Turtles & teamsters revival? Analyzing labor unions' environmental discourse from the 2014 People's Climate March.

Abstract

Through an examination of collective action frames, this article explores the sociopolitical motivations driving American union members' engagement in the climate change movement, as well as the political ideologies inferred by their proposed action strategies. The analysis centers on the historic action of the 2014 People's Climate March (PCM) and employs a qualitative mixed-methods approach, including 19 in-depth interviews with labor leaders and rank-and-file members who participated in the march. I find that the majority of these labor activists contend that climate change is a result of systemic political-economic arrangements, and mobilize around climate change under the master frame of environmental justice. However, divergent frames exist within the prognostic realm, with some labor activists advancing reformist mitigation strategies that adhere to the paradigm of ecological modernization, and others advocating political strategies that entail more structurally transformative interventions. I also discuss the PCM's legacy impact on coalition building between the labor and environmental movements, and identify obstacles that exist to labor's future climate justice organizing in the U.S. context. In concluding, I note the limitations of this analysis and suggest avenues for future research on this topic.