True Transition, an organization composed of fossil fuel workers, recently released their “American Oil and Gas Workers Survey.” It provides the answers given by 1649 oil and gas workers to 38 questions about their jobs and work lives.

Workers are rising up and taking cities back from capitalists and corporations. Unions are negotiating for benefits for the community and not just members, emerging from behind the fortress. This moment of labor insurgency in the aftermath of the pandemic, which laid bare the disposability of the working class, has echoes in historical struggles to make cities more livable and democratic.

David Hughes is an anthropologist of the climate emergency and energy democracy. He works at Rutgers University, where he has served as president of the faculty and grad worker union.

Public schools need a Green New Deal, and educators are ready to win it. From April 16th-22nd (the week of Earth Day), educators across the country are taking action for green, healthy, fully-resourced schools.

As Project Manager of the LNS Young Worker Listening Project and an organizer of the LNS Young Workers Convergence on Climate, Maria Breschia-Weiler has worked with, surveyed, and interviewed hundreds of young workers. In a talk March 3, 2023 to the DC Youth Climate Strike, organized by Fridays for the Future, Maria provided some reflections on what she has learned from the process.

On March 21 senior citizens held more than 100 climate actions around the country. Participants included retired trade unionists from 30 different international unions.

“You braved the cold, you braved the wind, you braved some hail, and you braved the hellish rains. And we took the fight to every corner of Los Angeles. We had strong picket lines, we had massive rallies, and we, together, put LAUSD on notice!”

On March 20 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, [IPCC], the world’s most definitive voice of climate science, released its latest Synthesis Report.

On March 13, the Biden administration announced approval of ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, the largest fossil fuel extraction project on federal lands in history. It is expected to produce five hundred and seventy-five million barrels of oil over the next thirty years.

There is a through-line between the denial of sick days to railroad workers and residents of East Palestine fleeing their homes in the aftermath of a derailed freight train poisoning their town. The through-line is the rail industry’s drive for profit costing workers and communities their health and safety. The through-line is workers sounding the alarm, to no avail.

Seventeen years ago California passed one of the nation’s first workplace heat stress rules. Since then California has been inundated with heat waves resulting from global warming.

In the past two years there has been a wave of state legislation and executive action that sets and implements new standards for greenhouse gas emissions. States have greatly expanded their plans for wind and solar energy and energy efficiency. In most cases these are combined with policies specifically designed to create good quality jobs and to counter inequality.

Members of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) have been integral to the LNS Young Worker Organizing Committee since its inception. CLUW is a national organization that advocates for the rights and empowerment of women in the workplace. Now, participants in the LNS Young Worker Project are organizing the first ever CLUW Young Working Women Conference, May 7 – 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada!

The Labor Network for Sustainability is pleased to introduce you to our new Co-Directors, Joshua Dedmond and Liz Ratzloff. Both are experienced activists in labor, environmental, and other movements who have been promoted from the LNS staff to serve as Co-Directors.

Earlier this month, LNS wrapped up one of LNS’s most visible events — Transit Equity Day. Transit Equity Day is a national day-of-action where many local transit advocates, environmental justice organizations, and labor unions come together to increase awareness of the vast amount of transit inequities within their transit system – as well as their solutions.