It’s not every day that workers get to tell representatives of Congress how federal programs affect their work lives. But that’s just what happened when union members working on clean energy projects in Illinois, Maine, and New York spoke about the impact of federal climate investments in their communities to the Clean Energy Workers Roundtable hosted by the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC).

“Bargaining for the Common Good” has become a crucial strategy for organized labor and a key means of forging broad coalitions for mutual support. For the past decade, unions and allies in Minnesota have developed powerful union and community alignments that have won victories at the bargaining table, in the community, and in the legislature.

A January 18 podcast interview with labor historian Jeremy Brecher, editor of LNS’ Making a Living on a Living Planet, delved into strategic issues for the labor and climate movements.

Nayyirah Shariff is a grassroots organizer based in Flint, Michigan and recently joined the LNS Board of Directors! Nayyirah was one of the co-founders of the Flint Democracy Defense League, a grassroots group formed to confront Flint’s emergency manager in 2011.

For the sixth year, the Transit Equity Network of Labor Network for Sustainability will celebrate Rosa Park’s birthday with a nationwide Transit Equity Day February 5. Transit rider organizations, labor unions, and transit equity advocates will take attention-grabbing actions locally around the country to dramatize the need for just transit for all.

Through bold strategy and collective action, United Auto Workers (UAW) have won historic gains in their 2023 contracts with the Big 3 Auto companies– gains that turned the tide against an unjust transition to electric vehicles and demonstrated that climate progress and economic justice can and must be won in tandem.

In October this year, California Labor for Climate Jobs (CLCJ) launched as a new, state-wide coalition of fourteen California labor unions with express intent to promote a worker-led transition to a just and climate-safe economy.

By Veronica Wilson, LNS California Organizer For the second year in a row, SMART (Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation) International Union hosted a “Cleanup Kingspan Virtual Summit,” inviting organizations to stand with workers fighting for “good” “green” jobs. Labor...

At a November Department of Energy panel on “Community Voices from the Ground” grassroots environmental justice advocates asked the Department to stop promoting large-scale polluting project in marginalized communities of color.

The abundance of climate-heating gases in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2022. A new report from the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) finds that climate-heating gases in the atmosphere reached record highs in 2022 and “there is no end in sight to the rising trend,” which is largely driven by the burning of fossil fuels.

According to the latest US government forecast, the US will extract more crude oil in 2023 than ever in history, more than twice as much as ten years ago.

While it is often asserted that rich countries like the United States will be spared the worst effects of climate change, the recently released Fifth National Climate Assessment finds that temperatures in the US are actually rising faster than the global average. According to the authoritative report, Americans are suffering “far-reaching and worsening” consequences from the climate crisis, with worse to come. 

The UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Green Economy Program has just launched a Federal Infrastructure Funding Database.

Those of us in the fight for climate justice have long heard that recycling is broken. “Most recycling ends up at the landfill.” “Recycling uses more energy than it saves.” “If you put one contaminant in the recycling, the whole load will go to the landfill.” I’ve repeated these sentiments without really knowing where I got them from.

Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union, has written in the union’s newspaper…