EcoUnionist News #37

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 24, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Railroads Want One-Man Crews on Massive Freight Trains - By Tony Dokoupil, NBC News, February 22, 2015
• Striking for Climate Justice - By Peter Rugh, Dissent, February 21, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Industry demands more blood, will not engage in meaningful talks to address critical safety issues - United Steelworkers, February 23, 2015
• No new talks set between Shell, Steelworkers - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 22, 2015
• Steelworkers strike expands to Port Arthur and beyond - By Laura Goldberg, FuelFix, February 21, 2015
• Steelworker strike: Talks ongoing as tensions mount on picket line - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 20, 2015
• Steelworkers picket outside two Louisiana refineries - Associated Press, February 23, 2015
• USW to Expand ULP Oil Strike; Work Stoppage begins tonight at Motiva’s Port Arthur, Texas facility; 24-hour strike notices delivered to three Louisiana facilities - United Steelworkers, February 21, 2015

"We Just Come to Work Here; We Don't Come to Die":

• About 100 miners trapped underground, 400 rescued at Harmony Gold’s mine - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, February 22, 2015; [update]: All workers rescued at Harmony's mine, but profit to take a hit - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, February 23, 2015
• Coal mine blast kills eight, traps 40 in Pakistan - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, February 21, 2015
• Health Concerns Mount After Refinery Explosion Coats California City With White Ash - By Emily Atkin and Sacha Feinman, Climate Progress, February 20, 2015
• Maintenance work at Shell Refinery causes bad odors - By Evan Marczynski, GoSkagit.Com, February 21, 2015
• The True Price of Gas in Torrance - By Kate Usher, National Nurses United, February 20, 2015
• Union, Environmental Group Say Dozens of Nuclear Workers Suffering from Toxic Materials Exposure - By Elizabeth Grossman, In These Times, February 20, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Committee hears pushback against two-man train crew requirement; Kansas Railroads spokesperson: Safety is top concern - By Jonathan Shorman, Topeka Capital-Journal, February 20, 2015
• Damaged rail cars enjoy lenient rules as oil train explosions plague small towns - By Blake Sobczak, E&E Publishing, February 18, 2015
• In 'rail renaissance,' railroads reap in record profits despite decline in traffic; The nation's four major railroads still have less traffic than a decade ago, but their stocks are soaring and their profits are high - By Richard Webner, The Florida Times-Union, February 8, 2015
• Terra Verde, on California plan for crude by rail and current resistance [audio clip] - By Laura Garzon-Chica, KPFA 94.1 FM, February 20, 2015
• Two Charts Show Why America Needs To Invest In Railroad Tracks - By Abigail Tracy, Vocativ, February 17, 2015
• U.S. oil trains are taking high-stakes risks with lives - By John Kemp, Reuters, February 17, 2015
• W.Va. oil train derailment reverberates in the Bakken - By Blake Sobczak, E&E News (republished by Dakota Resources Council), February 23, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Three more oil service firms cutting hundreds of jobs, wages - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, February 19, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• West Virginians Look Toward The Sun, Say No To Coal, Fracking - By Mikala Reasbeck, Mint Press News, February 19, 2015

Global Anti-Capitalism:

• Labor Beat: Climate Change and Capitalism [Video] - By System Change not Climate Change, Labor Beat, February 13, 2015
• LA: Hundreds Protest Dept Toxic Substance Control, Environmental Injustice - EGP Staff Report, EGP News, February 19, 2015
• Hundreds protest at Maules Creek mine - By Mel Barnes, Green Left Weekly, February 21, 2015
• A New Alignment of Movements? - By David Bollier, David Bollier's blog, February 18, 2015
• REDD and Neocolonialism in the Land of the Pataxo Warriors - By Renata Bessi and Santiago Navarro F, Truthout, February 22, 2015
• Syriza Faces Environmental Test as Open-Pit Gold Mine Looms over Greece - Earth First! Newswire, February 19, 2015

Other News:

• Australia’s Hunter Valley coal's health bill more than $460m a year - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, February 23, 2015
• How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations - By Glen Greenwald, The Intercept, February 24, 2014
• Two Stories That Prove Climate Change Is Class War - Compiled by Alexander Reid Ross, Earth First! Newswire, February 22, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC