Climate Justice

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.