greenwashing

By Brian Joseph - Fair Warning, April 12, 2016

Darkness had enveloped the Newell Recycling yard by the time Erik Hilario climbed into a front-end loader on a cold evening in January 2011. Just 19 years old, Hilario, an undocumented immigrant, had followed his father from Mexico to an industrial park in East Point, Ga., near Atlanta, where they worked as low-skilled laborers amid jagged piles of scrap metal bound for the smelter.

Hilario drove to a paved section of the nine-acre yard known as the defueling or car-processing area. Here, according to witnesses in a court case, gasoline was removed from junked cars through a crude process employing a 30-foot crane and a long spike welded atop a metal trough. A claw attached to the crane would pick up cars and smash them, gas-tank first, onto the spike, spilling gasoline into the trough. The crane then would swing the cars across the pavement and drop them onto a pile, dripping gas along the way. Hilario was using the loader – which Newell later would say he was not trained or authorized to operate – to scrape up bits of metal left behind.

Hilario was slowly pushing the scraps into a pile when an intense fire suddenly engulfed him. A spark had ignited gasoline on the ground. “Help me!” he screamed, co-workers later testified in the case.

A green industry

Recycling may be good for the environment, but working conditions in the industry can be woeful. Recycling encompasses a wide range of businesses, from tiny drop-off centers operating out of strip malls and parking lots, to sprawling scrapyards and cavernous sorting plants, where cardboard, plastic and metal destined for places like China and Turkey are separated. The recycling industry also includes collection services, composting plants and e-waste and oil recovery centers. Some of these jobs rank among the most dangerous in America. Others offer meager pay, and minimum wage violations are widespread. Experts say much of the work is carried out by immigrants or temporary workers who are unaware of their rights or are poorly trained.

“These are not good jobs,” said Jackie Cornejo, former director of Don’t Waste LA, a campaign to improve the working conditions and pay for workers in the Los Angeles municipal waste and recycling industries. “People only hear about the feel-good aspects of recycling and zero waste, and rarely do they hear about the other side,” she said.

Despite its virtuous image as one of the original green industries, recycling is dirty, labor-intensive work. It involves loud, heavy machinery, including semis, forklifts, conveyor belts, loaders, cranes, shredders and grinders, all of which pose a serious threat to life and limb, especially if they’re not properly serviced or lack basic safety features, which is often the case at recycling firms. Unlike manufacturing, recycling cannot be completely systematized because it depends on an ever-changing flow of recyclable materials that come in all manner of shapes and sizes. This can require recycling workers to personally handle most of the scrap passing through a facility, potentially exposing them to carcinogens, explosives or toxics, to say nothing of sharp objects.

Exposures are especially problematic at e-scrap and battery recycling facilities, where the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has found workers with elevated levels of lead in their blood or on their skin.

In one case in Ohio, the high lead levels in the blood of a young brother and sister were traced to the work performed by their father, a former e-scrap recycling worker who crushed cathode ray tubes. The father didn’t wear any protective gear at work and often came home with dust in his hair. High lead levels also were found in the children of workers at a battery recycling plant in Puerto Rico.

While major corporations like Waste Management are in the recycling business, many of the companies that do this work are small, which can mean they lack the knowledge and resources to establish effective safety procedures. Recycling workers, by virtue of their immigration status or status as temps, often hesitate to speak up when they see hazards on the job or are victimized by the outright illegal behavior of their supervisors.

One of the largest sectors in recycling, scrapyards, has long had high fatality and injury rates. In 2014, for example, that sector’s fatality rate was 20.8 deaths per every full-time 100,000 workers, more than nine times higher than manufacturing workers overall. That same year, garbage and recycling collectors had the fifth-highest fatality rate among the dozens of occupations analyzed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

No one tracks how many workers die across all recycling sectors. But at scrapyards and sorting plants, at least 313 recycling workers have been killed on the job from 2003 to 2014, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A FairWarning analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration records found that inspections conducted from 2005 to 2014 resulted with scrapyards and sorting facilities receiving about 80 percent more citations than the average inspected worksite.

