EcoUnionist News #82

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, December 15, 2015

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

Lead Stories:

• ‘I Didn’t See These Times Coming’: The Economic Despair Behind the Rise in Blue-Collar Deaths - By Stephen Franklin, In These Times, December 10, 2015
• South Asian workers in Gulf fear rising temperature - By Navin Singh Khadka, BBC, December 10, 2015
• Union-Led Popular Protests Push to Oust South Korean President - By Hyun Lee and Gregory Elich, Labor Notes, December 8, 2015
• It's Time To Take A Stand For Workers On TPP - By James P. Hoffa, Leo W. Gerard and Dennis Williams, Huffington Post, December 7, 2015

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Flood the System - Fall 2015: Flood, blockade, occupy and shut down the systems that jeopardize our future! | #FloodTheSystem
• Railcon15 - Next Conference TBA | #Railcon15

The Thin Green Line:

• No to Coal Exports in Oakland - By Mary Anne Hitt, EcoWatch, December 14, 2015
• End of Crude Oil Export Ban Is Possible - By David M Herszenhorn, New York Times, December 14, 2015
• Pittsburg Defeats WesPac: Biggest California Crude Oil Project Stopped in its Tracks - By Ethan Buckner, Forest Ethics, December 11, 2015; [related]: Pittsburg Defeats WesPac: Biggest California Crude Oil Project Stopped in its Tracks - By Sam Richards, Contra Costa Times, December 9, 2015
• Congress Is Close To A Deal That Could Flood Global Markets With American Oil - By Laura Barron-Lopez, Huffington Post, December 9, 2015; [related]: The Oil Industry Is About To Get A Big Gift From Congress - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, December 9, 2015
• Keystone 2.0 - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, December 9, 2015
• Seattle Residents Occupy BNSF Offices to Protest Oil Trains - By Afrin Sopariwala, Rising Tide Seattle, December 8, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Building a future without violence in the fields - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, December 11, 2015
• Teens of the Tobacco Fields - By Staff, Human Rights Watch, December 9, 2015
• Must-listen radio: New story on Fair Food Program’s entry into strawberry industry takes you into the fields as history is made - By Center for Investigative Reporting, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, December 7, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Kazakhstan: who ordered the killings and tortures? - By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, December 13, 2015; [related] Kazakhstan: oil companies threaten activists - By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, December 13, 2015
• Queens Uni Belfast Fossil Free Occupation - By Admin, People & Planet, December 11, 2015
• Another coal miner dies on the job - By Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette, December 10, 2015
• Dirty Toys Made in China - By Staff, United Steelworkers, December 10, 2015
• Former Safety Inspectors Blow the Whistle on Spectra, 100 March and Take Action in Response - By FANG, Stop Spectra, December 10, 2015
• The Sleaze, Guilt and Punishment of Coal CEO Don Blankenship - By Jim Hightower, In These Times, December 10, 2015
• Judge Berger issues post-trial rulings - By Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette, December 9, 2015
• New Play Chronicles the Toll of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Workers - By Kari Lydersen, In These Times, December 9, 2015
• Fear at the tap: Uranium contaminates water in the West - By Ellen Knickmeyer and Scott Smith, Associated Press, December 8, 2015
• The Toxic Chemical Causing Lung Disease Among Both Workers Making and Users Vaping E-Cigarettes - By Elizabeth Grossman, In These Times, December 8, 2015
• Thousands protest outside Melbourne court as CFMEU senior officials appear on blackmail charges - By Gloria Kalache and Stephanie Anderson, Austrailian Broadcasting Company, December 7, 2015
• Workers Raise Concerns over National Grid Proposals that Could Impact Public Safety in Massachusetts - By United Steelworkers Local 12003, PR Newswire, December 7, 2015
• Miners on territories of Donbass controlled by Kiev prepare to revolt - By Staff, DNI News, December 4, 2015

1267 Watch:

• Fire Near St. Johns Bridge in Portland - By Staff, Columbia River Keeper, December 14, 2015
• Police ID driver in deadly tanker crash, rail car fire - By Teresa Blackman and staff, KGW, December 14, 2015
• Firefighters battling large fire near Highway 30 in industrial NW Portland - By Aimee Green, Oregon Live, December 13, 2015
• Train Fire In The Outskirts of Portland - By Roy L Hales, The Eco Report, December 13, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Codelco eyes $600 million in savings, more job cuts in 2016 as copper in the pits - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 14, 2015
• AK Steel layoffs called “devastating” for Kentucky community - By Chelsey Levingston, Dayton Daily News, December 13, 2015
• Temporary layoffs of about 2,000 workers at US Steel's Granite City plant to begin on Dec. 27 - Associated Press wire, The Daily Journal, December 12, 2015
• Anglo American to cut 85,000 jobs, dividend and assets in sweeping restructuring - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 8, 2015
• Let's get off the boom-bust roller coaster - By Gordon Laxer, Rabble.Ca, December 8, 2015
• Struggling Texas oil field workers may be fleeing state, report says - By Jennifer Hiller, FuelFix, December 8, 2015
• American Unions And A Steelworker Lockout - By Tom Ashbrook, WBUR 90.9 FM, December 7, 2015
• Opec bid to kill off US shale sends oil price down to 2009 low - By Larry Elliott, The Guardian, December 7, 2015

Just Transition:

• Just transition on the road through Paris - By Bill Onasch, Socialist Action, December 12, 2015
• The Solar Industry Is More Transparent - By Roy L Hales, The EcoReport, December 10, 2015
• Corbyn and Klein on Climate Jobs - By Jonathan Neale, Global Climate Jobs, December 8, 2015
• Just Transition: Workers’ Rights are Human Rights - By Michael G. Williams, Blue Green Alliance, December 8, 2015
• Climate change and the role of the workers' movement - By Piergiorgio Moro, Rabble.Ca, December 2, 2015
• Mapping the Emerging Post-Capitalist Paradigm and its Main Thinkers - By Blaq and Celine Trefle, Commons Transition, December 2, 2015

Other News:

• Alternatives to capitalism: Derek Wall’s Economics After Capitalism - By William Pinkney-Baird, Bright Green, December 14, 2015
• Indiana Dunes Pavilion Project Hits Big New Snag - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, December 10, 2015
• Greenpeace exposes sceptics hired to cast doubt on climate science - By Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, December 8, 2015
• From Sacramento to Paris, Bringing Divestment to Government as a Tool for Social Change - By Lucia Graves, Pacific Standard, December 2, 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.