Third Act Union on Connecting the Dots Between Labor and Climate

As May Day approaches, we must emphasize the importance of labor and its brutal history in the fight for our futures.

Illustration by Layqa Nuna Yawar

The Origins of the Labor Movement

By reflecting on this history, we draw wisdom from the past and courage to move forward.

The labor origins of May Day/International Workers’ Day stretch back to the 1886 Haymarket Rebellions of Chicago. On May 1st, 1886, a general strike was called upon by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, which would later evolve into the AFL-CIO. The major demand was a 40-hour work week and an eight-hour workday. During a series of tense clashes with police on May 4th, 1886; an unknown person lit a bomb and threw it into the crowd, and the police began firing upon the peaceful protestors. The ruling class accused four anarchists of starting the rebellion, which resulted in the anarchists’ execution.

While some history textbooks state that this rebellion was started by rowdy labor organizers, it is important to acknowledge the role that the police officers’ escalating violence played in the event. Some may speculate the violence was manufactured by the police who were solely interested in protecting capital over protecting the lives of organizing citizens.

A more comprehensive history of these happenings can be found in this 2023 article written by Third Act Union’s own Bob Muehlenkamp This May Day, We Celebrate Making a Living Wage on a Living Planet, which highlights the parallels to today’s political atmosphere: the kidnapping, killing, and imprisoning of those who pose a threat to capital, and those who oppose this administration’s political and eugenic ideals.

While the Haymarket Rebellions are seen as the focal point for May Day, they did not happen in a vacuum. As early as the 1830s, Lowell Mill Women were able to gain political power before they were even able to vote, and they did so by unionizing their workplace.

Black women organized the Atlanta Washerwomen Strike of 1881. They leveraged their collective worker power, and were able to win increased wages, demand respect, paving the way for cooks, maids, and nurses to fight for the same.

In 1894, after miners in Cripple Creek saw their hours increase without wage compensation, they went on strike with the protection of the state militia and were able to negotiate more reasonable hours. Fifteen years later, exploited immigrant workers united in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania fought for better pay and safer working conditions. And the tragic death of over 100 women in 1911 during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire motivated numerous individuals across the country to organize and fight for workplace safety.

Read further into these historic labor events.

Despite having more labor protections today, many of the tactics used to bust unions over a hundred years ago are still being used to fight unions, activists, and marginalized people in current times. From the members of the Earth Liberation Front being designated as terrorists due to their fight against industrialization in the early to mid 2000s; to the kidnapping and killing of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); to the killings of citizens on the street who were merely speaking out against the capital surrounding the ever-expanding prison industrial complex; it is important we acknowledge that these tactics are not new.

But one thing remains certain–our collective working power can and will win. By reflecting on this history, we draw wisdom from the past and courage to move forward.

Labor and Climate Must Work Together

Our ideal climate future requires that we fade out fossil fuels and other environmentally harmful products that have been baked into our infrastructure. This means we must have other energy sources in place. We have quite the transition on our hands, and we all seem to agree that it should be a Just Transition.

One way we can work towards a more just future is to ensure that workers have a voice within their workplace. In a 2020 report titled Finding the Nexus between Climate Action and Good Jobs, it is stated early on that “Support from workers and affected communities is key to successful climate action plans and policies,” and goes on to address the negative impacts climate change has on the working class.

However, this report also quickly brings up a concern that frequently arises between climate and labor–addressing climate change requires swift adjustments to infrastructure that would likely destabilize previously secure jobs. As a result, many laborers who would otherwise be on board with climate causes are now skeptical for fear of losing their financial security.

Climate needs the support of labor, and labor needs security during this transition.

Organizations like the Climate Jobs National Resource Center are working to “build an equitable clean energy economy powered by good union jobs” in hopes of addressing this discrepancy. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) offers training in clean energy like solar and wind.

BlueGreen Alliance and Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) both acknowledge the importance of the collaboration between the labor and the climate movements, and are working diligently to form a tighter alliance between the two. BlueGreen Alliance provides information around Infrastructure and Community Resilience which speaks about rebuilding infrastructure in a worker- and environmentally- friendly way. LNS has a page dedicated to Just Transition Resources that prioritizes the importance of organized labor in the movement towards the climate-centered future we need. These are just a couple very small snippets of the work these organizations are doing.

A just transition requires sustainability in the workplace as much as it requires sustainability in the environmental sense. While the road towards a just future may be bumpy, there are already resources in place to make it possible. But climate and labor must work together to make it a reality.