Industry leaders and safety consultants say it’s no secret that recycling firms have to do a better job of following basic safety procedures, like installing guarding on conveyor belts or properly shutting off machines before maintenance. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a trade association, recently announced that it is partnering with OSHA to try to reduce injury and fatality rates.

OSHA has limited resources, especially given the sheer number of worksites it oversees. The AFL-CIO calculates that with current staffing levels federal OSHA can only inspect worksites once, on average, every 140 years.

“Systematically, across the country, (OSHA officials) haven’t given the industry the attention it’s due,” said Eric Frumin, the health and safety coordinator for Change to Win, a partnership of four national unions. Although OSHA says that five of its 10 regions have special enforcement programs covering sectors of the recycling industry, safety advocates say it isn’t enough. They are lobbying the agency to create a national program aimed at sorting plants, where recyclables like metal, paper and plastic are separated. “It’s a low end of the economy,” Frumin said. “We’ve shipped all the factory jobs to China, so what is the modern-day equivalent of dirty, dangerous factory jobs? Warehouses and recycling plants.”

By Nashieeli Valencia Nuñez - People and Planet, April 18, 2016

The NUS represents 7 million students and passes policy at their annual conference. In collaboration with the Zapotec Indigenous community, UK students from the University West of Scotland and beyond are proposing an amendment to the Divest-Invest motion (502b) to support a just transition to renewable energy that does not reproduce the colonial models of extraction employed by the fossil fuel industry. Please act on their call for our solidarity.

To the National Union of Students
To all students in the UK

Dear friends,

I’m writing to you from my hometown, the Zapotec Indigenous community of Ixtepec, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico.

Our community is currently setting up a community-controlled wind farm in collaboration with Yansa, a non-profit that has been supporting our struggle. The wind project will be a tool for community development.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 12, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Bernie Sanders is Right: Regulation Isn’t Enough, We Need to Ban Fracking - By Deborah Burger, Common Dreams, April 7, 2016
• Changing Everything - By Steven Gorelick, Counterpunch, April 7, 2016
• Martin Luther King Was Assassinated On (April 4) in 1968—While Fighting For Unions - By Peter Cole, In These Times, April 4, 2016
• The Panama Papers Could Lead to Capitalism’s Great Crisis - By Rana Foroohar, Time, April 4, 2016
• The Dammed of the Earth: The Deadly Impact of Mega Hydroelectric Projects in Latin America - By Sian Cowman and Philippa de Boissière, Dorset Chiapas Solidarity, April 3, 2016
• Gas Pipeline Resisters [including IWW members] Arrested, Held for Outrageous Bail - By Anne Meador, DC Media Group, March 31, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Earth Day to May Day! - April 22-May 1, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Thin Green Line: Victories and Challenges (audio) - By Keiko Budech, Sightline Institute, April 7, 2016

Just Transition:

• Organizers 'heartened' by NDP's adopted Leap Manifesto resolution - By Various, Rabble.Ca, April 11, 2016
• Imagining a new post office for the post-carbon economy (audio) - By Redeye Collective, Rabble.Ca, April 9, 2016  
• THANK YOU!!! - By Iron and Earth, Iron and Earth, April 7, 2016
• Oakland Police and Fire Pension Considers Fossil Fuel Divestment - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, April 6, 2016
• COAL: the Vagina Monologues of climate change - By Veena Vasista, Transformation, April 4, 2016
• I have seen the techno-future, and I’m not so sure it works - By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, April 4, 2016
• Oilsands workers for renewable energy - By Sheelagh Matthews, Western Wheel, March 30, 2016
• Considering Just Transition in an Australian Context - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, March 28, 2016
• Solar Skills Press Conference Audio (audio) - By Devin Tepleski, Iron and Earth, March 21, 2016
• Doubling Today’s Share of Renewables will Create 24 Million Jobs, Boost GDP by $1.3 Trillion and Save 4 Million Lives a Year - By Ilario D'Amato, The Climate Group, March 17, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Capitalism And Global Agribusiness: From Ford To Monsanto, It’s For Your Own Good - By Colin Todhunter, Counterpunch, April 11, 2016
• Familias Unidas at Labor Notes Conference in Chicago, IL - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 11, 2016
• MST: Call for International Mobilizations on April 15 - By MST, La Via Campesina, April 11, 2016
• Oakland and Watsonville Supporters Take Action to Support Farm Workers - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 10, 2016
• Military police and gunmen attack Landless families, murder two workers - By MST, La Via Campesina, April 8, 2016
• Freedom Network, national leader in fight against modern-day slavery, makes its voice heard in Wendy’s Month of Outrage! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 7, 2016
• Patrick Holden: 'cheap' food is costing the Earth, and our health - By Emily Lewis-Brown, The Ecologist, April 7, 2016
• La Via Campesina organizes the International Conference of Agrarian Reform in Brazil - By Viviana Rojas Flores, La Via Campesina, April 6, 2016
• Monsanto's Evil Twin: Disturbing Facts About the Fertilizer Industry - By Martha Rosenberg and Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association, April 6, 2016
• Urgent: Campaign for remission of Andrés Bódalo's sentence - By Union of Agricultural Workers-Union of Andalusian Workers, La Via Campesina, April 5, 2016
• Agriculture on the Brink - By Dahr Jamail, Truthout, April 4, 2016
• CIW, Florida allies kick off “Month of Outrage” in Naples! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 4, 2016
• Criminalizing farmers' activism in Colombia - By Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, Rabble.Ca, April 4, 2016
• Two books that swim against the tide - By Sarah Ensor, International Socialism, April 4, 2016
• When there is an advance in food sovereignty in one part of the world, our entire movement advances - By Staff, La Via Campesina, April 4, 2016
• EPA Set to Approve Use of Toxic Pesticide Dicamba for Newest GE Crops - By Nathan Donley, Center for Biological Diversity, April 1, 2016
• Whole Foods Gets Educated on Driscoll's Berry Boycott - By R. Robertson, Indybay, March 31, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 4, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Fueling Fascism: The Secret History of How Texaco Supplied Oil to Fascists in Spain - Adam Hochschild interviewed by Nermeen Shaikh and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 31, 2016
• Reframing The Economics Debate Could Lead To More Action To Fight Climate Change - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, March 30, 2016
• Recycling is important: and recycling workers deserve better conditions - By Gail Bateson and Barbara Rahke, ILWU Dispatcher, March 29, 2016
• Death of a Shale Gas Salesman - By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, March 28, 2016
• Cuba’s sustainable agriculture at risk in U.S. thaw - By Miguel Altieri, The Conversation, March 25, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Earth Day to May Day! - April 22-May 1, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Big Oil’s time running out at the Port of Vancouver? We hope so - By Dan Serres, Colombia Riverkeeper, April 2, 2016
• FERC Denies Jordan Cove LNG! Oregon LNG: You’re Next! - By Dan Serres, Colombia Riverkeeper, April 2, 2016
• Your Call: Utah coal stirs up concerns in Oakland - By Laura Flynn, KALW 91.7 FM, March 29, 2016

Just Transition:

• Canada: Leap Manifesto unites broad forces, builds climate justice campaigns - By John Riddell, Climate and Capitalism, April 3, 2016
• Catching The Sun: Documentary Highlights Link Between Solar Energy And American Job Creation - By Alex Kotch, DeSmog Blog, April 3, 2016
• New investments bring ray of hope for Winnipeg Transit - By Lynne Fernandez, Rabble.Ca, March 31, 2016
• Study: ‘Quiet recreation’ brings in $173 million, employs more than 1,700 - By Rebecca Moss, Santa Fe New Mexican, March 31, 2016
• 568,979 Clean Energy Workers In Midwest (2016 Survey) - By Jake Richardson, Clean Technica, March 30, 2016
• 2.5 Million Americans Work In Clean Energy (Report) - By Jake Richardson, Clean Technica, March 30, 2016
• Report: Re-Member-ing the Electric Cooperative - By John Farrell, Matt Grimley & Nick Stumo-Langer, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 29, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• First union of agricultural women workers launched in Pakistan - By Staff, International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations, April 2, 2016
• Berry Farmworkers Toil 12 Hours A Day For $6. Now They’re Demanding a Raise - By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, Think Progress, April 1, 2016
• Honoring Cesar E. Chavez’ Legacy - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 1, 2016
• Hunger pangs of starving farmers met by a barrage of bullets - By Zeph Repollo, 350.Org, April 1, 2016; [related] 3 dead, 87 missing, 116 hurt as police fire on Cotabato human barricade - By Jeff Caparas, InterAksyon.com, April 1, 2016
• Boycott Driscoll’s West Coast Tour at Driscoll’s HQ in Watsonville - By Bradley Allen, Bradley Allen, March 31, 2016
• “Wendy’s has lost my respect as well as my patronage…” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 31, 2016
• 5 Million Nigerians Oppose Monsanto’s Plans to Introduce GMO Cotton and Corn - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, March 29, 2016
• Global Agribusiness, Dependency and the Marginalisation of Self-Sufficiency, Organic Farming and Agroecology - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, March 29, 2016
• HC&S sugar plantation in Hawaii to close - By Staff, ILWU Dispatcher, March 29, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Biotech Tree Company ArborGen Settles with Defrauded Employees - By Staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, April 1, 2016
• In Coal Blood: Feds Seek Maximum Sentence for Don Blankenship - By Russell Mokhiber, CounterPunch, March 30, 2016
• The Assassinations of Honduran Activists: Where Are the Roots of the Violence? - By Staff, Peaceful Uprising, March 29, 2016
• Averting Thousands of Vehicle Exhaust Deaths - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, March 29, 2016
• Thousands of Peru Mineworkers Struggle for Decent Work - By Oscar Muro, AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, March 29, 2016
• Malibu Toxic Schools Case Clears Hurdle for Trial - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, March 28, 2016

By Dan Fischer - Capitalism vs. the Climate, March 29, 2016

Fracked-gas pipeline projects and power plants receive stamp after stamp of approval from governor Dannel “Methane” Malloy. With such a friend of fracking in power, gas companies are in paradise. Welcome to CH₄ Connecticut!

CH₄—that’s scientific shorthand for methane, the climate-cooking main component of natural gas. It’s made of one atom of carbon and four of hydrogen. Malloy has known the substance is deadly since at least 2010, when he travelled across the state campaigning to be governor. That February, a gas plant exploded in Middletown, killing six workers and injuring dozens. “As towering plumes of dark smoke poured into a dazzling blue sky, scores of ambulances, fire engines, police cars and helicopters streamed to the scene on the west bank of the Connecticut River,” the New York Times reported.

For some, that deadly explosion may have been a wake-up call, but drowsy Dannel hit the snooze button. Once elected, Malloy went ahead with his plan to vastly expand gas infrastructure, despite these projects being backyard bombs and greenhouse-gas grenades. In 2013, Malloy signed into law the Comprehensive Energy Strategy, committing the state government to “expanding natural gas across Connecticut,” in the executive summary’s words. In 2015, Malloy signed Senate Bill 1078, making ratepayers pay subsidies to corporations expanding gas pipelines.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 29, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Jerry Brown celebrates World Water Day as he promotes salmon-killing tunnels - By Dan Bacher, Red Green & Blue, March 25, 2016
• How Montanans stopped the largest new coal mine in North America - By Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence, March 24, 2016
• Rail Workers: Deadly Tired…but Still Working - By Georgetta Gregory, NTSB Safety Compass, March 21, 2016
• Time to stop new oil leases off coast - By Anne Rolfes and Cherri Foytlin, The Advocate, March 21, 2016
• How Women-Led Movements Are Redefining Power, From California to Nepal - By Rucha Chitnis, Yes! Magazine, March 8, 2016
• Against Activism - By Astra Taylor, The Baffler, Spring 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Earth Day to May Day! - April 22-May 1, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• Proposed Oakland Shipping Terminal Stirs Health, Environmental Concerns Over Coal - Darwin BondGraham and Jessica Yarnall Loarie interviewed by Mina Kim, KQED 88.1 FM, March 25, 2016
• Updates on the campaign to stop coal exports through Oakland - By Brittany King, Sierra Club Yodeler, March 23, 2016
• Utah Governor Signs Bill to Advance Oakland Coal Plan - By Ted Goldberg, KQED News, March 22, 2016

Just Transition:

• Pilgrim critics offer their take on the pending plant closure - By Frank Mand, Wicked Local Plymouth, March 25, 2016
• Contra Costa votes ‘Yes’ to Community Choice - By Carol Weed, Sierra Club Yodeler, March 23, 2016
• India Solar Power Push May Produce Over 1 Million Jobs - By Smiti Mittal, Clean Technica, March 23, 2016
• The Unsexy Climate Solution That's a Total No-Brainer - By Jimmy Thomson, DeSmog Canada, March 23, 2016
• World Water Day 2016: Louisiana, Water and Coastal Restoration Jobs - By Emily McCalla, Restore The Mississippi River Delta, March 22, 2016
• From Whaling to Whale Watching: SCCF Gets a First-Hand Look at the Green Transition in Action - By Diane Beckett, Sierra Club Canada, March 8, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• April declared “Month of Outrage” in national Wendy’s Boycott! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 28, 2016
• Monsanto vs Indian Farmers - By Dr Vandana Shiva, Dr Vandana Shiva, March 27, 2016
• Final media round-up from Workers’ Voice Tour! News of Wendy’s boycott spreads far and wide… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 26, 2016
• Carbon Farming: Hope for a Hot Planet - By Brian Barth, Modern Farmer, March 25, 2016
• Interview of Ramon Torres regarding PCC - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 24, 2016
• Position of the La Via Campesina in Honduras against the increasing criminalisation of the peasant and indigenous social struggle - By La Via Campesina Honduras, La Via Campesina, March 22, 2016
• Strawberries! Get your Fair Food Program strawberries here!… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 22, 2016
• Selling TPP as the Farm Economy Drops off a Cliff - By Ben Lilliston, CommonDreams, March 21, 2016

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Full #SolidariTea to the #JuniorDoctors - By admin, A Green Trade Unionist in Bristol, March 28, 2016
• ArborGen workers take confidential settlement over $53M verdict in compensation case - By David Wren, Post and Courier, March 24, 2016
• Callaway Residents Still Can't Go Home After Train-Truck Crash - By Jennie Lissarrague, KSTP TV (ABC 5), March 24, 2016
• Forty-two years later, OSHA OKs rule protecting workers from silica - By Jamie Smith Hopkins, Center for Public Integrity, March 24, 2016; [related] OSHA issues final silica rule - By Emily Peiffer, Construction Dive, March 24, 2016
• Largest U.S. Restaurant Company Targeted Over Treatment of Workers, Animals, Environment - By Stephanie Feldstein, et. al., Center for Biological Diversity, et. al., March 24, 2016
• 105 Years Later, Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - By Kyle Sturmann, Washington Square News, March 24, 2016
• The verdict is in: Bundy-inspired bill would endanger our park rangers - By Aaron Weiss, Center for Western Priorities, March 24, 2016
• Berta Cáceres: "To Fight Against Repression in Honduras Is to Fight for Our Whole Continent" - By Beverly Bell, Other Worlds, March 23, 2016; [related] Gustavo Castro Soto and the Rigged Investigation into Berta Cáceres’ Assassination - By Beverly Bell, CounterPunch, March 22, 2016
• International Mission ‘Justice for Berta Cáceres’ expresses its concern in relation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - By La Esperanza, World Rainforest Movement, March 23, 2016
• Grand Rapids Police Intimidating, Threatening to Arrest Students, Workers - By Staff, United Students Against Sweatshops, March 23, 2016
• OSHA’s New Severe Injury Reporting Requirement: One Year In - By Staff, National Nurses United, March 23, 2016
• Fukushima Radiation: a Killer - By Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, March 22, 2016
• Supreme Court Hands A Major Victory To Workers Who Were Stiffed On Overtime Pay - By Cristian Farias and Dave Jamieson, Huffington Post, March 22, 2016
• Why Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated - By Redeye Collective, Rabble.Ca, March 21, 2016
• Compensation program for sick nuclear workers plagued by problems, ombudsman finds - By Jamie Smith Hopkins, Center for Public Integrity, March 21, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 22, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Jobless oilsands workers look to alternative energy - By Staff, CBC News, March 21, 2016; [related]: Former oil sands workers eye renewables market - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.com, March 21, 2016
• Slain Activist Berta Cáceres' Daughter: US Military Aid Has Fueled Repression & Violence in Honduras - Bertha Isabel Zúniga Cáceres and Lilian Esperanza López Benítez interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 18, 2016
• Koide Hiroaki: an insider's exposé of the Fukushima nuclear disaster - By Katsuya Hirano & Hirotaka Kasai, The Ecologist, March 17, 2016
• Unhealthy environments kill 12.6 million a year - World Health Organization News Release, Climate and Capitalism, March 15, 2016
• Bill Gates' Nuclear Pipe Dream: Convert Depleted Uranium to Plutonium to Power Earth for Centuries - By Josh Cunnings and Emerson Urry, Enviro News TV, March 14, 2016
• An Army of Ocean Farmers: On the Frontlines of the Blue-Green Economic Revolution - By Bren Smith, In These Times, February 26, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Earth Day to May Day! - April 22-May 1, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Senator Versus Coal - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, March 16, 2016; [related] Coal = Death! No Coal Trains to Oakland! - By Staff, Speak Out Now, March 16, 2016
• 25 Michigan Communities, Four Tribes Pass a Resolution to Stop the Oil Flowing through Enbridge’s Line 5 Pipelines in the Mackinac Straits - By Mariah Urueta, Joanne Cromley, and Kelly Thayer, Indigenous Environmental Network, March 15, 2016
• The West Coast Is the World’s 5th Largest Economy. Can It Unite to Stop Big Oil? - By Arun Gupta, Yes! Magazine, March 3, 2016

Just Transition:

• The executives [and workers] leaving oil and gas behind for jobs in clean energy - By Cassie Werber, Quartz, March 15, 2016
• Renewables can diversify Montana’s energy economy - By Jeff Fox, The Missoulian, March 15, 2016 
• OIL TAX FACTS: Dispelling North Sea Oil Myths - By Greg Muttitt, Oil Change International, March 14, 2016
• Rewiring Energy: The renewable power grid envisioned - By Patrick Mazza, Cascadia Planet, March 12, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Federal Budget 2016: The NFU’s Recommendations - By Jan Slomp and Hilary Moore, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Landworkers’ Alliance joins the Farming to London march - By Ed Hamer and Adam Payne, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• San Diego and Imperial Labor Councils Vote to Sanction the Driscoll’s and Sakuma Boycott - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 18, 2016
• “We are under an institutional dictatorship in Honduras” - By Real World Radio, La Via Campesina, March 18, 2016
• Court Ruling a Victory for Mexico Farmers and Anti-GMO Activists - By Mercedes López Martínez and Ercilia, Organic Consumers Association, March 16, 2016
• Farmworkers in Mexico, Facing Human Rights Abuses, Prepare to March in Protest - By Griselda San Martin, Transborder Media, March 16, 2016
• Sakuma Farmworkers Depart on Month Long Tour to Promote Driscoll’s Boycott; Press Conference Outside Sakuma Processing Plant to Begin Tour - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 16, 2016
• Trump’s Tomatoes - By Andrew Cockburn, Harpers, March 16, 2016
• Wendy’s spokesperson Bob Bertini: “We take all human rights and labor practices issues seriously and expect the same from our suppliers…” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 16, 2016
• With its latest measures the EU Council mocks milk producers - By Jose Miguel Pacheco Goncalves, et. al., La Via Campesina, March 16, 2016
• Farm Workers in Two Countries Boycott Driscoll’s Berries - By David Bacon, The Progressive, March 14, 2016
• “If you’re going to make an impression, come to the place where the chairman is on holiday”… - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 14, 2016
• Farmworkers protest by home of Wendy's billionaire chairman - By Staff, CBS News, March 13, 2016
• Francisca Ramirez, a Leader in the Struggle to Stop the Nicaragua Canal Project - By Arlen Cerda, Havana Times, March 12, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 15, 2016

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

Lead Stories:

• Letter to U.S. Sec. of State Kerry Condemning the Honduran Assassination of Berta Caceras - By Various, Family Farm Defenders, March 12, 2016
• A Current Longshore Battle Shows that the NLRB Is Not a Friend of Organized Labor - By Joe Burns, In These Times, March 11, 2016
• Assassination of Berta Cáceres sparks outrage - By Raul Burbano, Rabble.Ca, March 7, 2016
• Poisoned, Marginalised, Bankrupt and Dead - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, March 7, 2016
• Ten-second procedure might have averted Lac-Mégantic disaster - By Grant Robertson, Toronto Globe and Mail, March 7, 2016
• Today's Slaves Often Work For Enterprises That Destroy The Environment - By Kevin Bales, NPR, January 27, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

• Appalachia Resist: Regional Action Camp for Social & Environmental Justice - March 18-21
• Break Free 2016 - May 2016
• Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
• Earth Day to May Day! - April 22-May 1, 2016
• Flush the TPP - Spring 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
• March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
• 2016 Labor Notes Conference - April 1-4, 2016

The Thin Green Line:

• The Vermont gas pipeline: where do we go from here? - By Staff, Rising Tide Vermont, February 1, 2016

Just Transition:

• Clocking off: Can Wales’ steel heartland survive in a greener world? - By Alex Pashley, Climate Change News, March 10, 2016
• How many jobs do wind farms create? - By Guest, Clean Energy Footprints, March 9, 2016
• Change is in the air - By David Suzuki, Rabble.Ca, March 8, 2016
• Just How Democratic Are Rural Electric Cooperatives? - By John Farrell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, March 7, 2016
• A Campaign to Demand Canada Post Deliver A New Green Economy - Katie McKenna and Mike Palecek interviewed by Nadia Kanji, The Real News Network, March 6, 2016

Bread and Roses:

• Support the Berrypickers Union!: March 18th & 19th - By Maralena, Rising Tide Portland, March 13, 2016
• Familias Unidas por la Justicia Newsletter - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, March 12, 2016
• Wendy’s Boycott wins key court battle for right to protest today in Palm Beach as Workers’ Voice Tour rolls into Florida with triumphant Day 9 action in Gainesville! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 12, 2016
• Day Six: The Mid- South stands up for Fair Food! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 10, 2016
• Review: Farmageddon, The True Cost of Cheap Meat - By Martin Empson, Climate and Capitalism, March 10, 2016
• The farm that grows climate solutions - By Eric Toensmeier, Ensia, March 9, 2016
• Union of Agricultural Work Committees' Statement on the occasion of March 8th; International Women's Day - By Staff, La Via Campesina, March 9, 2016
• Violence on the Factory Farm: How Not to Feed the World - By Colin Todhunter, Counterpunch, March 9, 2016
• “We are not tied down by slavery… we are embraced by freedom.” - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 9, 2016
• West African Caravan for Land, Water and peasant seeds - By Staff, La Via Campesina, March 9, 2016
• Internationally Recognized Rights Defender Berta Cáceres Murdered in Honduras - By Shannon Young, Truthout, March 7, 2016
• Wendy’s Boycott takes Columbus by storm! - By Staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, March 7, 2016
• Food, hunger, health, and climate change - By Alistair Woodwardemail and John R Porter, The Lancet, March 2, 2016