VCU Chapter of United Campus Workers Endorses VCU Declaration of Climate Emergency
The VCU Chapter of United Campus Workers proudly endorses a Declaration of Climate and Ecological Emergency. The petition calls on President Rao to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency, to work with faculty, staff, students, and alumni and partner with the City of Richmond to address the crisis, and to affirm that the components outlined in the petition will be included as components of the ONE VCU Sustainability Plan. UCW endorses this urgent call to action because the goals of our union, above all to build a society in which every person can live well, cannot be achieved without a flourishing planet. We are proud to stand alongside the VCU Faculty Senate, the Staff Senate, the Student Government Association, and the Graduate Student Association in supporting this Emergency Declaration.
UCW endorses this urgent call to action because the goals of our union, above all to build a society in which every person can live well, cannot be achieved without a flourishing planet. As Labor Network for Sustainability (LNS) states:
“Climate change represents a mortal threat to working people, the labor movement, and society at large. Climate change is happening now due to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gasses, mainly from burning coal, oil, and gas. Without bold action now, the warming planet threatens to put prosperity out of reach of millions and roll back decades of development. And the climate crisis disproportionally hurts those who are already most hurt by our economic and political systems: women and people of color. Climate protection is not an optional issue for labor. As the pace of climate change worsens, the labor movement’s fundamental principle of solidarity requires us to take the lead on climate.”
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and World Meteorological Organization reports indicate the planet is heating up at an ever accelerating pace, with the warmest eight years on record having occurred in the past eight years (See here). We must move away from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy as quickly as possible as part of a just transition to a socially and economically just, sustainable, and empowering society for all members of society.
Such a transition can only be made by employing millions of citizens at good wages to undertake the monumental task of constructing the energy, transportation, and production infrastructures and social, cultural, and educational institutions that are necessary for a sustainable, democratic, and equitable society. As LNS indicates, accomplishing this goal requires “public planning and investment designed to protect the climate for the public good. Climate protection demands a democratically controlled, sustainable, demilitarized, equitable, and just economy that uses our resources not for greed or military domination but to meet the needs of people and planet.”
We join LNS in affirming that our approach to the climate emergency makes the work of economic justice for people of color, indigenous and frontline communities, women, trans, and gender-nonconforming people front and center. As they write: “jobs created by climate protection must be open and accessible to those who have been excluded from and discriminated against in the labor force,” “energy policies must reduce rather than add to pollution in frontline environmental justice communities,” and we must “respect the sovereignty of indigenous communities,” and act in solidarity to restore indigenous tribal sovereignty.
We understand that educational institutions like VCU can and must play a key role in facilitating a just transition to an economically equitable, empowering, and sustainable society. VCU has tremendous research and educational resources at its disposal, with the most important being our faculty, staff, and students. We can meet the climate crisis head-on right here, right now, where we are. We are ready to take on this challenge and call on President Rao to declare a climate emergency and join us in this monumental effort to build a healthy future for all people.
We invite all our members and coworkers to add their signatures to the petition in solidarity with our collective fight for a more just future for workers, for our public institutions, and for our students and communities.
