“What good is a dollar an hour more in wages if your neighborhood is burning down? What good is another week’s vacation if the lake you used to go to is polluted and you can’t swim in it, and the kids can’t play in it?”
Those were questions posed by legendary labor leader Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers union during the first Earth Day in 1970. UAW not only wrote the first check in support of Earth Day, it also contributed mightily to the national organizing effort for the inaugural holiday we still celebrate today.
On Earth Day 1993, I gave my first major speech, on behalf of the Student Environmental Action Coalition at a rally opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement. The experience taught me firsthand how the movements to protect our planet and the rights of working people are tightly linked.
We just celebrated Labor Day in what is projected to be the hottest year on record. It is a great time to celebrate the relationship between labor and the environmental movement and to remember we have the tools to make sure the transition to a clean energy economy does not leave workers behind.
A just transition means creating good green jobs and protecting workers’ rights. It means ensuring workers have a center seat at the table when discussing climate policy. It means providing workers with training and support to ensure they are ready to work in emerging green industries and are taken care of in the meantime. And it means investing in the communities directly impacted by the transition.
Last year, Michigan gave the nation a template for how to get this done. The state’s Clean Energy and Jobs package is a bold effort to aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support a rapid transition to clean energy by making sure workers in the automobile, energy and other sectors benefit.
In our many overlapping movements for progress and justice, it almost always comes down to a battle between organized people and organized money. And organized money has been trying to break up the important friendship between labor and environmentalists for a long time.
‘Good faith’ in fighting rumors
We saw this during the debate on Michigan’s historic climate and jobs legislation. Environmental groups, labor organizations and state officials worked togetherto make sure the principles of a just transition were applied. Part of the legislation created a special office under the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity: the Community & Worker Economic Transition Office “to develop proactive strategies that help companies and Michiganders take full advantage of the high-tech, high-paying jobs coming to the state.”
When labor leaders testified in favor of the legislation and about the need for that office, at least one opponent tried to twist their testimony to suggest they were saying clean energy initiatives were killing jobs — which was not what they were saying at all. Rumors circulated that labor groups were obstructing progress on the bill or trying to move the goalposts on items being negotiated by labor, green groups and the state. But advocates were able to put down the rumors easily.
The president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, Ron Bieber, a third-generation UAW member and the son of a former UAW president, attributes that to the good faith working relationship between the parties involved.
“When our partners on the enviro side heard any divisive rumors, they knew to be skeptical and that they could just reach out to us and ask. And vice versa. Building that trust and partnership based on mutual interest was crucial in preventing efforts to fracture our coalition.”
Michigan has an advantage. It was already a strong union state. But that is part of the template. States that want workers to enjoy the fruits of the next economy should put in place a firm base of protections for workers’ rights.
Any major economic transition, even one as necessary and urgent as the transition to clean energy, must not be done at the expense of our communities and workers. The new clean energy economy already offers the promise of better health outcomes and lower consumer costs. It can also mean a jobs boom, with better jobs for higher pay.
According to Climate Power, clean energy projects spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act created 312,900 new jobs between Aug. 16, 2022, and May 31, 2024, alone. As clean energy jobs continue to be created, it is projected that 75% of them will not require a four-year degree. And the Brookings Institution found that the “mean hourly wages for clean energy jobs exceed national averages by 8 to 19 percent.”
As Reuther noted, all the benefits we want for workers — better, safer, higher-paying jobs — can only be enjoyed to their fullest if the air is breathable, the water is drinkable, and extreme heat and climate-charged weather events aren’t wreaking havoc on their homes and communities.
Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
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