The Labor Network for Sustainability is holding a Young Worker Convergence in Los Angeles on September 15th-18th. Its purpose is to bring together young workers who feel that unions and union members have a crucial role to play in responding to the climate crisis.
The call for the gathering says
Young workers have never known a world without climate catastrophe. We can’t imagine any issue, whether it’s job security, equity, or safety in the workplace, that doesn’t intersect directly with the climate crisis. So much of what we do today in many industries needs to change, and that means we need a just transition for all in the process.
The Young Worker Convergence will build on LNS’s Young Worker Listening Project, which has collected almost 400 surveys and conducted 70 in-depth interviews with young workers (ages 18-35). Interviewers for the Listening Project note that, “Every young worker we’ve spoken to has affirmed our belief that there is a real need for more spaces where folks can share strategies and experiences across industries and grapple with how to start difficult conversations around climate change within their unions.”
The Young Worker Convergence will:
- Create a forum where young workers can share stories on how they entered the labor movement, how other young workers can be brought into the labor movement, and how young workers can be supported in their labor-climate organizing.
- Build and strengthen relationships among the labor, climate and environmental justice movements by centering the perspectives of young workers to build deeper understanding of the environmental and social harm that comes from production processes, and the environmental and social gains to be achieved through a just transition.
If you are a young worker 18-35 and are interested in joining the Young Worker Convergence, send a message to Maria at [email protected]
Support will be available to help cover participants’ travel, lodging, food, and childcare expenses.