Climate Strikes

Back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton have devastated much of Appalachia and the South. In a statement following Hurricane Helene, the Labor Network for Sustainability called it “A Wake-up Call for Social Justice.” It said these tragedies of death and destruction “are not natural.”

A recent article in the workplace safety newsletter Confined Space analyzes recent deaths at Impact Plastics to show why workers are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The author is Jordan Barab, who was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor from 2009 to 2017 and previously worked for AFSCME and the AFL-CIO.

The Labor Network for Sustainability is pleased to announce the publication of The Green New Deal from Below: How Ordinary People Are Building a Just and Climate-safe Economy by LNS Co-Founder Jeremy Brecher.

On election day, in addition to selecting their choice for President of the United States, California voters will decide whether or not to fund climate projects. Measure 4 is a $10 billion bond to spend on clean drinking water, protections from floods, droughts and extreme heat, ocean protections, parks, and clean energy projects, among other initiatives. It prioritizes low-income communities and those living on the frontlines of climate change impacts.

Heat can be deadly for workers whether they are working outdoors or indoors. According to National Council for Safety and Health, COSH, “​​Extreme heat causes as many as 2,000 worker fatalities in the U.S. each year, and up to 170,000 workers are injured in heat stress-related accidents annually.”

The “2024 State of the Climate Report” just issued by a team of climate scientists finds that “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.” This is “a global emergency” in which “much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled.”

A recent law passed by the New York City Council with a supermajority of votes will put unionized workers to work installing solar panels on city buildings.

The recently released 2023 Solar Jobs Census published by the independent nonprofit organization Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), found that full-time jobs in the US solar industry grew nearly 6% in 2023.

A report by the global labor federation the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) finds that the large corporations Amazon, Tesla, Meta, ExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard, and Glencore are undermining democracy across the world by financially backing far-right political movements, funding and exacerbating the climate crisis, and violating trade union rights and human rights. The ITUC represents 191milllion workers in 169 nations.

On October 16th, news broke that Phillips 66 will shut down its Los Angeles refinery in the fourth quarter of 2025. The company gave notice of plans to close the refinery that has roughly 600 employees and a few hundred more contractors in two facilities linked by pipeline located five miles apart in Carson and Wilmington, California.