Climate Strikes
Blueprint Issued for Chicago Green New Deal
On July 6, newly elected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition team provided the city plan for a “Chicago Green New Deal.” Mayor Johnson, a longtime Chicago teacher and union organizer, ran a social justice campaign stressing the disproportionate impacts polluting industry and changing climate have on communities of color and low-income neighborhoods.
LNS Spotlight: Marcelina Pedraza
Marcelina Pedraza is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and United Auto Workers Local 551 at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant and has been a union electrician for 24 years. In the UAW, she is a Delegate for the Skilled Trades committee and serves as the Recording Secretary for the Women’s Committee. She is a graduate of and instructor for the Regina V. Polk Women’s Labor Leadership conference, a program that has trained women labor leaders for over 3 decades.
Free Boris Kagarlitsky!
Russian scholar and activist Boris Kagarlitsky has been jailed for a blog post on the Russia-Ukraine war. His recent writings range from a Ukraine peace plan to climate movement strategy. An international campaign is demanding his release from prison.
Why the Climate Movement Is Supporting Auto Worker’s Fight for a Just Transition
The following is a transcript from Labor Network for Sustainability staffer Sydney Ghazarian’s opening remarks during the August 17, 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) Solidarity Call. Welcome everyone! My name is Sydney, I am an organizer with the Labor Network for...
The Labor Network for Sustainability Supports UE Wabtec Workers Striking for Green Locomotives
In June 2023, the United Electrical Workers Locals 506 and 618 voted to reject the last and final offer by the Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation or (Wabtec) of Erie, Pennsylvania. The unions were denied their basic rights to strike over grievances, and most importantly, over the company’s refusal to move forward with worker-supported environmentally necessary green locomotive production.
Looking to join a climate community? Try your workplace.
By Katie Myers, Grist—The labor movement and the environmental justice movement have a shared history — and today, workers in all kinds of sectors are banding together to call for climate action.
Green New Deal in the Cities – Part 2: Need and Opportunity
While the Green New Deal has been largely blocked at the national level, it is thriving in communities, states, and cities. The previous Commentary, “The Green New Deal in the Cities – Part 1,” examined in depth Boston’s Green New Deal. This Commentary examines the Los Angeles and Seattle Green New Deals in the context of urban policy for climate justice.
The Green New Deal in the Cities – Part 1: Boston
While the Green New Deal started as a proposed national program, some of the most impressive implementations of its principles and policies are occurring at a municipal level. Part 1 of “The Green New Deal in the Cities” provides an extended account of the Boston Green New Deal, perhaps the most comprehensive effort so far to apply Green New Deal principles in a major city. Part 2 presents Green New Deal-style programs developing in Los Angeles and Seattle, and reviews the programs and policies being adapted in cities around the country to use climate protection as a vehicle for creating jobs and challenging injustice.
Train Builders Strike, Demand to Build Green Locomotives
In what may be the first strike in US history to demand green jobs, 1400 striking members of UE Locals 506 and 618 who build locomotives for Wabtec in Erie, PA are demanding that their employers start producing green locomotives.
Half of Americans Hit by Extreme Weather in Just 6 Weeks
Half of the US population has faced an extreme weather alert between May 1 and June 15. On June 21, more than 51 million Americans were facing extreme weather alerts, a third of them living in federally-designated disadvantaged areas.