global warming

By David Hill and Jeremy Brecher - Labor Network for Sustainability, November 30, 2023

British journalist DAVID HILL interviewed Jeremy Brecher in the lead-up to COP28 about why international climate negotiations fail and how a “global nonviolent constitutional insurgency” could be a climate game-changer.

DH: Last year when we were in touch you said you thought COP27 “should be the most important meeting in the history of the world – nothing could be more important than international agreement to meet the climate targets laid out by climate science and agreed to by the world’s governments at the Paris Climate Summit.” Do you feel the same about COP28?

JB: Of course, COP28 should be the most important meeting in the history of the world. That was also true of COP27, COP26 and all the previous COP climate meetings. While they should be producing international agreement to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero, the reality is that the decades of international climate conferences have simply legitimated ever rising GHG emissions and ever increasing climate destruction. The idea that it is being hosted by Dubai and chaired by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the head of the United Arab Emirates’s state-owned oil company, represents the height of absurdity – like putting Al Capone in charge of alcohol regulation. Sultan al-Jaber’s letter laying out plans for COP 28 is lacking in ambition to reduce climate destruction. The entire so-called international climate protection process is now controlled by those who hope to gain by climate destruction. A global nonviolent insurgency against the domination of the fossil fuel industry and the governments it controls appears to be the only practical means to counter their plan to destroy humanity.

DH: In other words, COP28 should be the most important meeting in the history of the world, but it’s not going to be. What do you think is the percentage chance of an international agreement to phase out fossil fuels being reached?

JB: The answer to this one is easy: there is zero chance that COP28 will produce an agreement that will actually phase out fossil fuels. The forces that are in control of the governments represented in COP28 represent fossil fuel interests that are intent on continuing and if possible expanding their use. US President Eisenhower once said that the people wanted peace so much that some day the governments would have to get out of their way and let them have it. An international agreement that will actually phase out fossil fuels will come when governments discover that if they want to go on governing they have to let the people have climate safety.

By Gareth Dale - Green European Journal, June 12, 2024

Inspiration for decarbonising industry and creating green jobs is within the hands of those already facing precarity in today’s economically unstable times. A resilient history of workers’ initiatives overcoming redundancies, alongside recent activist, trade-union, and workforce collaborations, provides concrete examples for empowered transitioning.

In 2023, when Europe was blasted by a record-breaking heatwave named after Cerberus (the three-headed hound of Hades), workers organised to demand protection from the extreme heat. In Athens, employees at the Acropolis and other historical sites went on strike for four hours each day. In Rome, refuse collectors threatened to strike if they were forced to work during periods of peak heat. Elsewhere in Italy, public transport workers demanded air-conditioned vehicles, and workers at a battery plant in Abruzzo issued a strike threat in protest at the imposition of working in “asphyxiating heat”. 

One could almost say that the Ancient Greeks foretold today’s climate crisis when they euphemistically referred to Hades, god of the dead, as “Plouton” (giver of wealth). The reference is to the materials – in their day, silver, in ours, fossil fuels and critical minerals – that, after extraction from the Underworld, line the pockets of plutocrats. Modern society’s plutocratic structure explains the astonishingly sluggish response to climate breakdown. The much-touted green transition is barely taking place, at least if the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is taken as a yardstick. These continue to rise, even accelerate, and likewise the rate of global heating. The transition remains in the grip of powerful and wealthy institutions that – even if we leave aside motivations of avarice or greed for status – are systemically constrained to put the accumulation of capital above the habitability of the planet.

Against this backdrop, the politics of transition is class struggle beyond that of workers defending themselves and their communities against weather emergencies. That is part of the picture, of course. But class struggle is, above all, evident in the liberal establishment seeking to displace transition costs onto the masses, even as it presides over ever crasser wealth polarisation. From this, resistance inevitably flows. The question is, what form will it take? 

Some takes the form of an anti-environmental backlash, instigated or colonised by conservative and far-right forces. While posing as allies of “working families”, they denigrate the most fundamental of workers’ needs: for a habitable planet. Some takes a progressive form, the classic case being the gilets jaunes in France. When Emmanuel Macron’s government hiked “green taxes” on fossil fuels as a signal for consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars, the rural working poor and lower-middle classes, unable to afford the switch, donned yellow safety vests and rose in revolt. Although France’s labour-movement radicals joined the cause, they were unable to cohere into a political force capable of offering alternative solutions to the social and environmental crises.

