclusion of frontline communities
- Only organized workers can hold green industries accountable and ensure a regenerative economy isn’t built on exploitation
Labor Is the Climate Movement’s Frontline
“Climate justice won’t come from Congress alone—it will come from ports, warehouses, transit systems, refineries, schools…”
- …and the workers who can shut them down
- Climate groups must get in deep with labor—especially:
- Rank-and-file leaders
- Reform caucuses
- Just transition fighters
A Hotter Planet Means a Harder Fight
“The best time to build bold, climate-ready unions was yesterday. The second best time is today.”
- Climate collapse is already disrupting supply chains, killing workers, and making basic infrastructure unsafe.
- If workers don’t organize now, the transition will happen to them, not with them—the terms will be dictated by billionaires and corporations – and it won’t be just.
- The best way to prepare for a habitable planet is to build strike-ready unions that are climate-aware and justice-rooted.
Climate Leaders Can Act Now
Here’s how climate organizations can start building the labor-climate movement today:
- Show up for May Day—bring banners, bodies, and your message: a strike for workers is a strike for the planet. Help make the climate crisis a visible part of worker-led action.
- Build real relationships with local unions, worker centers, and frontline labor groups now. Help to name the common enemies. Get involved in their campaigns.
- Back contract fights – Especially those that link labor and common good demands around climate solutions—like in transit, care work, energy, green social housing, pension reinvestment, and expanding public sector
- Host political education events for your base about labor history, worker power, and strike strategy
- Organize your own shop or network to be ready to strike when the time comes—even if it’s not a “workplace” in the traditional sense.
The climate fight will be won by the workers who are ready to shut it down. If we want to win a livable future, the question isn’t how do we help labor?—it’s how do we become labor?