ClimaCon 2: Building Power for Workers to Confront Climate Change

By staff - Labor Network for Sustainability, October 2017

From September 23 - 24, 2017, the Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) convened our Second Labor Convergence on Climate (ClimaCon2) in Silver Spring, MD. The Convergence process was launched at ClimaCon1 in January 2016 as a bottom - up organizing process for workers in traditional unions, other forms of worker organizing and labor support organizations to develop worker - led strategies to confront the climate change crisis. Since then , LNS has identified hundreds of people in the labor movement committed to confronting the climate crisis and has worked to connect them to the network.

C limaCon2 represented the culmination of these 18 mo nths of organizing. The theme for this year was “Building Worker Power to Confront Climate Change” . We sought to provide a space for this growing base of elected leaders, organizers and rank and file activists to learn about their respective efforts, and u pdate our organizing priorities and strategies for the next year.

ClimaCon2 was convened at the Tommy Douglas Conference Center – owned and operated by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). LNS staff and Lara Skinner, Associate Director of the Cornell Worker Institute also conducted a joint t raining for 25 ATU representatives on climate change in the days leading up to the Convergence. Over 130 people participated with representation from 17 unions, 3 state federations/central labor councils and 6 labor support organizations (labor centers, policy groups, etc.) We also invited key environmental and economic justice allies.

Download and Read the PDF Here.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.