Happy May Day!
Labor Justice is Climate Justice
Cornell on Fire Post 4/30 - 5/1, 2026
Image courtesy of Sam Scott, published in Cornell Daily Sun
We invite you to join historic May Day actions in Ithaca, while highlighting key connections between climate and labor struggles, and discussing how Just Cause Employment labor protections are essential for climate justice at Cornell and beyond.
Scroll below for upcoming events and to get involved! As always, you may view this email on our correspondingblog post orInstagram andMastodon.
Dear Cornell on Fire,
This May Day, people across the country are embracing “no work, no school, and no shopping” and planning thousands of protests. Here in Ithaca, you can take action by joining the Ithaca May Day Rally to say no to ICE, no to war, and yes to workers over billionaires. Join the march downtown from Cornell’s Ho Plaza starting at 4:00pm, or meet us at the rally at 4:45 at Bernie Milton Pavilion. Only have a minute to spare? You can celebrate May Day by signing the Just Cause petition.
So how does Just Cause Employment relate to climate justice? Just Cause Employment is under hot consideration in the City of Ithaca, where it would ban employers from firing people without good reason. Common in many other wealthy countries, just cause provisions can have many benefits like preventing union busting and protecting civil rights (like activism). Just Cause is also a component of the City’s Climate Action Plan.
Workers’ experience of unsafe conditions may be worsened by climate change. For example, in increasingly hot summers, they may be required to work for long hours without adequate breaks or access to water. Another example is wildfire smoke, which we haven’t historically had much here in the Eastern US but is now getting more common due to climate change. It is important that workers can speak up about these unsafe conditions without facing retaliation from employers, especially as climate change leads to worsening conditions. Relatedly, Sunrise Ithaca is campaigning for provisions to protect workers from the impacts of extreme heat, as recommended in Ithaca’s Climate Action Plan.
Another connection is climate activism. We have spoken to more than one Cornell employee who expressed hesitation to join our activism because it could risk their job security. One person explicitly told us that they cannot join activism so long as Cornell is an at-will employer. People should not have to decide between their careers and livelihoods and their morals.
Such constraints are exactly what employers and other authoritarians seek to create: creating desperation to keep our jobs and livelihoods so that we don’t stand up to unsafe and unethical practices. But we need to stand up now or it will be too late. By helping protect workers from retaliation, Just Cause can empower workers to stand up for our rights.
On a larger level, labor justice and climate change are deeply interconnected, as described in Matthew Huber’s book Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet. To reverse climate change in an equitable manner, Huber emphasizes the need to consider the point of production, where environmental harms and worker exploitation occur as a result of capitalists’ drive to acquire profit. His work suggests that responding to the climate crisis will require broad international movements uniting labor and climate concerns to confront capitalists benefiting from systems that perpetuate the climate crisis. This union can enable an intentional phase out of fossil fuels.
The point of production plays a central role in the current climate crisis. Huber notes that industrial capital, controlled by a relatively small class of capitalists, is responsible for the majority of emissions. He emphasizes the importance of the working class in building a broader climate movement that can contest the power of industrial capital. Linking labor and environmental struggles can help overcome the environment vs. job dilemma that often impedes environmental action, whereby polluting industries leverage their own workers against environmental action with the claim of protecting jobs. Labor and environmental concerns, including workers' struggles against environmental threats such as toxins, may instead be seen as a common struggle, tied together by class politics, confronting capitalists who are profiting from labor exploitation and environmental harm, with the goal of transforming production through stricter regulation and public ownership.
There are numerous co-benefits associated with decarbonization, given that fossil fuels lead to significant environmental and human health harm. The renewable energy industry also has potential to create jobs, throughout the supply chain and construction and maintenance of energy projects, helping to replace jobs in the fossil fuel industry. The empowerment of the working class can help to ensure the opportunity for working class people to enjoy these benefits.
Matthew Huber’s work suggests the urgent need for empowerment of and solidarity between working class movements across the globe. And this starts with fighting for policies like Just Cause here in Ithaca.
Read on for opportunities to join our movement’s actions in May and beyond!
Happy May Day,
Cornell on Fire
Get involved with Cornell on Fire:
Ithaca May Day Rally : Friday, May 1 at 4:45 at Bernie Milton Pavilion.
The Cornell portion of the May Day rally will start at 4:00pm on Ho Plaza and march to the Commons.
Tabling will take place downtown starting around 5:30pm at Washington Park.
Cornell on Fire Monthly Meeting and Art-ivism Crafting Session : Saturday 5/2, from 2-4pm at Watermargin. Join us for crafting and discussion of summer break plans! (Email us if you’d like the link to join the discussion virtually!)
Discover your climate action workshop : Sunday 5/3 from 3:00-4:30 at Balch Hall. A women-focused exploratory workshop designed to connect emerging activists to their climate action path. Come say hi to our team of Cornell on Fire reps at this event.
Interested in joining our Working Group? We meet weekly and actively welcome new perspectives! Everyone can contribute to our campus-community coalition: students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members. Fill out our interest form or reach out at connect@cornellonfire.org.
Join Cornell on Fire as a climate justice liaison. Our movement receives coalition requests from powerful movers and shakers on campus and beyond, such as the Rainforest Action Network, Campus Climate Network, and Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island. We need liaisons who can connect our work to theirs! This is a concrete way to support Cornell on Fire and the larger movement for climate justice. It’s easy: fill out our interest form to become a liaison who joins ally meetings and reports back to us.
Contribute your creative skills to Cornell on Fire’s art-ivism project: We are seeking people with design and artistic skills to help create humorous, critical, multi-media artworks for a public exhibit about Cornell’s shortcomings in the face of the climate emergency and CoF demands. Get in touch with Leila at l.wilmers@gmail.com for details!
Engage the Wider Movement:
Subscribe to Positive News US and support a fellow activist: The Ithaca-based Positive News keeps you up to date on promising developments in activism, justice, and earth’s vitality. Sign up here to receive a daily story that informs and inspires. This subscription is a gift to you paid for by someone who subscribed before you. If you'd like, you can reciprocate by paying for someone else's subscription at your chosen price. Your donation will support Positive News’ founder, Ilonka ("Ilu") Wloch, through a crisis and allow her to continue standing up to the world of apathy with real stories of care and justice. Thank you for considering this!
Extinction Rebellion Climate Vigils 11am most every Saturday at Chase Bank - the worst bank on Earth - at the East end of the Ithaca Commons.
This post was also published via email and Instagram and Mastodon.
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Plurivocality: CoF Posts are written by a revolving team of writers. Our movement is diverse, so are our thoughts, and so will be our posts. If you receive a CoF Post that you think is wrong headed, can we still walk together? (We, like you, sometimes write things we later laugh at!)
