Marcelina Pedraza is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and United Auto Workers Local 551 at Ford Chicago Assembly Plant and has been a union electrician for 24 years. In the UAW, she is a Delegate for the Skilled Trades committee and serves as the Recording Secretary for the Women’s Committee. She is a graduate of and instructor for the Regina V. Polk Women’s Labor Leadership conference, a program that has trained women labor leaders for over 3 decades.

The following is a transcript from Labor Network for Sustainability staffer Sydney Ghazarian’s opening remarks during the August 17, 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) Solidarity Call. Welcome everyone! My name is Sydney, I am an organizer with the Labor Network for...

In June 2023, the United Electrical Workers Locals 506 and 618 voted to reject the last and final offer by the Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation or (Wabtec) of Erie, Pennsylvania.  The unions were denied their basic rights to strike over grievances, and most importantly, over the company’s refusal to move forward with worker-supported environmentally necessary green locomotive production.   

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

As key states like Illinois, New York, and California start reducing their production and use of coal, oil, and gas, what will happen to the workers who produce, transport, and burn those fossil fuels? A new by Commentary Jeremy Brecher, LNS co-founder and senior strategic advisor, portrays state-level programs to guard workers and communities against loss of livelihoods and income from climate protection policies.

A district court in Montana is deciding a case brought by 16 youth plaintiffs who are arguing that, by enacting pro fossil-fuel policies, state officials have violated their constitutional rights to a healthy environment. The trial has featured testimony of experts from around the world as well as from the youth themselves.

A labor-climate movement is developing not only in the US but worldwide. An on-line forum in June brought together labor activists from different countries to explore the global labor movement’s response to climate change.

Gail Francis is the Strategic Director of RE-AMP, a network of 130 organizations with the shared goal of equitably eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from the Midwest. Prior to coming to RE-AMP, she founded the Labor in the New Energy Economy program at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

The New York State legislature has just passed the Build Public Renewables Act with support of unions representing a million New York workers. The Act authorizes the New York Power Authority – the largest state-owned power company in the US –to start investing in renewable energy. It requires that all state-owned properties that ordinarily receive power from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) are run on renewable energy by 2030. It also requires municipally owned facilities like hospitals, schools, public housing, and public transit to convert completely to renewable energy by 2035.