Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) (also operating as Voices for a Sustainable Future) is a left-of-center network of labor organizations aligned in their support of left-progressive environmentalist policy. The organization has expressed its support for a left-wing climate change agenda, including the creation of a so-called Green New Deal. It is led by a board of directors made up of officials from labor unions and labor union-aligned organizations such as the AFL-CIO, the SEIU, and Jobs With Justice. ¹ The organization has promoted or sponsored a number of protests alongside its labor union partners, calling for sweeping legislative change regarding climate change, labor issues, and alleged civil rights issues.

In January 2019 the Labor Network was a co-signatory on a letter that denounced nuclear power as “dirty energy” (nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions). ²

Transit Equity Day

Labor Network for Sustainability holds demonstrations for “Transit Equity Day” annually on February 4, the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ birthday. The organization claims that access to public transit is a civil right. The organization has encouraged supporters to promote Transit Equity Day through social media and to organize protests across the country in order to  pressure local and state legislative bodies to pass resolutions supporting fully subsidized public transit programs. The event was sponsored by a number of labor unions and left-of-center environmentalist organizations such as Greenpeace, a radical-left environmentalist organization; the Sierra Club, one of the largest left-of-center environmentalist organizations in the United States; the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization; the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the country.; and Dream Corps, a left-of-center grantmaking organization. ³

Green New Deal

LNS signed a petition in 2018 expressing its support for the Green New Deal, a radical and sweeping environmentalist legislative proposal from U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA). ⁴ The proposal, which would cost an estimated $90 trillion over 10 years, has been heavily criticized as unrealistic and ill-advised, though it has been supported by a number of left-of-center organizations and individuals. LNS uses its leverage and influence over labor organizations to force promotion of the Green New Deal. ⁵

LNS has also signed onto the THRIVE Agenda,⁶ a project of Sierra Club that claims to combat purported systematic racism, climate change, and economic inequality in America. The organization promotes a left-of-center platform including increased incentives for labor organizing, the mass expansion of federally-funded infrastructure upgrades, large taxpayer-funded programs to support development in ethnic minority communities, and environmentalist programs. The THRIVE Agenda supports the Green New Deal and is a member organization of the Green New Deal Coalition. ⁷

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ⁸ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ⁹

The Labor Network was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.”¹⁰

In May of 2021, Labor Network was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ¹¹

COVID-19 Lawsuit

LNS joined with labor unions and environmentalist groups to sue the Trump administration in 2020. The lawsuit claimed that the Trump administration failed to provide personal protective equipment to frontline workers at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the plaintiffs claimed led to increased infection rates among the workers. LNS was joined by some of the largest labor unions in the country including the AFL-CIO, SEIU, American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and United Steelworkers (USW). A number of environmentalist organizations also signed onto the suit, including the Center for Biological Diversity, a large left-of-center environmentalist and legal advocacy organization, and Friends of the Earth, a left-of-center environmentalist organization based in the Netherlands. ^{12 13}

People

Joe Euhlein is the president of Labor Network for Sustainability. Euhlein has worked for numerous environmentalist and labor organizations, including spending a number of years as the director for the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Campaigns and as the secretary-treasurer for the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union department. Euhlein was a founding board member of Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres), a left-of-center environmentalist group. He also sits on the boards of directors for a number of other environmentalist organizations and coalitions including the BlueGreen Alliance, Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the U.S. Climate Action Network (US-CAN). ¹⁴

Michael Leon Guerrero is the executive director of LNS. Guerrero previously worked as the executive director for Climate Justice Alliance, a left-of-center coalition of environmentalist organizations. He sits as a member of the boards of directors for Greenpeace, one of the largest radical environmentalist organizations in the world, and for Jobs With Justice, a national coalition of labor-union aligned workers’ centers. ¹⁵

1. “Board of Directors.” Labor Network for Sustainability. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.labor4sustainability.org/about/lns-board/ 
2. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/.
3. “Transit Equity Day.” Labor Network for Sustainability. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.labor4sustainability.org/transit-equity-day/
4. “Green New Deal.” Labor Network for Sustainability. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.labor4sustainability.org/green-new-deal/
5. “Green New Deal Hub.” Influence Watch. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.influencewatch.org/hub/green-new-deal/
6. “Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy THRIVE.” Labor Network for Sustainability. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.labor4sustainability.org/transform-heal-and-renew-by-investing-in-a-vibrant-economy-thrive/
7. “Eight Pillars.” The THRIVE Agenda. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.thriveagenda.com/agenda
8. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php>
9. “ The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
10. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
11. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
12. “Labor Unions and Green Groups Sue Trump Admin. for ‘Failure to Protect Frontline Workers From Covid-19’” Common Dreams. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/08/labor-unions-and-green-groups-sue-trump-admin-failure-protect-frontline-workers
13. “Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.” D.C. District Court. 10/08/20 https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3-wagtail.biolgicaldiversity.org/documents/PPE_Case_Complaint_FILED_2020.10.8.pdf
14. “LNS Team.” Labor Network for Sustainability. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.labor4sustainability.org/about/staff/
15. “LNS Team.” Labor Network for Sustainability. Accessed February 5, 2021. https://www.labor4sustainability.org/about/staff/