EcoUnionist News #44

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 26, 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:

• Lessons Discarded: Ten years after a Texas City refinery blast killed 15 and rattled a community, workers keep dying - By Mark Collette, Lise Olsen and Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle, March 21, 2015
• Anatomy of a Disaster: Studies pinpointed what went wrong in Texas City, but unsafe conditions persist - By Mark Collette, Lise Olsen and Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2015
• Blood Lessons: Ten years after a fiery explosion killed 15 in Texas City, preventable deaths continue at refineries - By Jim Malewitz and Jolie McCullough, Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2015
• A Deadly Industry: Assembled data shows how and where refinery workers continue to die - By Jim Malewitz, Jolie McCullough, Ben Hasson and Lise Olsen, Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2015
• Survivors Remember: For two former BP workers, disaster and its aftermath remain vivid - By Mark Collette and Lise Olsen, Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Remembering lives lost in tragedy; Candlelight vigil highlights victims of BP blast - By Christopher Smith Gonzalez and T.J. Aulds, Galvaston Daily News, March 23, 2015
• Shell workers in Deer Park end strike - By Andrea Rumbaugh, FuelFix, March 20, 2015
• Vigil mourns 15 oil workers who died in Texas blast 10 years ago - By Joseph S. Pete, NWI Times, March 23, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Experts: New Mexico oil patch could lose 2,000 jobs - Associated Press, March 25, 2015
• Oil field services company cuts 200 of 250 employees in Arkansas - Associated Press, March 21, 2015
• Oilsands producers face harsh reality of rout: There’s no one to save them this time - By Jeremy van Loon and Rebecca Penty, Bloomberg News, March 23, 2015
• Texas landmen left out of work as oil patch boom times go bust - Bloomberg, March 23, 2015
• US coal market in ‘structural decline’, warning to global investors - By Sophie Vorrath, Renew Economy, March 25, 2015

Just Transition:

• Congressman: The Keystone XL Pipeline Is Worth Building Even If It Only Creates One Job - By Scott Keyes, Think Progress, March 19, 2015
• Keystone XL Pipeline = Less Jobs Than You Think - By Drew Toal, NextGen Climate, March 19, 2015
• Too Much Oil; Taking on climate change will require massive state investment and the destruction of the fossil fuel industry - By Matt Huber, Jacobin, March 22, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Editorial: No time to lose on rail safety - By Montreal Gazette Editorial Board, Montreal Gazette, March 13, 2015
• Improving Track Maintenance is Key to Oil Train Safety; Track Related Defects are a Leading Cause of Train Accidents in U.S. - By Clark Ballew, PR Newswire, March 23, 2015
• Jen Wallis, Steering Committee member of Railroad Workers United, Part 2 [audio] - By Jen Wallis, We Do the Work, March 17, 2015
• Oil trains: track inspection finds "critical defects" on North Country line - By Brian Mann, North Country Public Radio, March 18, 2015
• Rail industry’s improved tank cars failing to prevent spills - By Daneil Tyson, Register-Herald, March 17, 2015
• Train crash site was due to get crossing gates - By Allison Ross, The Courier Journal, March 17, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Bangladesh: Business as Usual as Garment Brands Stall Progress - By the International Trade Union Confederation, Portside, March 13, 2015
• Canada regulator probing TransCanada’s pipeline safety code violations - By EBR Staff Reporter, Energy Business Review, March 19, 2015; [related] National Energy Board investigates TransCanada over pipeline safety-code violations - By Brent Patterson, Rabble.Ca, March 20, 2015
• Honeywell lockout at Illinois uranium plant coming to an end - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.com, March 23, 2015
• Salvadoran Maquila Plants Use Gang Members to Break Unions - By Edgardo Ayala, Inter Press Service, March 23, 2015
• Steelworkers Withdraw From Lakeland Sawmill Inquest - By Stephen Hunt and Brad West, United Steelworkers, March 23, 2015
• Thousands of Sweatshop Workers In China Go On Strike - By John Vibes, True Activist, March 17, 2015

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