EcoUnionist News #42

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 13, 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
• BP Cleanup Worker: "How Could I Have Known It Would Get This Bad?" - By Karen Savage, Bridge the Gulf, March 06, 2015
• USW Reaches Tentative Agreement with Oil Industry; Agreement with Shell Sets Pattern for Industry – By Wayne Ranick and Lynne Hancock, United Steelworkers, March 12, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Exxon Misrepresents Torrance Refinery Safety Record and Explosion’s Effect on Gas Prices to Lawmakers at Town Hall Hearing, Consumer Watchdog Says - By Liza Tucker, Martinez Environmental Group, March 13, 2015
• Police block striking refinery workers from entering Shell Houston HQ - By Erwin Seba, Reuters, March 06, 2015
• USW protests in downtown and Texas City [video] - KHOU, March 06, 2015
• Workers awakening in Texas; United Steelworkers rally at Shell and LyondellBasell Houston HQ (VIDEO) - By Egberto Willies, Egbertowillies.Com, March 12, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Cutting the crud: Debunking five Big Oil myths - By Steve Cornwell, Rabble.Ca, March 12, 2015
• Oil tool suppliers cut another 360 jobs in Texas - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, March 9, 2015
• Rio Tinto to axe hundreds of jobs as part of drastic restructuring - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, March 9, 2015
• The Real Story Behind the Oil Price Collapse - By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch, March 12, 2015
• Stranded Alberta oilfield workers to return home - By Julia Parrish and Stewart Shaw, CTV, March 11, 2015
• This Is What Poverty Looks Like - By Scott Rodd, Think Progress, March 11, 2015 [related] Kentucky students are joining the Just Economic Transition movement - By Kelsie Brown, Renew Appalachia, March 6, 2015

1267 Watch:

• CP Rail will use management to maintain 100 per cent capacity in event of another strike: Harrison - By Amanda Stephenson, Calgary Herald, March 4, 2015
• Jen Wallis interview - We Do the Work [audio], March 10, 2015
• Tar Sands by Rail Disasters: The Latest Wave in the Bomb Train Assault - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, March 9, 2015
• Train policy going off the rails? [video] - By Ronan Farrow, MSNBC, February 18, 2015

Climate Justice:

• Florida banned state workers from using term 'climate change' - By Tom McCarthy, The Guardian, March 8, 2015
• Florida Officials Banned From Using the Term “Climate Change” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, March 9, 2015
• Florida Officials Banned From Using the Terms ‘Climate Change’ and ‘Sustainability’ - By Tristram Korten, Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, EcoWatch, March 9, 2015
• Florida’s Not The Only State Where Officials Censored The Term ‘Climate Change’ - By Emily Atkin, Think Progress, March 9, 2015
• Gender Equality and Earth's Future - By Mary Robinson, Christiana Figueres, and Amina J. Mohammed, Project Syndicate, March 9, 2015
• It’s ‘Orwellian': Florida Scientists Respond To Report That State Agency Banned ‘Climate Change’ - By Katie Valentine, Think Progress, March 9, 2015
• Revitalized climate movement draws 20,000 to London protest - By Martin Empson, Climate and Capitalism, March 8, 2015
• Revolutionary Extractivism in Bolivia? - By Nicole Fabricant and Bret Gustafson, Truthout, March 6, 2015
• Time to Act: 40,000 Climate Change Protesters March in London - By Karl Mathiesen, The Guardian, March 7, 2015

Other News:

• Better Safe than Sorry - By Kari Jones, National Nurses United, March 10, 2015
• Big fast food seeks injunction against Seattle’s $15 minimum wage - By Ned Resnikoff, Al Jazeera, March 10, 2015
• The sharing economy is bullsh!t. Here’s how we can take it back - By Sam Bliss, Grist, March 9, 2015
• 3 workers killed in West Texas oil field rig explosion - Associated Press, March 11, 2015; [related] OSHA: Company involved in deadly explosion had violation in 2014 - By Rye Druzin, MRT.Com, March 11, 2015
• VICTORY: Longview Port Rejects Propane Export Terminal Proposal - By Marissa Luck and Brooks Johnson, Longview Daily News, March 11, 2015
• We Just Changed Everything; Massive showing of community strength at March 4th on Maximus - Plaza 16, March 7, 2015

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