EcoUnionist News #74

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, November 3, 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:

• Elon Musk’s solar company used panels made by cheap prison labor for a big taxpayer-subsidized project - By Aura Bogado, Grist, October 28, 2015
• Volkswagen and GM's deadly conspiracies pale in comparison to collusion against mass transit - By Daniel Tyson, Rabble.Ca, October 27, 2015

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Flood the System - Fall 2015: Flood, blockade, occupy and shut down the systems that jeopardize our future! | #FloodTheSystem
• Northern California Climate Mobilization - November 21, 2015
• People’s Climate Strike - November 26 - December 12, 2015
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Road to Paris:

• Bolivia: “For a Lasting Solution to the Climate Crisis We Must Destroy Capitalism” - By Cécile Barbière, EurActiv.com, October 14, 2015
• It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm: The Road to Paris and Beyond - By staff, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, October 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Open letter: Milk Powder in favour of real milk to produce healthy dairy products - By Genevieve Savigny and José Miguel Pacheco Gonçalves, La Via Campesina, November 2, 2015
• Acclaimed Mermaid Delivers Strong Message to Chicken of the Sea - Greenpeace Press Release, EcoWatch, October 28, 2015
• The Big Chicken Industry Really Treats Its Workers Like Shit - By Tess Owen, Vice News, October 27, 2015
• The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, October 27, 2015
• The Human Cost of Cheap Chicken - By Emily Nink, EcoWatch, October 27, 2015
• Labor conditions are awful at chicken plants, according to big report - By Katie Herzog, Grist, October 27, 2015
• Eliminate Child Labor from Cocoa by Emphasizing Children, Not PR Claims - By Kerstin Lindgren, Medium.Com, October 19, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Black lung debated during federal oversight hearing - By Daniel Tyson, Register Herald, November 2, 2015
• DOC staff to take industrial action as Conservation Week begins - By staff, New Zealand Public Service Association, November 2, 2015
• Suit to Enforce Federal Contractor Whistleblower Law - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 29, 2015 November 2, 2015
• Failed Toxic Cleanup at Malibu Schools - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 29, 2015
• No New Chemical Safety Investigations Opened in Seven Months - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 29, 2015
• Is the USDA trying to silence a pesticide researcher? - By Nathanael Johnson, Grist, October 28, 2015
• USDA Scientist Punished for Pollinator Research - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 28, 2015
• Are coal-mine safety violations ‘inevitable’? - By Ken Ward Jr, Coal Tattoo (Charleston Gazette), October 27, 2015
• Railroad workers say long shifts unsafe - By Heidi Desch, Whitfish Pilot, October 27, 2015
• Sudbury mining safety conference in wake of Glencore death - By Jonathan Migneault, Northern Life, October 27, 2015
• What Apple’s Solar Plans In China Could Mean For Tech Laborers - By Lauren C. Williams, Think Progress, October 27, 2015
• Nurses in Saratoga Springs rally against oil trains - By Mark Mulholland, WNYT NBC TV 13, October 21, 2015
• Ken Saro-Wiwa and the power of resistance - By Ken Henshaw, Red Pepper, October 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Chevron will lay off thousands more workers, slash spending - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, October 30, 2015
• Coal Export Industry's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week - By Guest, DeSmog Blog, October 30, 2015
• Noble Energy planning more layoffs, company confirms - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, October 29, 2015
• Devon cuts 200 employees in Canada - Bloomberg Press Release, FuelFix, October 28, 2015
• Lockdown: the end of growth in the tar sands - By Hannah McKinnon, Oil Change International, October 27, 2015
• More Trouble in Coal Country: Health Care at Risk for 12,000 Retired Miners and Their Families - By Alec MacGillis, Pro Publica, October 27, 2015
• 'A lot of people are hurting': 1,100 laid off US Steel employees face uncertainty, hard times - By Jeremy Gray, AL.com, October 26, 2015
• Why Merrill Lynch Is Throwing in the Towel on AK Steel and Steel in General - By Chris Lange, 24/7 Wall Street, October 26, 2015

Just Transition:

• Can the Electronics Industry Provide a Living Wage? Not While Corporations Set the Rules - By Nicki Lisa Cole, Truthout, October 30, 2015
• Just Transition with Mateo Nube of Movement Generation - By Marissa Mommaerts, Transition United States, October 29, 2015
• Berkeley: Environmentalists warn of state refinery projects amid oil glut - By Tom Lochner, Contra Costa Times, October 28, 2015

Other News:

• Michigan utilities face growing lineman shortage - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, November 2, 2015
• Michigan Transit Workers Fight To Prevent City Bus System From Eliminating Their Pensions - By Jeff Smith, In These Times, October 28, 2015
• More magic tricks from the Air District - By Ratha Lai, The Yodeler, October 27, 2015
• Peruvian Land Defender Killed After 48-Hour Anti-Mining Strike - By Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros en el Perú (English Translation by Earth First!), Conflictos Mineros, October 27, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW