Climate Strikes
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.
UPS Teamsters’ Beat the Heat
On June 14, the Teamsters and UPS agreed to tentative language to equip UPS vehicles with air conditioning systems, new heat shields, and additional fans, according to a union statement. The agreement will cover the 340,000 UPS workers who are members of the Teamsters union.
Texas Outlaws Heat Safeguards for Construction Workers
As temperatures in Texas soar above 100 degrees, Governor Greg Abbott has just signed a law that will make it illegal for any Texas city to require employers to allow construction workers get water breaks, even in extreme heat.
Boston’s Green New Deal Shows What Cities Can Do
What happens when the principles of the Green New Deal are applied at a local level? The Boston Green New Deal, led by mayor Michelle Wu, may be the most comprehensive example so far.
Canada Proposes “Sustainable Jobs Act”
The government of Canada has just introduced in Parliament the “Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act.” According to the government, the Act will “facilitate and promote the creation of sustainable jobs and support workers and communities in Canada in line as the world advances toward a net-zero future.”
Gulf South and Appalachia Join to Fight Climate Injustice
The Gulf South and Appalachia have increasingly been the targets of environmental destruction by fossil fuel and other toxic industrial infrastructure – and the location of significant campaigns against that destruction.