Climate code red and labor upsurge

The current conditions in climate and labor are ripe for organizing together. The average global surface temperature in 2023 was the highest recorded since 1850, and almost every North American region experienced severe weather events. Working-class people, particularly farm workers and warehouse workers, are bearing the brunt of higher temperatures in their workplaces. As a response, climate and labor activists have organized climate strikes, which draw on the labor movement’s history of collectively withholding labor to apply pressure. Simultaneously, the labor movement has seen one of its most significant upsurges in decades with new union drives, organizing and direct action in workplaces, and strike activity, with 459,000 workers participating in strikes in 2023.

Working-class people, particularly farm workers and warehouse workers, are bearing the brunt of higher temperatures in their workplaces

Once again, the UAW has taken up the mantle of bridging the gap between labor and the environment. It included electric vehicle and battery production and investment in the contracts it secured with the Big Three automakers – Ford, GM and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) – following the union’s six-week “Stand Up Strike” in 2023, whichwon historic gains. In June 2024, UAW negotiated an agreement with electric vehicle battery producer Ultium Cells. Workers of its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, voted to ratify the contract, which is the first at a major electric vehicle battery plant and includes 25% wage increases, improvements in provisions for overtime, breaks and health and safety.

This renewed interest in union organizing has even reached workers in environmental nonprofit organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, Greenpeace, Audubon, the Sierra Club and the Sunrise Movement, spurred on by unions such as the Communication Workers of America and the Progressive Workers Union, and supported by networks like the Green Union Hall. Pursuing unionization has not only helped environmental nonprofit workers gain representation on the job and secure better pay, benefits and equity provisions, but it has also created an avenue for a labor-oriented engagement between workers in environmental advocacy organizations and workers in extractive industries.

The project of deepening working-class labor and environmental coalitions is also being taken up by my union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 503, which represents almost 2 million workers in healthcare, public services and property services in the U.S. and Canada. As part of our union’s climate justice committee, we have planned educational workshops to raise awareness and developed proposals for how our union can take on climate, health and environmental issues.

Environmental and climate justice advocacy that centers labor can ensure that workers are at the forefront and not an afterthought in a just transition. Labor unions have shown they provide more than a framework to push for better wages, benefits and job security. Rather, they are often the only democratic spaces accessible to working-class people that foreground the well-being of workers and their communities. The convergence of labor and environmental movements in the past and present provides perhaps the only path to contend with the ongoing livelihood and ecological crises caused by the economic system. It could be the only way to chart a future based not on exploitation and extraction but on principles of environmental and labor justice.

convergence of labor and environmental movements in the past and present provides perhaps the only path to contend with the ongoing livelihood and ecological crises caused by the economic system

Disclaimer: This essay was written by Dr. Pradnya Garud in her personal capacity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of the Oregon Health Authority.

This essay was produced through the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice fellowship, a partnership between Environmental Health News and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Agents of Change empowers emerging leaders from historically excluded backgrounds in science and academia to reimagine solutions for a just and healthy planet.