By Amy Goodman, Jeff Goodell, and Ruth Cerezo-Mota - Democracy Now!, June 6, 2024

By staff - Labor Network for Sustainability, May 30, 2024

HB433, recently signed into law by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, prohibits any municipality in the state from passing heat protections for workers.

The legislation came in response to efforts by farm workers in Miami-Dade county to legally require heat protections, such as rest breaks and access to water and shade.

Florida is facing record heat. Last August Orlando hit 100F, breaking a record set in 1938. The National Weather Service’s outlook for summer 2024 predicts Florida temperatures will be even warmer than normal.

Governor DeSantis recently signed a bill removing references to climate change from Florida law.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/04/florida-worker-heat-water-protection

By Jacob Wallace - Waste Dive, May 30, 2024

A strong majority of shareholders voted against the proposal, which urged Republic to more explicitly detail how its investments in automation and artificial intelligence affect workers.

Dive Brief:

• Republic Services shareholders voted down a proposal last week that would have required the companyto prepare a report on how its climate-related policies affect workers and its supply chain. Republic’s board of directors urged a no vote.
• The International Brotherhood of Teamsters made the proposal. The labor union argued that Republic needs to address the impact of artificial intelligence and automation —which Republic plans to use to pursue a circular economy for plastics, among other climate priorities — on workers and communities.
• The company responded that its climate plan already includes engagement with stakeholders and said it would “continue to responsibly integrate technology” while balancing upskilling and retaining employees, per a securities filing ahead of the meeting.

By Zachory Phillips - Construction Dive, May 30, 2024

With a state law restricting local governments from mandating heat safety on the horizon, immigrant laborers say bosses refuse their calls for relief.

It was a hot day in Florida and Javier Torres was working in the sun. He began to feel “dizzy and cloudy” when he collapsed. 

He fell from a ladder, dropping two stories to the ground below.

“They said I almost broke my back,” Torres told Construction Dive, communicating in Spanish through a translator. “I felt pain for more than a month, but had to get back to work to provide for myself.”

A Colombian immigrant who does residential roofing, painting and demolition work in the Miami area, Torres said he has been repeatedly denied the chance to take breaks to drink water or rest in the shade while working. He declined to share the name of his employer. 

Torres and other members of Miami-area worker nonprofit WeCount! perform physically demanding jobs in intense heat and say their employers often deny them the protections they need to carry out their work safely. They believe they’re treated this way in part due to their ethnic background.

By Zachory Phillips - Construction Dive, May 23, 2024

As summer begins, some states prevent cities from mandating water breaks. Still, there are commonsense practices to protect workers from soaring temperatures.

When the calendar turns to summer’s traditional start on Memorial Day, the longer days can help contractors deliver projects more quickly than during winter months.

At the same time, summer days bring intense heat in many parts of the country — so hot that it risks the health of outdoor workers. The safety of laborers in hot climates has garnered national attention in recent years, especially as research indicates that air temperatures are increasing around the globe and will continue to rise.

In many parts of the world, last summer was the hottest in 2,000 years, according to NASA. Miami broke its record for the city’s hottest July ever recorded. Temperatures hit over 100 degrees 70 times in El Paso, Texas. Phoenix hit 110 degrees 54 times.

For outdoor workers in some states, this summer will also be the first with new rules — and in some cases, new prohibitions against mandates — when it comes to water breaks. Texas and Florida have passed laws to stop municipalities within their borders from requiring employers to provide water breaks to workers.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433, which will prevent cities and counties in the state from enacting their own heat safety regulations, starting in July.

The Texas law, dubbed “The Death Star Bill” by opponents, is currently in effect, though some cities, such as Houston and San Antonio, have sued over the legislation.

By Alexandra Martinez - Prism, May 14, 2024

Florida farmworkers and workers’ rights advocates refuse to back down in their fight for stronger labor protections despite the governor’s push to block local governments from passing safeguards.

Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 433, which prevents local governments from requiring heat exposure protections for workers. Farmworker and labor advocates in Miami spent years advocating for heat protections for outdoor workers and came close to victory before the agricultural industry successfully lobbied against the law. Starting July 1, it will be illegal for local governments in Florida to pass health and safety measures for outdoor workers in extreme heat. The decision comes after Florida experienced its hottest summer on record.

The Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF) targeted DeSantis with a veto campaign against the measure. Representatives from Hope CommUnity Center and the Hispanic Federation also lent their support, amplifying the urgent need for legislative intervention to safeguard the rights and well-being of farmworkers. Despite concerted efforts to advocate for heat protections, including mobilization and community outreach, advocates say HB 433 signifies a disheartening setback for the movement.

