Climate Strikes

In August 2021, workers at three Starbucks stores in and around Buffalo, New York, filed union election petitions with the National Labor Relations Board. In the eight months since, close to 250 other Starbucks stores have filed similar petitions. More than 40 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize.

While the Russian military continues to devastate Ukraine and the US sends billions for military aid to Ukraine, European countries continue to support the Russian war effort by purchasing Russian oil and gas. Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies reap a bonanza on shortages that are impoverishing American consumers at the gasoline pump. And even as climate catastrophe is causing still more devastating heatwaves, droughts, and floods those companies are planning to expand fossil fuel production to exploit the Ukraine crisis still more.

On Earth Day, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced an executive order creating a new office of environmental justice. The new office will work with farmers and rural communities, communities of color, Tribal Nations, state and local partners, and low-income populations, among other key stakeholders, the governor’s office said.

The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes the need for immediate action to protect the climate and lays out detailed strategies for how to do it. The report includes a lengthy analysis of ‘just transitions’ in countering climate change. A just transition could entail that…

Somerville, MA is an inner suburb of Boston with 81,000 residents undergoing rapid development – most of it non-union. In 2017, more than a dozen unions and several allies established Somerville Stands Together (SST), a community-labor coalition advocating a new orientation for development.

The Maine legislature has just passed legislation to raise the standards for clean energy jobs and advance equity in the renewable energy sector.

A growing convergence between climate protection and worker justice is embodied in a new report from Warehouse Workers for Justice titled “For Good Jobs and Clean Air: How a Just Transition to Zero Emission Vehicles Can Transform Warehousing”.

A new report from the Cornell University Worker Institute titled “Building a Just Transition for a Resilient Future: A Climate Jobs Program for Rhode Island” lays out “Rhode Island’s route to an equitable, worker-centered, green economy.”

The Labor Network for Sustainability has endorsed the “Energy Security and Independence Act” (ESIA), sponsored by Senator Sanders and Representatives Bush and Crow. The legislation would take on the climate crisis, deny revenues to authoritarian petrostates, and invest in clean energy manufacturing and energy efficiency.