Climate Strikes
Our Next Steps Together…
We as a nation awoke to the confirmation that Donald Trump will be serving a second term as president. For those of us who strive for climate justice and worker empowerment, this reality is an incredible setback. Trump’s approach to the environment, which the Republican Party as a whole has adopted, would roll back regulations, expand oil and gas production and curtail the federal government’s regulatory powers.
Macroeconomics Meets the Polycrisis
The convergence of crises now often referred to as “the polycrisis” was heralded by the global economic crisis known as the Great Recession. Since then neither national nor global institutions have proven able to control the destructive gyrations of the global economy.
Great Power Struggle Over Fragmented Global Networks
The global convergence of crises that has been dubbed the “polycrisis” has emerged in tandem with the decline of globalization. But what is replacing globalization is less a new system than a chaotic scramble. This is one of a series of Strike! Commentaries on “The Polycrisis and the Global Green New Deal.”
LNS Welcomes New Communications director
LNS is proud to introduce our new Communications Director, Virginia Rodino. Virginia’s professional career has focused on communications strategy for labor, non-profit, and activist organizations.
Letter from the Editor
Workers organize to protect themselves from inadequate pay, overwork, insecurity, and threats to their health and safety. And now there is another threat to workers’ wellbeing: climate change. And workers are organizing to fight it.
Hurricanes Fed by Global Warming Ravage Workers and Communities
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.”
How Climate Change Threatens Workers
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.
Join “the Green New Deal from Below” book launch
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.
If California Politicians Won’t Support Climate Projects, Can the People Make Them Do It Anyway?
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 Kills; Heat Standards Will Save Workers’ Lives
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.”