LANSING, MI – On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, labor leaders from across the state gathered to launch Michigan Climate Jobs (MICJ), a coalition of labor unions dedicated to building a worker-centered clean energy future by advancing good union careers, educating communities on climate policy, and promoting science-based solutions that ensure economic and environmental justice for all working families. This launch laid out a vision for transformative climate action that centers affordability, sustainability, and union jobs to meet the challenges confronting Michigan’s working families, like rising energy costs, increasing inequality, and more frequent extreme weather impacting communities across the state driven by the climate crisis.  

Michigan Climate Jobs coalition partners include: Michigan AFL-CIO, Michigan Building and Construction Trade Council, IBEW Michigan, Michigan Pipe Trades Association, Northern Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters, Michigan Laborers District Council, Michigan Operating Engineers 324, Michigan Education Association, and AFT Michigan. 

“Today, we launched Michigan Climate Jobs to ensure a worker-led clean energy future that puts labor in the driver's seat to lead on combating the climate crisis, making energy affordable and reliable, and protecting workers today and for generations to come,” said Ryan Bennett, Chair of MICJ and President of the Michigan Pipe Trades Association. “The jobs needed to create the clean energy economy absolutely must be union jobs because it’s union jobs that will deliver family-sustaining wages, good benefits, and safety for workers.”

MICJ partnered with the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University to develop solutions to combat the climate crisis with a focus on a worker-centered clean energy future in a report, Michigan Climate Jobs Blueprint for an Equitable Clean Energy Future. The 17 policy recommendations include upgrading Michigan's energy grid, decarbonizing public schools and buildings, expanding thermal energy networks, creating more pathways for union careers through apprenticeship readiness programs, and reforming Michigan laws to create stronger labor standards. These recommendations are a bold blueprint to reduce climate pollution while creating high-quality jobs. 

“We’re proud to partner with Michigan Climate Jobs on this new report that details how Michigan unions can drive the development of a clean energy economy that delivers for working families. This plan provides a blueprint on how current and future union workers can build our growing clean energy economy in a way that benefits all working people,“ said Dr. Lara Skinner, Executive Director of the Climate Jobs Institute.

“I have seen first hand how solar projects have changed the lives of our members. They want to do this work and as we continue to build an affordable clean energy future here in Michigan, it must be done with good union jobs that support working families,” says Arando Ramos, Business Agent of Laborers Local 1098.