Workers and climate activists scored major victories this month. In Maine, unions won landmark labor and equity standards when the state enacted a new law that will raise the quality of renewable energy jobs across the state and expand union career pathways in under-resourced communities. Illinois unions won funding to establish a Climate Jobs Institute that will lend critical academic support to the state's climate jobs efforts. And campaigns to win carbon-free and healthy schools are surging in New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

We’re also starting something new in the CJNRC newsletter: union member profiles. Each month, we will profile a union member active in climate jobs work. Have a good interview candidate in mind? Email us!

NEW! Interview with Seanelle LeeSang, science teacher and UFT member

“Being a union member is important to me because it helps me to work along with others in solidarity to bring about systemic change. Working on the Carbon-Free and Healthy Schools campaign, we are pushing for retrofits of our schools. Our schools are working with outdated heating and cooling systems and that isn't safe for students or school staff. We’re working on improving our schools and making them safer places.”

Click here to read the full interview!

TAKE ACTION “The Future is Union” Photo Contest 

Don’t miss your chance to submit a photo to CJNRC’s national photography contest, “The Future is Union: Climate Urgency Through the Eyes of Workers.” Any union member who sees their work as a “climate job” can enter a photo and win up to $500! Submit your photo by July 31. Check out the contest website here and help spread the word.

CONNECTICUT

Opinion: Labor taking lead on green economy

Connecticut Roundtable board members make the case for unions advancing climate justice. This op-ed comes just in time for the Roundtable’s May 14 event, where they will rally for carbon free and healthy schools in Bridgeport. Check out more details and boost the event here. 

ILLINOIS 

This month, Illinois unions won $2 million in the state budget to establish a new Climate Jobs Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, housed in the School of Labor and Employment Relations. The Climate Jobs Institute will provide critical applied research to help Illinois meet the climate and workforce goals outlined by the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), an ambitious pro-worker and pro-climate energy law passed last year that commits the state to a carbon-free power sector by 2045. 

The new Institute will provide valuable data and research as Illinois implements CEJA, with a focus on building an inclusive, equitable, climate jobs workforce. Climate Jobs Illinois was instrumental in crafting the ambitious, novel model for state investment in defining the terms of an equitable green economy for the future.

Illinois prioritizes equitable access to green jobs on its path to 100% clean energy 

Pat Devaney, secretary treasurer of Illinois AFL-CIO, discusses how the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, the landmark climate and jobs bill signed into law last year, will propel renewable energy projects in their state while creating a more equitable and unionized workforce. 

MAINE

Maine labor coalition scores major legislative win creating renewable energy jobs

Maine unions scored a major victory last month when the state passed a landmark climate jobs bill, LD 1969, that applies strong labor and equity standards, including prevailing wages, to all utility-scale renewable energy projects including solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and hydropower. This measure will also expand clean energy career pathways for Mainers by strengthening pre-apprenticeship programs that will help workers in under-resourced communities access union apprenticeships. Read more about the passage of this legislation in the Maine Labor Climate Council and Maine AFL-CIO’s press release.

NEW YORK 

Op-Ed: Our city can repair NYC schools and create thousands of union jobs

Vincent Alvarez, president of the NYC Central Labor Council, published an op-ed about how the city can harness federal infrastructure dollars under the Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure to invest in carbon-free and healthy schools. “It’s time to build the schools of the future: safe, healthy and carbon-free. If successful, we will eliminate 75,000 tons of carbon emissions from our schools, save tens of millions of public money and create thousands of union jobs in the process—giving students of color a direct pipeline from their public schools to jobs that sustain careers and families,” he writes.” 

RHODE ISLAND 

Bills would track, reduce greenhouse gas emissions coming from large buildings

Climate Jobs RI is backing a pro-worker, pro-climate $300 million school construction bond in RI. EcoRI News reported on the bond measure, which would include incentives to retrofit out-of-date schools to lower emissions and install modern heating and cooling systems: “We need to transition schools away from reliance on fossil fuels and instead be generating their own electricity,” said Erica Hammond, lead organizer at Climate Jobs Rhode Island.

WISCONSIN

Green light for state's largest solar project in Dane County

Last month, state regulators approved the Koshkonong Solar Energy Center project, Wisconsin’s largest solar array. The Wisconsin Examiner reported on unions’ efforts to ensure clean energy projects in the state create high-quality jobs for Wisconsin workers: “We represent a lot of members that are in legacy energy production…All that legacy work that our members and local workers primarily performed for the utilities has had good labor standards and good living wages…our advocacy is to have those same types of labor standards and the same types of benefits” in the renewable energy economy, said Kent Miller, assistant business manager of the Wisconsin Laborers Union District Council.