San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council Endorses the California Workers’ Climate Bill of Rights

At the April Delegates’ meeting, the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council passed the following resolution in support of the California Labor for Climate Jobs’s Workers’ Climate Bill of Rights as recommended by the Labor Council’s Environmental Caucus.

Resolution in Support of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council Endorsing the California Workers’ Climate Bill of Rights

WHEREAS our current poverty and pollution economy is failing working people and the fundamental life systems we rely on. Extreme weather and the economic disruptions they cause are hitting low-income workers and communities of color first and hardest and compounding existing inequalities. Following the lead of big business interests will only increase wealth inequality while fueling climate chaos that threatens workers and communities across California.

WHEREAS as fires and floods devastate California, climate change is fundamentally shifting conditions for workers statewide - from lethal threats to farm workers suffering in extreme heat, to teachers crouching on the floors of their classrooms with students on smoke days, to caretakers evacuating clients from fire zones.

WHEREAS climate change is forcing a massive restructuring of our economy; a worker-led transition provides a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape our economy for working people and our communities while limiting climate dangers.

WHEREAS labor rights are a climate solution: we must increase workers’ voice on the job in all sectors through unionization and invest in our public sector to build the democratic, clean, green economy we need. Massive investments in our infrastructure, agriculture and public sectors are moving us towards meeting California’s climate goals and can create a million new union jobs for pipefitters, carpenters, manufacturers, electricians, cable layers, public transit operators, agricultural workers, and others. Expanding the public services our communities need to cope with extreme weather and climate disasters will create jobs for nurses, care workers, public sector workers and more, while providing new opportunities for workers who have been trapped in low-wage jobs.

WHEREAS if labor takes the lead, we have a historic opportunity to grow the labor movement and create a cleaner, more equitable, and climate-safe economy that provides high-road, family-sustaining, union jobs;

WHEREAS the stated purpose in the Mission Statement of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council’s Environmental Caucus is to “1) Educate our members and the community about the pressing environmental issues of our day and possible solutions to the present crisis 2) Build strong alliances and partnerships between labor and other environmental and community groups 3)  Serve as a policy body inside the labor council that assures that labor’s agenda always includes an environmental focus and that labor’s issues are always present in larger discussions of environmental issues and 4) Promote progressive labor/environmental legislation.” 

WHEREAS the California Workers’ Climate Bill of Rights put forth by California Labor for Climate Jobs presents a wide-ranging set of policy proposals that call for Climate Hazard Protections for the health and safety of all indoor and outdoor workers affected by climate conditions and disasters including farm and food supply workers, public health workers, teachers and education employees, construction workers, firefighters, airport tarmac workers, utility and communications workers, and many more; Safety nets for impacted workers and communities; Good jobs in the low carbon economy; and a strong public sector and climate adaptive services;

WHEREAS the California Workers’ Climate Bill of Rights calls for attaching labor, equity, and climate standards to all state and federal climate funding as well as using state and federal funds to invest in California’s workforce;

WHEREAS the California Workers’ Bill of Rights calls for a universal home care benefit, directing funding towards public transit and water services, electrifying and modernizing schools and colleges with union labor, and investing in the public sector;

LET IT THEREFORE BE RESOLVED that the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council endorse the California Workers’ Climate Bill of Rights and, when possible and appropriate, advocate for the implementation of its policy agenda.