Audience: Labor

This report looks at this process of power building for just transition in four states: California, Kentucky, Louisiana, and New York. We combine an analysis of the pillars of just transition – strong governmental support, dedicated funding streams, diverse coalitions, and economic diversification – with an analysis of how to change power at a state level that focuses on the conditions that impact possibilities, the community-level capabilities that facilitate effective voice, and the arenas in which power is contested.

This week’s Insight recaps our Research + Experimentation 9 convening last week, highlighting some of the top research and movement strategies from the field in the past year. We’ve also got a climate equity survey, upcoming trainings, and job listings.

This series chronicles the Fight for 15 organizing campaigns in various U.S. cities and states over the past few decades. Examples include Detroit, Chicago, and Seattle. Various articles and interviews—written by different authors—describe the history of organizing efforts, policy goals, and organizing strategies behind both victories and losses. Multiple articles focus on the successful Florida 2020 minimum wage ballot question campaign—particularly the role of workers on the campaign, digital and communications GOTV tactics, and what overall lessons leftists and progressives can take away.             

This interactive webinar covered the process of how this collaboration between environmental justice and labor forces was facilitated, how they built a shared vision around resilience, a rundown of the report’s key findings, and a guided activity for how to apply the report’s insights to participants’ local communities and organizing work.

The concept of a “just transition” has permeated mainstream discourse, yet those who will likely be most impacted by the energy transition – frontline workers and their communities – have mostly been excluded from the conversation. This report, derived from over 100 listening sessions and interviews with workers and frontline community members, encourages policymakers to:

Go Big: Be guided by a just transition vision that is ambitious and comprehensive in order to address the scope of impacts for affected communities and industries. Job creation, labor standards, and workers’ rights must be included.
Go Wide: Impacts from economic transitions can be felt in a number of ways, from financial to social to psychological. Policymakers should engage with existing social infrastructure such as labor unions, frontline community groups, and Indigenous nations to make sure support is readily available.
Go Far: While the climate crisis is urgent, just transition plans must not be fixated on the short-term. Instead, policymakers should include long-term commitments to workers and their communities as part of their vision and take into account differences in generational needs between older, established workers and those just entering the workforce.

In addition, the report addresses how labor and advocacy organizations need to develop authentic, trusting relationships with each other to build political and policy alignment around just transition goals. One way to start is to establish and expand internal committees and capacities to understand each other’s issues and perspectives.

California and the US are increasingly beset by climate-fueled disasters like wildfires, extreme heat, and power blackouts. These events put additional stress on frayed hard and social infrastructure systems, and disproportionately impact working-class communities of color. To adapt to these changes, society must update our notion of disaster response to increase resilience in these systems before disasters strike. This report offers two models for this response: 1) building and normalizing resilience hubs where community members gather and organize both in good times and bad, and 2) increasing in-home resilience by recognizing homecare workers as effective agents for assisting vulnerable populations and bridging authorities and the frontlines. The report goes on to recommend specific ways to set up resilience hubs, train care workers, and develop forward-thinking emergency response plans to avert human disasters after natural disasters.