Can unions lead the push toward an environmentally sustainable future, and secure more good jobs in the process? With the Trump administration attacking federal investments in green industries from electrical vehicles to wind, the United Auto Workers (UAW) is attempting this strategy at the state level in California.
Last summer, the union issued a report titled “Organize, Industrialize, Decarbonize! A Pro-Worker, Green Industrial Policy for California,” calling for the state “to move boldly and wield all tools at its disposal to bring about the kind of economic transformation necessary to decarbonize and raise working-class living standards.”
The report comes from UAW Region 6, which represents 120,000 active and retired members in Western states. Most of the region’s members work in higher education, though some work in aerospace, auto, and casinos. The union has been attempting to organize the ten thousand workers at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California.
One-third of California workers make less than $20 an hour, and climate change is driving up the state’s already high cost of living. The UAW wants California “to embrace a bold new economic strategy to create tens of thousands of new union jobs, rapidly slash greenhouse gas emissions, and drive down energy costs for working-class communities.” That would mean targeted investments in electric vehicles and batteries, offshore wind, and heat pump manufacturing and installations.
Global fossil fuel emissions are breaking records every year, further warming the planet, worsening extreme weather, and pushing Earth toward dangerous tipping points like the collapse of Arctic ice sheets. In California, the impacts of man-made climate change are all too apparent: devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area last year caused $135 billion in property damage and lost income.
“The wildfires were a horrific reminder of the climate crisis,” said UAW Region 6 director Mike Miller. “Thousands of…
Auteur: Dan DiMaggio
