EcoUnionist News #76

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, November 17, 2015

Mural of Karen Silkwood (depicted, right) by Mike Alewitz

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

Lead Stories:

• Oakland's Toxic Failure - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, November 11, 2015
• Environmental Groups Aren’t Buying The TPP’s Wildlife Provisions - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, November 10, 2015
• Labor, Environmental Leaders Call on Congress to Reject Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement - By Eric Steen, Blue Green Alliance, November 10, 2015
• Trans-Pacific Partnership deal "an act of climate denial - By Charles Mandel, National Observer, November 10, 2015
• The TPP Won’t Just Cost Workers Jobs—It Could Cost Them Their Lives, Too - By Leo Gerard, In These Times, November 10, 2015

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Flood the System - Fall 2015: Flood, blockade, occupy and shut down the systems that jeopardize our future! | #FloodTheSystem
• Jobs, Justice, Climate: Rally to Defend New England's Future! - December 12, 2015
• 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:

• After the Attacks: A Climate Organizer's Notes from Paris - By David Solinit, The Indypendent, November 15, 2015
• Paris attacks: COP21 and the war on terror - By Oliver Tickell, The Ecologist, November 14, 2015
• Lack of ambition before Paris Climate Conference - By John Dillon, Rabble.Ca, November 12, 2015
• Will the Paris Climate Talks Deliver the World We Need? Not likely - By Janet Redman, Foreign Policy in Focus, November 12, 2015
• Agri-Corporations Attempt to Hijack COP21 - By Vandana Shiva, EcoWatch, November 11, 2015
• Corporate agenda threatens to straightjacket Paris COP 21 proceedings yet again - By Brad Hornick, Rabble.Ca, November 11, 2015
• University fossil fuel divestment doubles ahead of Paris climate talks: Press Release - By admin, People and Planet, November 10, 2015
• Two Significant Steps Forward; One Step Back Towards Paris - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, November 9, 2015
• World Pledges to Increase Emissions - By Johnathan Nancy, Global Climate Jobs, November 9, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Canfisco Cannery Line Closure: UFAWU Response - By Riley Caputo, West Coast Native News, November 16, 2015
• BREAKING: CIW, allies to march on NYC offices of Wendy’s Chairman Nelson Peltz! - By Gerardo Reyes Chavez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, November 13, 2015
• Nov. 21st: “Uniting for Fair Food” National Day of Action for the Thanksgiving season - By admin, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, November 11, 2015
• Will the EPA Ban a Pesticide That’s Been Lowering Children’s IQs for Years? - By Elizabeth Grossman, In These Times, November 10, 2015
• Workers Speak Up After Being Told To Go Back To Work After Chemical Spill - By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, Think Progress, November 6, 2015
• Bolivian Urban Farming Coop Empowers Migrant Women - By Anna Bergren Miller, Shareable, November 3, 2015
• How California Birthed the Modern Right Wing - By Chris Lehmann, In These Times, October 6, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Accused in Lac-Mégantic derailment plead not guilty on federal charges - By staff, Montreal Gazette, November 12, 2015
• BHP Billiton drops 10-year-run with Teekay for non-unionized upstart - By Michael Allan McCrae, Mining.Com, November 11, 2015
• Big Oil Brown Strikes Again: The governor's hypocrisy on climate change deepens - By Robert Gammon, East Bay Express, November 10, 2015; [related] Oil and gas regulator lodged complaint over work for Gov. Brown - By AP Wire, FuelFix, November 10, 2015
• Why the United States Leaves Deadly Chemicals on the Market - By Valerie Brown and Elizabeth Grossman, In These Times, November 2, 2015
• Marikana Massacre Represents the Beginning of the End of the African National Congress - By Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Black Agenda Report, October 28, 2015
• Workers win settlement, back pay from Alaska fuel distributor - By staff, The Stand, October 26, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Job losses continue across the state as oil field services firms cut back - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, November 16, 2015
• Why fossil fuel stock prices are doomed - By Brett Fleishman, 350.org, November 16, 2015
• Oil crash job losses in Texas may be steeper than previously thought - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, November 12, 2015
• North Dakota oil patch town moves closer to banning crew camps in city limits - By AP Wire, FuelFix, November 11, 2015
• Noble begins second round of layoffs, 180 jobs on the chopping block - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, November 10, 2015
• Why the oil sands no longer make economic sense - By Jeff Rubin, The Globe and Mail, November 9, 2015
• Political Climate Shifting Against The Oil And Gas Industry - By Nick Cunningham, OilPrice.Com, November 8, 2015
• What is happening in the steel industry? - By Walton Pantland, Union Solidarity International, October 27, 2015

Just Transition:

• Climate Jobs in Portugal - By Jonathan Nancy, Global Climate Jobs, November 12, 2015
• It's Already Happening: A Message to COP 21 - By John Thackara, Doors of Perception, November 11, 2015
• Moving to renewable energy would create millions of jobs, study finds - By Katie Herzog, Grist, November 11, 2015
• New Program Aims For 1000 New Solar Jobs For US Veterans - By Tina Casey, Solar Love, November 10, 2015
• The Left should embrace degrowth - By Giorgos Kallis, The New Internationalist, November 5, 2015

Other News:

• Alaska Seabird Reintroduction Boondoggle - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, November 16, 2015
• Sierra Club and community partners keep pressure on Oakland City Council to ban coal exports—Join Dec. 8 teach-in and action - By Jeremy Gong, Sierra Club Yodeler, November 13, 2015
• Capitalism vs. Climate: Naomi Klein’s New Film Takes Us From the Current Crisis to the World We Want - By Kate Aronoff, Yes!, November 5, 2015
• Collective action gets Guangzhou sanitation workers direct employment contracts - By staff, China Labor Bulletin, November 5, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

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.