Why Labor?

Despite the current weakness of the labor movement, it is historically one of the greatest forms of power we have to transform the world for the better. The weekend, the minimum wage, and safer working conditions are all benefits many of us receive now thanks in large part to the work of organized labor in making such demands of their bosses and governments.

But these public goods did not happen because unions asked nicely or employers were altruistic. Major wins from the labor movement happened because a mass base of organized working-class people leveraged their strength at the point of production to halt the flows of the economy and stop profit making (even if just temporarily) for their bosses. This might come in the form of worker slowdowns, sit-ins, and strikes, where workers ban together and refuse to work until their demands are met. Over the last several years, we have seen the ways in which organized and fighting labor unions can win major demands by leveraging their power, like in the case of the West Virginia teachers union and the work of General Motors employees as just two recent examples.

In the case of climate change, the transition to a carbon-free economy fundamentally hinges on what is produced, what is left in the ground, and how much is produced. While climate activists can play an important role in advocating for what is produced, they remain mostly outside the areas of production that workers are located in.

If we want to transition at the speed and scale required, we must change our production systems. Workers, when organized, militant, and mass mobilized, have this point of leverage that no one else in society has.

Many climate activists have tried to appeal to the labor movement from outside, including calls for unionized green jobs and a Green New Deal. But youth climate activists should rethink what the future of climate-labor organizing looks like if they want to build the necessary power for a just transition. Young people are the most pro-labor (and responsible for the uptick in recent labor organizing), pro–climate action, and have demonstrated an ability to change political possibilities with their energy, organizing, and enthusiasm, as in the recent case of Zohran Mamdani’s electoral victory.

Young people motivated by climate concerns should take rank-and-file jobs in strategic sectors that can push industries towards transition and revamp recalcitrant unions into powerful agents of change for a just transition. Taking government or nonprofit jobs is not the only (or even most impactful) way to contribute to halting the climate crisis. Youth climate activists should salt the climate transition.

The Salting Strategy

Salting is a conscious effort among motivated individuals and cohorts to become employed and enter into those workplaces with the purpose of organizing them into unions. As Erik Forman wrote in 2017, salting has been a practice that has taken many forms and has had varying degrees of success in labor history. We are witnessing a comeback to the salting strategy in today’s labor movement. The most recent high-profile success is the Starbucks union, in which many young people took jobs as baristas at various Starbucks locations across the United States in order to organize workers into labor unions. As a result, we now have Starbucks Workers United and over six hundred unionized stores across the country. We have also seen salting efforts at major corporations like REI and Amazon, and “salting schools” develop like the Inside Organizer School and Workers Organizing Workers.

Up until this point, though, we have not seen an effort to salt industries with more direct climate change implications, like those sectors of the economy with high emissions, including energy, transportation, and agriculture. Nor have many of the existing salting efforts broached the ways in which organized workers can leverage their power toward climate demands among their unions and workplaces.

At the core of the climate fight must be the recognition that we cannot make the transformations needed for a livable planet if we don’t have a strong, organized working class, with a much bigger and more militant labor movement among the rank and file at its heart. As union member Chris Townsend wrote, “It is unlikely that any further forward progress for the existing unions or the working class as a whole will be possible without a revival of union organizing on a larger scale.” In order to win on climate, we need to build the power of the labor movement. That starts with organizing.

So what would it look like to salt the climate transition? Let’s use the renewable energy industry as a case study.

As it stands, the renewable sector mostly lacks the “good green jobs” that climate activists have long sought. It is missing the pay proportional to fossil fuel jobs, secure benefits, and worker protections that are relevant in a world where workers are increasingly vulnerable to extreme heat. Such job conditions have been one of the main reasons mainstream labor unions have not been more adamant in a swift and at-scale transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Without more labor support, even in their current forms, renewable energy policy will be met with political backlash from workers, their unions, and even politicians who are sympathetic to both the climate and labor cause. We already see that robust climate policy can be met with intense rejection when workers do not support it, like in the case of European farmers, California building trades and the yellow vest protests in France. Climate policy hinges on labor support.

Young climate activists should look at nonunionized industries as opportunities for building the power of the labor movement that is required for a transition. The most important thing young climate activists can do by unionizing such industries is building up the militancy of labor unions so that they see themselves as agents of societal change. Getting working-class people organized into unions should be seen as a climate benefit in and of itself, if it is building up the class consciousness and a fighting culture of trade union members.

To outline what a salting strategy might look like, there will need to be some dedicated outfit (a salting school, labor-climate nonprofit, or labor union) that can find those climate-concerned and “union–curious” young people to educate them about this strategy and begin initial recruitment. This could be in partnership with existing youth climate groups and clubs like the Sunrise Movement or other entities dedicated to youth climate and environmental activism.

