![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Clean-Air-and-Good-Jobs.jpg\")
<\/figure>By Todd E. Vachon<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The labor\u2013climate movement in the U.S. laid the groundwork for the Green New Deal by building a base within labor for supporting climate protection as a vehicle for good jobs. But as we confront the climate crisis and seek environmental justice, a \u201cjobs vs. environment\u201d discourse often pits workers against climate activists. How can we make a \u201cjust transition\u201d moving away from fossil fuels, while also compensating for the human cost when jobs are lost or displaced? Clean Air and Good Jobs<\/em> examines the \u201cmovement within the movement\u201d offering useful solutions to the dual crises of climate and inequality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. Labor and the Struggle for Climate Justice The labor\u2013climate movement in the U.S. laid the groundwork for the Green New Deal by building a base within labor for supporting climate protection as a vehicle for good jobs. But as we confront the climate crisis and seek environmental justice, a \u201cjobs vs. environment\u201d discourse often … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-193","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194,"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193\/revisions\/194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelaborinstitute.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In his timely book, Clean Air and Good Jobs, <\/em>Todd Vachon examines the labor\u2013climate movement and demonstrates what can be envisioned and accomplished when climate justice is on labor\u2019s agenda and unions work together with other social movements to formulate bold solutions to the climate crisis. Vachon profiles the workers and union leaders who have been waging a slow, but steadily growing revolution within their unions to make labor as a whole an active and progressive champion for both workers and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n