The Young Workers Project of the Labor Network for Sustainability has just released its major report Earth Is a Hot Shop. The report is based on a two-year survey of 400 young worker leaders, ages 18-35, from a wide range of industries and locations, followed by 70 in-depth follow-up interviews. Those interviewed were rank-and-file workers and a few union staff and elected officers at the forefront of building bridges between the labor and climate movements. As such, the report notes, “their insights point to a path forward for creating a more powerful and effective labor-climate movement.”
The report covers many aspects of the experience and thinking of these young worker leaders. It concludes:
“Young worker leaders articulated a holistic and interconnected understanding of sustainability – failure to prioritize environmental sustainability makes it harder for people to do their work and meet their material needs; as people struggle to sustain themselves it becomes harder to find the time and build the trust to engage in organizing that could alleviate this burden.
“They see a need for approaches that are responsive to this reality, working with the challenges of their day-to-day lives, to allow them to do transformative organizing that can push back on the systems that impose these contradictions.”
The report was authored by Maria Brescia-Weiler, Laura A. Bray, Matt Hessler, and Oren Kadosh, with special support from Erik Kojola and Jeremy Brecher.
For the full report: https://www.
For more on the LNS Young Worker Project: https://www.