For a while, it looked like we’d have to choose: labor or climate; jobs or the planet. But with unions like the CWA increasingly calling for action on climate change, some of these once-divergent interests appear to be coming into alignment. As Samantha Page wrote in an article in ThinkProgress last week:
The Climate and Community Protection Act passed the Democrat-led Assembly this week and is now at the Republican-controlled State Senate. NY Renew, a coalition which brought together labor, climate, and social justice groups, helped pass the measure. The bill sets a goal of 50 percent renewable electricity generation by 2030 and focuses on clean energy job creation, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
While unions have traditionally fought for workplace and economic improvements, climate change represents a serious threat to everyone, including union members, [CWA Political and Legislative Director Pete] Sikora said, so an alliance with green groups makes sense.Continue reading Labor and Climate Change: What Comes Next?→
What is the history of the coalition between the labor movement and the environmental justice movement? To answer that question, I looked at labor’s activities on environmental issues in three time periods: 1948 to 1972, 1973 to the 1990s, and the 1990s to the present.
The labor movement took the lead on many environmental concerns between 1948 and 1972, because of the space labor occupied and the resources it mustered. Labor led the charge on such environmental concerns because the environmental justice movement was far smaller and did not command the level of resources labor possessed. With the relative economic prosperity of this time period U.S. labor was able to be inclusive of broader social justice issues such as the environment.
In the second period after 1973, facing massive job losses, labor shifted its priorities away from broader social concerns like the environment and began to take a more concessionary posture in collective bargaining. Economic pressures made union and non-union members alike feel vulnerable, and corporate America seized the opportunity.
A conversation about workers, communities and social justice
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