EcoUnionist News #116

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 10, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Chicken Factory Owners Are Some of the Cruelest Employers in America: Workers Share Horror Stories as Campaign Builds to Fight Exploitation – By Michael Arria, AlterNet, August 4, 2016
• Death in The Fields – By Mauricio Peña, Desert Sun, August 4, 2016
• Oil Sands Workers Lead on Climate Action – By staff, People's Climate Plan, August 4, 2016
• Portland Teachers Expose Lead in Schools – By Samantha Winslow, Labor Notes, August 2, 2016; [related]: Book Review: Organizing against the Toxins Lurking in Our Schools – By Hyung Nam, Labor Notes, August 2, 2016
• Millions of people yearning for a "Brexit" from destructive trade deals – By Maude Barlow, Edmonton Journal, July 23, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
  
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016
• Unions Organizing around Energy Democracy, Climate Jobs and Just Transition - Montreal, August 9th-13th, 2016
• United Students Against Sweatshops Summer Convention - August 13-14, 2016, Silver Spring, MD
• Climate Camp and Degrowth Summer - Rheinland, August 19-29, 2016
• Power Shift Southeast - Orlando, FL: September 9-11, 2016
• Wendy’s Boycott Summit - Immokalee, FL: September 22-25, 2016
• Lucas Plan 40th Anniversary - November 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Finish line in sight in campaign to cap refinery emissions – By Steve Nadel, The Yodeler, August 3, 2016
• Canada needs further rail safety reforms – By staff, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, July 29, 2016
• “When an oil spill happens…that creates jobs”: Duck washers wanted – By Brett VandenHeuvel, Columbia Riverkeeper, July 29, 2016

Just Transition:

• Bullfrog Power joins oilsands workers in bringing green jobs to Newfoundland and Labrador – By Lyndsey Easton, Iron and Earth, August 8, 2016
• WSF Montreal: Record Union Participation, a Big Step for Both Labor and Social Movements – By Sean Sweeney, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, August 5, 2016
• Latrobe Valley vision for a Just Transition – By staff, Yes 2 Renewables, August 4, 2016
• How Electrifying Railroads Could Help Us Transition from Fossil Fuels and Power Rural Economies – By Bill Moyer, In These Times, August 2, 2016
• Renewfoundland – By Adam Cormier, Iron and Earth, August 2, 2016
• The NY Times Got It Wrong: Renewable Energy Is Key to Fighting Climate Change – By Noah Long and Kevin Steinberger, EcoWatch, August 1, 2016
• Weighing Carbon WA’s Tax Swap Ballot Initiative – By Kristin Eberhard and Alan Durning, Sightline Institute, August 1, 2016
• In Conversation: Communities and Infrastructure in a 100% Renewable World – By Daniel Lerch, Warren Karlenzig, Hillary Brown, Post Carbon Institute, July 30, 2016
• Energy Voices Radio Show: Energy Systems in Transition – By Kali Taylor, Student Energy, July 26, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Monsanto in India: Meet the New Boss – Same as the Old Boss? – By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, August 4, 2016; [related]: Holdi ng Monsanto to account: the People's Tribunal – By Heidi Chow, The Ecologist, August 4, 2016
• Via Campesina will join 2016 World Social Forum to strengthen and advance food sovereignty and peasants’ rights – By Carlos Marentes, et. al., La Via Campesina, August 4, 2016
• National Farm Worker Ministry endorses Wendy’s Boycott! – By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, August 3, 2016
• Towards a People’s Food Policy – By staff, Landworkers Alliance, August 3, 2016
• Update of our work with the European Coordination of Via Campesina – By Jyoti Fernandes, Landworkers Alliance, August 3, 2016
• GMO Wheat Found in Washington State Could Hurt US Trade – By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 1, 2016
• Why farmworkers are dying from extreme heat – By Nathanael Johnson, Grist, August 1, 2016
• Grass-Fed Nation – By Megan Perry, Sustainable Food Trust, July 29, 2016
• Avoid ‘miracle’ rice, just eat a carrot! – By Vandana Shiva, Asian Age, July 15, 2016
• ‘I will never give up my land’ – By Máxima Acuña, New Internationalist, July 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Don’t Forget The Construction Workers Who Died Making The Rio Olympics Happen – By Joaquim Moreira Salles, Think Progress, August 5, 2016
• Glencore halts Zambia copper production after mine deaths – By Amelia Martyn-Hemphill, Mining.Com, August 5, 2016
• These workers claimed their workplace was unsafe. Then their employer fired them – By Bob Barnetson, Rabble.Ca, August 5, 2016
• Toxic Vapors Discovered Inside Oakland School – By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, August 5, 2016
• Break the silence on Azerbaijan oil workers’ deaths – By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, August 4, 2016; [related]: It’s “oil first, people second”, just like in Soviet times – Mirvari Gahramanli interviewed by Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, August 4, 2016
• Global protests erupt against British mining company Vedanta – By Miriam Rose, New Internationalist, August 4, 2016
• Illegal Lockout Drags On in Clarksburg – By staff, Appalachian Workers Alliance, August 4, 2016
• Widespread workplace violations leave workers without basic rights, report finds – By Teuila Fuatai, Rabble.Ca, August 3, 2016
• Federal report slams Tesoro for failing basic safety protocols – By Associated Press, FuelFix, August 2, 2016
• Exclusive: Emails Reveal University of Glasgow's Attempt to ‘Silence’ Emeritus Prof Smythe Over His Views on Fracking – By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 1, 2016

Wobbles:

• Activist Locks to Barrels and Halts Logging in Klamath – By Klamath Forest Defenders, Earth First! Newswire, August 5, 2016
• Blockade of Imperial Metals 2 year anniversary; land defender injured by vehicle – By staff, Ancestral Pride, August 5, 2016; [related]: Secwepemc Indigenous Land Defenders Blockade Route to Mt. Polley Mine – By staff, It’s Going Down, August 4, 2016
• Dublin Bus drivers mightn't go on strike but instead take 'no fares' from commuters – By Rónán Duffy, TheJournal.ie, August 5, 2016
• Olympic Athletes: We Must Not Break the 1.5C Record – By Climate Nexus, EcoWatch, August 4, 2016; [related]: Olympians in Rio campaign for climate action – By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 4, 2016 | Rio Olympics: don’t break 1.5C record, say athletes – By Megan Darby, Climate Change News, August 3, 2016
• Passionate movement for public power is pushing back against hydro privatization – By Linda McQuaig, Rabble.Ca, August 4, 2016
• Three Short Films Showcase Power of Indigenous Struggles for Justice in Southeast Mexico – By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 4, 2016
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution in Philly for the DNC – By Cat April Watters, Hot Indie News, August 1, 2016
• The Movement for Black Lives calls for fossil fuel divestment – By Aura Bogado, Grist, August 1, 2016
• Disrupting Uber – By Vic Vaiana, Jacobin, July 31, 2016
• Idle No More movement continues – By Krystalline Kraus, Rabble.Ca, July 31, 2016

Other News:

• The Power of Indigenous Activists at the Summit of the Climate Justice Movement – By John Foran, Huffington Post, August 4, 2016
• Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin – Reviewed by Simon Butler, Climate and Capitalism, August 1, 2016
• DIY System Change – By Stephanie Rearick, Grassroots Economic Organizing, July 27, 2016

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.