From there, such an organization would take those young people interested in becoming salts and begin providing them the organizing training, skill building, sectoral mapping, and other requirements to be a successful salt. Then the hard and dedicated work begins of being a successful organizer: one-on-one conversations about the workplace, finding common complaints among coworkers, socializing the idea of a union as a possible solution, and other efforts basic to initial labor union organizing.

The unique element here is additional education and socializing about climate change and the way this particular workplace or industry has climate implications, ideally making it felt in the material and lived experiences among coworkers.

Peppering: The Spice of Union Life

Salting, though, is not enough. A complement to salting in any climate-labor strategy must be a recognition that more union density is necessary but insufficient. This is where “peppering” comes in. Peppering is the practice of taking jobs in already unionized sectors in order to strengthen union democracy and make them more militant in their fight for greater worker and social goods. If salting is building the formation of an organized working class via unions, peppering is the practice of turning unions into powerful forces for the social good.

As noted, today’s unions largely lack a fighting culture and have a mixed record on climate policy. Since the climate transition requires more than just good wages and benefits for shop floor workers, a fighting working class is necessary to use their leverage at the point of production to change such systems into those conducive to a climate-safe world. Take the building trades as one example.

These unions, while diverse based on the particular union and local, have a record of advocating for increased fossil fuel production and siding with fossil fuel corporations on major pieces of legislation. This is understandable, given their dependence on these jobs. But instead of casting blame or agonizing them, this is an opportunity to organize these trades toward becoming climate champions. Rather than seeing their livelihoods tied to the continuation of the fossil fuel economy, they, and their union brothers and sisters, could demand robust renewable energy build-out, efficiency and sufficiency measures, and a whole new way of life for the everyday person based on an ecologically sound infrastructure and livelihoods.

But this will not happen on its own. A peppering strategy complimentary to salting will need its own dedicated outfits toward turning salts or already existing union militants into proper peppers. The Rank and File Project is one such entity doing this type of work already. If enough young people can enter into these unions, organize the rank and file, and build class and climate consciousness, there will be an opportunity to turn the tide toward robust climate action among the building trades and other union formations.

We have seen what happens when young people enter into unions and turn the culture and politics toward more progressive ends. One example includes the United Auto Workers (UAW) with the creation of their internal reform caucuses and the election of Shawn Fain as union president. Such change at the UAW was aided by the new graduate student unions in the UAW, who helped bring Fain to UAW leadership and ultimately secure benefits relevant to climate change like electric vehicle and battery manufacturing. This happened because new industries were organized and reform caucuses with class-struggle approaches were built, which resulted in benefits for both workers and the climate.

The newly formed caucus in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the Caucus of Rank-and-File Electrical Workers (CREW), could have a large influence on building worker power for the climate, especially given the overlap between electrical unions and climate change. As President Biden once quipped at the IBEW’s fortieth annual conference, “If you all went on strike nationwide, the country would shut down — shut down.”

With a more conscious effort to salt and pepper, we could achieve much more than developing reform caucuses, electing new leadership, or climate measures in contract demands, even if they serve as a starting point. The scale of the change required for the climate crisis demands it.

Salt the Earth

There are potential problems and limitations of a youth-led climate salting strategy. For one, the US government is hostile to labor organizing (to say nothing about climate activism). Within the last few months, we have seen an already weakened National Labor Relations Board begin to scrutinize the practice of salting. This has implications for labor organizing beyond just a climate strategy.

Another concern is that salting is a long-term strategy that requires commitment and dedication among the salts and salting outfits. This is not quick or transactional type organizing. These are people who must be willing to dedicate many years, if not a lifetime, toward doing this work, which includes more than just a narrow focus on becoming a “formal union.” As Forman writes, “We need more people willing to spend several years organizing unions in their workplaces, becoming active members of their communities, and experimenting with new forms of worker organization until we figure out what works.”

Given the novelty of this strategy within the context of climate change, there will be a lot of experimentation and learning about what does and does not work. Beyond just the commitment it will take from those involved, this type of organizing does not fit neatly into already rapidly shrinking climate budgets for a 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius timetable. It would be naive to expect young climate activists to enter into industries and unions and immediately change the structures of these institutions. This strategy will take time to grow the skills, membership, and power of those who might pursue it.

While the long-term potential and larger impact exists, it does not replace the need for more immediate organizing and activism to cut emissions now. A youth climate salting strategy holds potential and power, but we must be clear-eyed in what we are getting ourselves into.

We are currently on a path of mass death and displacement due to the climate crisis. Crop failures are imminent, extreme heat threatens all workers, and major flooding will soon cause mass migration of people in and across borders. Even at our current temperature increase of 1.2 degrees Celsius since the preindustrial era, we are already seeing major climate impacts.

But all hope is not lost. Over the last few years, we have seen young people and the labor movement make strides in confronting draconian laws and authoritarian governments, in the United States and elsewhere. Taking the energy and motivation of young people with the capacity for power building among organized labor is the confluence we need in the fight against the climate crisis. It’s time to salt the earth.