“We just want to make that plainly stated out loud and march through the town so that the people can know that we’re not OK with it,” said Ernesto Ruiz, a researcher and advocate from FWAF. “This is unacceptable, and our representatives are failing us.”

Additionally, advocates for farmworkers in Central Florida convened on May 1, with about 100 community members marching through the streets of Apopka to raise awareness about the dire conditions agricultural laborers face. 

“We talked about the importance of voting for those that can, about the importance of organizing our community. We stressed how during COVID and the pandemic, our communities were called essential, and now we’re being treated as criminals,” Ruiz said. “Rather than enacting protections to protect their basic health, just basic labor and decent standards, the state government is doing the exact opposite.” 

Miami-Dade County’s outdoor worker activists with WeCount! have organized for the nation’s first county-wide heat standard since 2017. The coalition of workers officially launched their ¡Que Calor! campaign in 2021 and came close to getting the Board of County Commissioners to approve the proposed heat standard in September, but by November, commissioners buckled under lobbyist pressure. The final vote was postponed until March in an effort to gain more support. 

By Raluca Besliu - Green European Journaly, May 3, 2024

In India’s ongoing elections, economic and social issues are intertwined with rising temperatures and declining agricultural harvests. While Indian farmers are the worst affected, the climate path of the world’s most populous country and third-largest emitter affects us all – and there are things the EU could do to help.

The world’s largest democratic exercise is currently underway, with Indian voters heading to the polls for nationwide elections. In this elaborate and lengthy process, spanning from 19 April to 1 June, nearly one billion Indians will elect 543 representatives to the lower house, known as the Lok Sabha. The outcome will define the country’s leadership: polls predict the incumbent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will win a clear victory, with the main opposition, the centre-left National Congress Party, trailing far behind. 

With the world’s fastest-expanding economy and a young and growing population, India grapples with a multitude of issues. Of key concern to the Indian electorate is the persistent challenge of unemployment, slightly higher than in 2014 when Modi came to power with promises of widespread job creation. The rise of an aggressive Hindu nationalism under Modi’s leadership, which promotes Hindu “values” as intrinsically those of the nation, has also stirred unease among religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians. 

Yet while these important issues dominate the headlines, something else lurks beneath the surface: climate change. It subtly shapes voter demands through the lens of anxieties about livelihoods and welfare, as growing parts of the electorate experience its harsh consequences first-hand in the form of scorching droughts, heatwaves, and torrential rains.

India is the world’s third-largest carbon emitter. Given its critical role in global climate action, the implications of the election outcome extend far beyond the country’s borders. The EU and other global stakeholders should thus closely monitor its results not just for the impact they will have on domestic affairs, but for international climate efforts. 

By Stephen Franklin - In These Times, April 26, 2024

The statistics are sobering, and it’s likely we’re still undercounting: Only one-fourth of injuries suffered by Latino workers on small construction jobs are regularly reported, one study found.

A burst of shouts cascades as three men plunge downward. Other workers reach for them as the scaffold plummets.

But no one can grab hold of them.

Thinking he can still save them, a middle-aged construction worker scampers to aid the three men, one a long-time friend, he had helped get hired on the site. 

“I saw everything,” he says and then repeats himself. ​“I saw everything. In a video you can see me removing planks from them because I thought they were alive, but they were dead.”

Jose Canaca, 26, Gilberto Monico Fernández, 54, and Jesus ​“Chuy” Olivares, 43, had been putting up an outer brick wall for a 17-story apartment building in a popular neighborhood in Charlotte, N.C., when they fell from the 10^th floor. They hit a patio rooftop on the fourth floor — a 70-foot drop. 

Months after the fatal construction accident in January 2023, the tragedy haunts him. He quit the risky construction work he’d done for about 15 years and has been taking lower-paying jobs.

“I don’t wish this on anyone, what happened there,” says Diego Sanchez, the construction worker who tried to rescue the three men. Sanchez, who came to the United States from Honduras, asked to use a pseudonym because he fears retaliation from immigration authorities. 

The deaths of Canaca, Fernández and Olivares added to the increasing numbers of Latino workers killed on the job, a death count that has grown steadily year after year. Latino workers today have the highest workplace fatality rate: The number of on-the-job deaths has declined over time for white people, and slightly increased for Black people over the past few years, but fatalities for Latino workers continue to rise sharply.

While workplace safety is an issue that affects everyone, a disproportionate share of those who will be mourned this Workers Memorial Day — observed on April 28 to honor people injured or killed on the job — were Latino. 

There were 1,248 Latino workers killed on the job in 2022, reflecting a 57% increase over the previous decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.