“Transforming Transportation – From Below” is a new commentary by newsletter editor Jeremy Brecher. It describes how around the country, “People are acting at the local and state level to create jobs, reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and equalize transportation by expanding and electrifying public transit, electrifying cars and trucks, and making it safe to walk and bike.” It characterizes this work as “a crucial part of building the Green New Deal from Below.”

The US Department of Transportation recently proposed a Greenhouse Gas Rule requiring state departments of transportation to measure greenhouse gas emissions and establish targets to lower those emissions. The Labor Network for Sustainability, as part of its transit justice work, signed on to a letter urging adoption of the rule.

In response to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Labor Network for Sustainability has just released the following statement…

“Young Workers Are Bridging the Climate and Labor Movements” – that’s the title of an article by journalist Leanna First-Arai that just appeared in Teen Vogue and Truthout. It features the Labor Network for Sustainability’s Young Workers Listening Project.

Heat protection will be one of the key issues in the upcoming Teamsters negotiations at UPS for the biggest union contract in North America, which covers the majority of UPS’s 350,000 workers. The current contract expires next year.

A pair of new commentaries by Making a Living on a Living Planet’s editor Jeremy Brecher provides dozens of examples of how unions in the most diverse industries and occupations are creating their own Green New Deal-type programs in localities around the country.

Under pressure from unions and environmental groups, the U.S. Postal Service just announced that 40% of its new delivery vehicles will be electric.

The July convention of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers urged that its members’ retirement assets be divested “from all corporations or other entities that extract, transport, trade or otherwise contribute to the production of coal, oil and gas” and that they those funds be reinvested in “projects that benefit displaced workers and frontline communities.”

It all started when the General Iron Company decided to move its car-shredding operation to Chicago’s Southeast Side community. Students, teachers, and community members held numerous marches and demonstrations to protest the move to a location little more than half a mile from George Washington High School. In addition, teacher Chuck Stark took part in a hunger strike and teacher Lauren Bianchi was arrested at a protest outside a city official’s home.

In response to the Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v EPA that gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, Marie Owens Powell, President of AFGE Council 238, which represents EPA employees, recently stated…

At its 29th Constitutional Convention in June, the AFL-CIO passed a resolution on “Climate Change, Energy and Union Jobs.”

The resolution begins by pointing out the threat of climate change and the necessity of reducing emissions to meet it…

Social movement researcher Dalilah Shemia-Goeke recently reviewed Common Preservation in a Time of Mutual Destruction by LNS co-founder and senior advisor Jeremy Brecher. Her review, “How a Global Nonviolent Insurgency Could Prevent Climate Destruction,” was published in Resistance Studies and Waging Nonviolence.

Several LNS staff recently attended the 2022 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago, IL. It was the largest ever held, and by many accounts, the most inspiring and energizing to date. Between the numerous panels, workshops, and meetings covering all facets of building a strong and democratic labor movement, there were six devoted to discussing and teaching about the intersection of work, unions, and climate change.

At the 2023 Labor Notes Conference (see previous piece), one of LNS’s main goals was to build support and strategic outreach for its upcoming Young Worker (YW) Convergence in Los Angeles, where young union members and climate activists will meet to strategize around how young workers can move forward a just transition with an urgency commensurate with the climate emergency. There was great enthusiasm for the project from young union members across a vast range of occupations, from tradespeople and longshore workers to teachers and transit workers. Staff will be following up on all the connections that were forged during the weekend and help ensure that these crucial young union voices are represented at the YW Convergence.

The Young Worker Climate Convergence at the IBEW Local 11 office in Los Angeles, California from September 15th-18th will bring together young workers (18-35) who believe unions and union members have a crucial role to play in responding to the climate crisis. Through discussions, workshops and panels around place-based and sectoral challenges and opportunities in labor-climate organizing, we hope to create a space for young workers to gain a deeper understanding of where they are in the labor-climate landscape, who is around them, and how they can learn from each others’ efforts, laying the groundwork for sustained collaboration between young workers at the intersection of economic and environmental justice.