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Climate, Jobs and Justice

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Endangerment finding:  OUR VOICES IN ACTION:

Endangerment Finding Protection, 6000+ Comments Submitted!  

Thanks to your work and our members' powerful voices, over 6000 public comments were submitted to the EPA demanding they protect our health, air, and climate—not polluters. The EPA’s plan would revoke the 2009 endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act that has, up until now, allowed the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas pollution in order to stop climate change. Raising our voices is key in winning this fight. 

Every single comment counts in helping stop the Trump Administration’s attempt to gut the Clean Air Act and roll back critical protections against greenhouse gas pollution. Now that the comment period has closed we will track next steps, it is likely that this will make its way up the courts so stay tuned for upcoming engagement opportunities.


HEAT WEEK 2025


From industrial laundry workers and airport staff to fast food workers and healthcare workers, SEIU members are on the frontlines of a worsening crisis- extreme heat. Extreme heat is no longer a distant climate threat—it’s a daily reality for all of us.   2024 was the hottest summer on record, and the past decade (2015-2024) has been the warmest since record-keeping began.

That's why in August,  service workers across multiple industries escalated their demands for workplace heat protections. 

California fast-food workers released a damning report showing three out of five workers faced excessive heat despite state protections, while airport service workers at LaGuardia and Newark airports held coordinated actions demanding heat protections.

Workers shared harrowing accounts of fainting from heat, working with broken air conditioning reaching 102 degrees, and passing out in cargo holds. 

“It just takes cold water, a cool place to rest, to prevent heat illness and the proper training to identify it when workers are experiencing it. We can’t hope airlines or major corporations will start caring about us. We need to make them do the right thing. Clear Federal heat protectant, where there is one set of rules for everyone. That will go a long way to making sure working people aren’t killed or permanently injured by heat.” Linda Ressler


As we continue to face deadlier heat waves each summer, our commitment remains clear: we will continue organizing, advocating, and fighting for the safety and dignity of our members in the face of a changing climate.


Green Janitor program updates

2025 is far from over, but we've already graduated more Green Janitors than we did in all of 2024! Keep up the good work!

Chicago: Last week, we celebrated the newest Green Janitors in Chicago, trained to lead in sustainability! See photos on Instagram!

Seattle Six members of SEIU6 graduated from the program at Seattle Municipal Tower. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrlll attended and congratulated the members in his speech. Also attending was Washington State Rep. Shaun Scott. The janitors work for MBM and Evergreen with CBRE as the Property Manager. SEIU6 posted a nice update on Facebook. And check out this great article in The Stand for more info. Nice work SEIU6 team!


Cleveland Congrats to the eight SEIU Local 1 members cleaning City of Cleveland space who graduated on August 22nd, in the main atrium of Cleveland City Hall! Many city employees joined to support their janitorial staff, and City Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones gave a congratulatory speech. In a prior position Councilwoman Howse-Jones was a certified LEED AP with the U.S. Green Building Council, so a good connection there.  



ABOUT


Working people, including SEIU members, their families, and communities, are directly and too often disproportionately affected by the threats of air and water pollution, climate change, and extreme weather events. They are also more likely to be confronted with environmental and health hazards at work, and less likely to receive adequate protection from them.

As SEIU members know well from their own communities, climate change is real and poses significant threats to people’s health and livelihood, and disproportionately affects working people, the poor, and people of color.

SEIU members passed a resolution at their 2016 convention- demanding that something be done.  Since then, SEIU members have risen to the occasion, driving action at local, state, and federal levels - from legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at hospitals in Florida to building more resilience in communities in Massachusetts.  We partner with green groups in various states to win legislation that advances all of our interests. Through our networks, we took action to secure historic investments to combat climate change in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and expanded our workplace training programs such as Green Janitor and the Caregiver Resiliency Project.  In addition,  our members in Florida continued their groundbreaking efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hospitals.