The CFT made history in 2016 when it became the first statewide
organization in the United States to adopt a Climate Justice
Agenda. Delegates to the CFT Convention passed Resolution 29,
committing the union to educating members about climate change,
pushing for green legislation, moving toward divestment in fossil
fuels, and establishing a Climate Justice Task Force within
CFT.
After the Convention, the task force crafted a mission statement
making climate justice a permanent part of the CFT’s work. The
Executive Council adopted the statement and recommendations to
commit our union to ongoing member education, incorporate a
climate justice question on our candidate endorsement
questionnaire, make climate a part of CFT’s legislative agenda,
and promote community partnerships with environmental groups and
environmental caucuses in local unions and central labor
councils.
At Convention 2017 the task force distributed its first
educational materials. Since then, the AFT has adopted a similar
resolution, promising greater climate awareness in AFT local
unions and statewide organizations across the United
States.
Find educational materials you can use in your classrooms and in
your unions in our Climate Justice
Toolkit.
CFT Climate Justice Agenda
- Engage our members and the community about labor’s role in
advocating for tangible solutions to the climate crisis that
simultaneously strengthen our middle class.
- Let our members know that good green jobs don’t kill
construction projects, but rather can actually increase economic
opportunity.
- Work to ensure a just transition for working people by
insisting that those who might be displaced are retrained for the
new economy, and that the green economy must create career union
opportunities.
- Build and sustain real partnerships with the local
environmental movement and community groups committed to economic
and environmental justice.
- Push for bold new political and policy initiatives that
effectively address economic inequality and climate change.
- Ensure that candidates’ positions on climate justice are part
of CFT’s evaluation for endorsement in political races.
- Insist that we work towards ending all of our retirement
systems’ investments in fossil fuels and other commercial
enterprises that are contributing to catastrophic climate change.
- Promote legislation that moves us toward sustainability and
climate justice.