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LABOR & CLIMATE NEWS
Young Worker Listening Project
Preliminary results from a survey by LNS’s Young Workers Listening Project provides a startling picture of what young workers think about climate and labor. According to a just-released article in The Forge…
Time for Public Transit to Roll
As part of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) passed by the U.S. Senate on August 10, 2021 includes $39 billion in new spending for transit. The bill is now in the House where it will be considered with the overall reconciliation package.
A ‘Place-Based’ Just Transition is Possible
As with many organizers drawn to work with the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), Pamela Tau Lee saw first-hand the workplace cruelties and injustices of her ancestors and throughout the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities when she was a young girl. Founder of the Chinese Pacific Association and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Tau Lee recently shared her experience at APALA’s 16th Convention themed, “Rooted in Legacy: Towards a New World Beyond Borders & Across Oceans,” of which she was the opening keynote.
Rutgers Divests!
Members of Rutgers American Association of University Professors – American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) are joining with student allies in celebrating a vote to divest from fossil fuels by the Rutgers Board of Governors and Board of Trustees.
How to “Build Back Better”
Graphic: Sierra Club. Anyone interested in how to address the concerns of both labor and environmentalists in upcoming legislation should take a look at the new Sierra Club report “How to Build Back Better: A 10-year Plan for Economic Renewal.” Although the Sierra...
Ride Your Bike for Climate, Jobs and Justice in NYC–April 24
How do we spread the word about what it will take to have an equitable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the crises of climate, jobs, healthcare, racism and democracy that it has so aggravated? Members of New York’s large DC37 union have an innovative way: The...
Does Shale Gas Extraction Grow Jobs?
Over the past decade, many communities, especially impoverished rural communities in Appalachia, have been pitched the idea that extracting natural gas would be the solution to their economic problems. Vast amounts of gas were indeed extracted. But a new report from the Ohio River Valley Institute shows that the benefits did not flow to local communities
LNS Prez Says Biden Facing “Difficult Balancing Act”
An NPR “All Things Considered” news story produced by Don Gonyea, “Biden Infrastructure Plan Aims To Please Both Labor And Environmentalists,” recently featured LNS President Joe Uehlein.
Why the PRO Act Matters
The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act, perhaps the most significant labor law reform legislation since the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, often known as “Labor’s Magna Carta,” establishing the right of workers...
LNS Calls for Climate-Safe Infrastructure Not Line 3 and Dakota Access Tar Sands Pipelines
The Labor Network for Sustainability calls for a halt to the Line 3 Pipeline, the Dakota Access Pipeline and other climate-destroying fossil-fuel infrastructure of the past. It calls instead to start creating the jobs of the future building the climate-safe infrastructure of the future.
Coal Communities Ask Biden Administration for Just Transition
Labor leaders, economic development groups and environmentalists from coal states recently wrote to President Joe Biden to fund a “just transition” from coal to renewable energy. They also asked the administration last week in a letter to immediately establish a White House Office of Economic Transition to work on rebuilding the economies of coal communities.
Time for Turbines!
According to a recent Op-Ed in the New Jersey Star-Ledger, wind energy is going to mean union jobs. The Op-Ed, “Steelworkers and Windmills–Perfect Together,” co-authored by Del Vitale, Director of District 4 for the United Steelworkers and Debra Coyle McFadden, Executive Director for the New Jersey Work Environment Council–both organizations that are partners in the Jersey Renews coalition, which recently sponsored the Time for Turbines Conference.
New York City Pension Funds Ditching Fossil Fuels
New York City’s largest pension funds have voted to divest from companies related to fossil fuels. The $4 billion divestment is one of the largest in the country and the first time a major city has committed to complete divestment of fossil fuel holdings.
Climate Justice + Organized Labor
In case you missed the February 11, 2021 webinar "Climate Justice + Labor Organizing," hosted by Saren Glenn Vincent of the Power Shift Network, you can watch it here. Featuring Labor Network for Sustainability Young Worker Project Organizer Joshua Dedmond and Kayla...
Walmart Day of Action
In February, the International Union of Electronic Workers – Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) held actions at Walmart locations around the U.S. to save jobs for workers who manufacture LED light bulbs produced by Walmart, who recently announced plans to move production to China.