Climate Strikes

On the 5 year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people, the Clean Up Kingspan campaign held a vigil in Downtown Los Angeles at a Capitol Group HQ building– one of Kingspan’s largest outside stakeholders. An ongoing UK government Inquiry revealed that for over 14 years, Kingspan’s UK insulation division misrepresented fire safety issues with Kooltherm K15, one of the products used in the Grenfell Tower. The vigil was attended by SMART members, clergy, environmentalists, and local activists.

On June 6, President Joe Biden issued a “Presidential Determination” under Section 303 of the Defense Production Act to expand US production of heat pumps, declaring it a matter of national security. “Ensuring a robust, resilient, and sustainable domestic industrial base to meet the requirements of the clean energy economy is essential to our national security, a resilient energy sector, and the preservation of domestic critical infrastructure.” The Determination found…

The faculty and graduate worker union at Rutgers University has stepped out to oppose a plan to haul liquified fracked gas across southern New Jersey. The Star-Ledger has just published an op ed by two union leaders explaining why…

On May 31, autoworkers and teachers rallied in Washington, DC to call on states, local governments, and school districts around the country to electrify the nation’s school bus fleet with union-built, climate-safe, pollution-free electric school buses.

The Rhode Island legislature has just required that 100 percent of electricity sold in the state comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2033. That’s sooner than any other state in the country.

Local initiatives around the country are advancing the goals of the Green New Deal and Build Back Better. A good example is the Bridgeport Carbon Free & Healthy Schools campaign. The campaign was launched May 14 at Bridgeport Public Schools’ Volunteer Day, where members of the building trades, teachers, parents, and students worked to make improvements to a Bridgeport school.

The Supreme Court has just overruled the fifty-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that protected women’s reproductive rights. In anticipation of the decision, unions joined women’s, civil rights and liberties, and many other groups to decry the threat to women’s healthcare and their right to control their own bodies and lives:

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.

Income inequality is the highest it has been in 100 years, and with that has come an all-out assault on the political and voting rights of working people. Add to that the devastating effects that Covid has had on workers lives and the economy, and onrushing economic and health impacts Climate Change are unleashing on workers and their families. We must build a mass movement that fights for working people on all fronts.