Holden Hopkins is a student at Harvard Law School.
In today’s News & Commentary, Chicago teachers to make climate demands as part of next CBA negotiations and environmental lawyers in the Justice Department begin a union campaign.
With contract negotiations beginning this Friday, the Chicago Teachers’ Union has pledged to bring its “green schools” initiative to the city. As a part of that initiative, the union is seeking to update school infrastructure to cut emissions, electrify the school district’s bus fleet, introduce training programs for students to pursue green energy jobs, and set a 2035 goal of net-zero emissions for the district. CTU played an important role in supporting the election of Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer, giving the union reason for optimism as they come to the bargaining table.
These climate-related demands from one of the nation’s most powerful teachers’ unions are not the first example of unions using their power to fight for a liveable planet. Los Angeles teachers went on strike last year around demands that included the incorporation of climate in more administrative decisions and curricula. Additionally, Ben shared this letter last year from environmental and climate advocates in support of the UAW’s strike against the “Big Three” automakers as consistent with goals of climate progress. And as I reported in February, a coalition of Service Employees International Union locals and unions representing teachers in the Twin Cities included climate demands in their “What Can We Win Together” campaign.
Staying at the intersection of labor and the environment, trial attorneys at the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division have begun a campaign with the goal of collecting signatures from half of the 350 eligible lawyers in the division. As of now, organizers are optimistic about reaching their goal of a representation election through the Federal Labor Relations Authority by October of this year.
Chief among their concerns are return-to-office mandates, interventions against civil service protections from political officials, and the use of artificial intelligence in legal document writing. Should they succeed in their union campaign, they would be the first union of litigating attorneys in the history of the Justice Department.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.