The
Greening of the Labor Movement
Thousands of union members participated in Sunday’s People’s Climate March,
which is believed to be the largest demonstration by environmental activists
ever to take place in the United States.
National, statewide and local unions played a big role in
organizing the New York City march, and unions contributed significant
resources to guarantee its success.
A New Movement?
Green activists are hopeful that the march marks the
beginning of a movement that will unite a broad alliance of labor, community
and traditional environmental groups dedicated to protecting the environment.
Unionists who marched say the demonstration shows that the decades-old division
between environmentalists and labor over the issue of jobs is finally breaking
down.
“Building new community alliances is important, not only
for creating jobs to but also to address social justice issues,” he said.
“Climate change discriminates. Hurricane Sandy hurt the city’s minority and
poor communities disproportionately.”
“This is really a class issue,” said Joshua Barnett, who
works for the New York City Pubic Housing Authority. “The communities of New
York City are unequally affected by asthma and pollution. The highest
percentage of garbage dumps, sewage treatment plants and lead paint are in poor
communities.”
Labor activists gathered for a lively rally at Broadway
and 57th Street before the march kicked off in the late morning. Organizers
estimated 350,000 workers, parents and children, human rights and peace advocates,
youths, students, people of faith, politicians, celebrities and community
activists participated the march, which filled dozens of blocks and extended
over 2 miles until the demonstrators gathered between 34th and 38th streets for
a block party.
Union leaders and rank-and-file members underscored how
climate change is an existential issue for workers.
“Our members work and live in the coastal cities of the
East of the United States,” said Hector Figueroa, who is the president of Local
32BJ, which has 145,000 members, who work in the city’s buildings as cleaners,
maintenance laborers, security officers, window cleaners, building engineers
and doormen. “They all are at risk with climate change.”
As noted by Figueroa, buildings account for a significant
part of the city’s gas emission and electrical output. The local, an affiliate
of Services Employees International Union, set up a training program for its
supervisors to make the buildings they work in more environmentally friendly by
conserving water and using electricity more efficiently.
Henry Garrido, an associate director of DC 37, which is
an affiliate of the American State, Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, recalled how Hurricane Sandy devastated the union’s downtown
headquarters, which was closed for nine months because of damage. Many DC 37
members were among the thousands of residents displaced by the hurricane.
But while DC 37 members were direct victims of the storm,
they also were on the frontlines in helping residents, Garrido said.
EMS workers tended to people injured in the storm.
Members in the public hospitals evacuated patients. Social workers and clerical
employees ran shelters. And mobile libraries became outposts to help residents
of storm-ravaged communities charge their cell phones, learn about emergency
services, and find shelter and shower facilities.
The Profit-Motive Leads to
Environmental Devastation
Some unionists expressed little hope that climate change
is possible without significant political and economic changes.
Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff
Congress, which represents professors and other staff in the city’s public
universities and colleges, said that because “capitalism cannot solve the
climate problem,” it is up the unions to be a leading force in advocating the
public policy and economic changes that are needed to deal with environmental
problems.
“It’s our for-profit system that will lead to the
devastation of our planet,” Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, president of the New York
State Nurses Association.
She recalled that the administration of former Mayor
Michael Bloomberg was unprepared for Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It was up to
public employees like nurses and community activist groups like Occupy Sandy to
come to the aid of residents in the first week after the storm, she said.
Stanley Sturgill, a retired underground coal miner from
Kentucky, was one of the speakers at the People’s Climate March press
conference in the morning.
“We have already lost thousands of jobs,” Sturgill
responded when asked about the historic rift between labor and
environmentalists over the issue of jobs. His observation suggested that with
the decline of traditional industry, the union movement is better off focusing
on creating green jobs and other employment.
Organizers of the march pointed out that 20 percent of
the world’s electricity now comes from clean energy sources. Uruguay, Norway
and Germany have adopted carbon-free policies. In May, Germany reached a
landmark when nearly 75 percent of its peak power demand was met by renewable
sources of energy.
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency
seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions of coal plants by 30 percent by 2030.
Nearly 200 coal-fired plans have closed in the United States.
More than 1,500 organizations organized the People’s
Climate March in New York City. On Sunday, more than 2,700 marches took place
around the world.
The People’s Climate March was timed to pressure world
leaders who will gather this week at the United Nations for a climate summit.
The meeting will set the groundwork for the Paris United Nations Climate Summit
in 2015, when world leaders are supposed to sign a new international climate
treaty.
Fight Corporate Greed by
Creating Green Jobs
“In New York City, labor can help create new programs to
protect our infrastructure, protect the environment and develop alternate
sources of energy,” said Juan Fernandez, president of DC 37’s Local 154, whose
members include human rights workers.
The city’s big public sector—with
engineers, scientists, public health workers and emergency services workers—is
uniquely qualified to help the city become safer by adopting green policies and
projects to help protect the infrastructure of the local economy, according to
labor activists like Fernandez.
“Labor is always on the frontline when there is a
disaster,” said Jeremy Sanders, president of Zoological Employees Local 1501,
whose members include workers at the world-famous Bronx Zoo. “We are going to
be on the ground when the next disaster hits. Without the public employees, the
city would grind to a halt.”
“We have to fight greed and create green jobs,” said
Natasha Isma, who heads a committee of young activists in Local 1549, which represents
city clerical workers.
“We need more environmental-friendly products. We have to
protect our children and our children’s children. If we don’t act, we’re not
going to have any planet left.”