green unionism

By Pete Dolack - CounterPunch, December 16, 2016

By Colin Todhunter - CounterPunch, December 12, 2016

By William Andrews - CounterPunch, December 15, 2016

Labor activists have protested the reopening this month of a railway line in parts of northeast Japan where they believe radiation levels are still dangerous.

The Joban Line runs from Nippori Station in Tokyo to Iwanuma Station, just south of Sendai City. It is one of main connections between northeast Tokyo’s major station of Ueno up along the coast through Chiba, Ibaraki and Miyagi prefectures.

This region was severely damaged by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th, 2011, while the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster meant that large areas through which trains pass were contaminated by radiation.

The Joban Line was directly hit by the massive tsunami wave in 2011, sweeping train carriages away. Though parts of the line were quickly reopened that same year, two sections of the line—between Tatsuta and Odaka stations, and between Soma and Hamayoshida—remained closed, with passengers served by buses for some of the stations.

However, the operator, East Japan Railway Company (JR East), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, have been keen to reopen the whole line as part of the northeast Japan reconstruction efforts. The Joban Line represents a valuable source of income from both passengers traveling between Sendai and Tokyo as well as freight.

Following decontamination measures, rail services resumed from Iwaki to Tatsuta in late 2014. However, north of Tatsuta lies the areas located within a 20km radius of the devastated Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which is widely considered a no-go zone.

In July this year, JR East resumed services on the 9.4-kilometer stretch between Odaka and Haranomachi stations as the evacuation order was lifted for the southern part of Minamisoma City, though few residents are willing to return to a community so close to the contaminated area. Media reports suggest only 10-20% are coming back to live in the area.

On December 10th, the previously closed 23.2-kilometer northern section of line between Soma and Hamayoshida reopened for rail services. It means passengers will now be served by a further six stations on the section, though three of these (Shinchi, Yamashita and Sakamoto stations) had to be relocated inland by up to 1.1 kilometers as an anti-tsunami measure. Along with the construction of elevated tracks, the total cost of the latest reopening is said to be 40 billion yen ($350 million).

By spring 2017, the line will be reopened between Namie and Odaka, and then later in the year between Tatsuta and Tomioka. The final section linking Tomioka and Namie, passing through somewhat infamous areas like Futaba, is set to reopen by the end of fiscal 2019 (end of March 2020).

Local tourist bodies are naturally delighted and are pulling out all the stops to attract people. At the newly reopened stations, passengers are able to buy commemorative tickets, take hiking trips, and even try on historical armor.

By Sophia Burns - The North Star, December 15, 2016

One summer in college, I got a job canvassing for Greenpeace. We spent the morning getting pumped up by our supervisor about how we were really going to make a difference, then spent the afternoon on the sidewalk downtown asking passers-by for donations. As new hires, we had three probationary days to “make staff”: anyone who didn’t meet the quota would not be kept on, and those who did would be fired if they didn’t continue to deliver.

Every Monday, a new crop of fifteen or so recruits showed up. A week later, all but two or three would be gone. Almost nobody lasted more than a month. There was no union, the training wage was lower than the advertised staff wage, and the large bulk of the money we raised was brought in by trainees who never made staff.

While few nonprofit workplaces have conditions quite so extreme, low pay and long hours are par for the course at most NGOs. Union density in the field is quite low, and many nonprofits expect their employees to accept the conditions they impose in the name of “the mission” and a “nonprofit ethic” of selfless service. Often, members of the activist community see nonprofit jobs as very desirable – a chance to make a living by living their values and to do progressive organizing full-time. And, indeed, on-the-ground progressive politics frequently depends on the resources NGOs offer, including funding, legal infrastructure, and staffers’ time and labor. Certainly, when I worked for Greenpeace, few canvassers complained about the draconian quotas or extreme precarity – at any given time, any given worker would more likely than not be fired within a week, but we were “doing something real.” In comparison, retail didn’t seem to cut it.

Our jobs may have been precarious, but Greenpeace’s funding was not. While Greenpeace does not accept government or corporate contributions, most NGOs do, as well as foundation grants and individual “membership” donations. “Member,” of course, is an ambiguous word. A member of a book club will generally get to help choose the next book, and a member of a labor union will (in theory, at least) get to vote in internal elections and on contracts. However, a “member” of an advocacy group like Greenpeace donates money and doesn’t do a whole lot else. As a canvasser, I certainly wasn’t voting for candidates for the Board of Directors. Neither were the “members” I was signing up. And while Greenpeace is typical of policy-focused nonprofits in that it claims to speak for a broad constituency, it’s also typical in that those constituents don’t really get a say in the organizational and political decisions that determine the group’s activities. For most nonprofits, “joining” means donating (and occasionally receiving a mailer asking for even more donations).

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

News of interest to green unionists:

Canada's Diavik mine axes 51 jobs - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, November 30, 2016 - Diavik Diamond Mines, the company that runs the iconic operation of the same name in Canada's Northwest Territories, has axed 51 jobs due to what the firm called “challenging” market conditions, CBC News reported.

Despite Mass Protests, Constitutional Amendment to Freeze Public Expenditures for Two Decades in Brazil May Pass on December 13 - By Nour El-Youssef, RioonWatch, December 5, 2016 - On Tuesday, November 29 protests erupted outside Brazil’s Congress in Brasília as the Senate approved a proposal to amend the constitution that would authorize the implementation of harsh austerity measures. If passed, the proposal put forward by Brazilian Interim President Michel Temer will establish a low ceiling on all federal government expenditures for the next twenty years. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators, including teachers, students, public workers and landless laborers, voiced dissent and pressured Congress to vote against the proposal. Three cars were set on fire, and police used teargas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

Donald Trump Taps Billionaire Who Owned Deadly Coal Mine For Commerce Secretary - Alexander C. Kaufman, Huffington Post, November 17, 2016 - After Wilbur Ross sold the coal company in 2011, its new owners laid off hundreds of workers.

EU vote signals a Fossil Free future for workplace pension funds - By staff, Fossil Free, November 30, 2016 - EU institutions have reached a deal on a reform of the IORPs (Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision) Directive that affects workplace pension funds holding assets worth EUR 3.2 trillion on behalf of around 75 million citizens of the Union.

Explosion in Chinese coal mine leaves 32 dead - By Andrew Topf, Mining.Com, December 4, 2016 - Thirty-two miners were killed in a gas explosion that ripped through a coal mine in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia on Saturday. Of 181 miners working underground in the mine operated by Baoma Mining, 149 survived, said Xinhua via South China Morning Post.

The Fashion Revolution: Turn to the left - Bryony Moore, Red Pepper, November 2016 - The collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in April 2013 shocked the world. The building had been illegally extended and on 24 April the whole thing collapsed; 1,138 garment workers lost their lives and hundreds more were left with injuries that rendered them incapable of returning to work.

Guards' strike and drivers' action hit Southern rail but bosses run to the courts - By Raymie Kiernan, Socialist Worker, December 6, 2016 - Southern rail was hit by a three-day train guards’ strike and a drivers’ overtime ban from Tuesday of this week.

Healthcare Workers have Highest Rates of Asthma, according to CDC - By Bonnie Castillo, National Nurses United, December 6, 2016 - According to a new Centers for Disease Control study, the healthcare and social assistance industry has the highest percentage of workers with asthma — 10.7% of workers in this industry reported having asthma.

The Huge Costs of Trump’s Energy Plans - By Dean Baker, CounterPunch, December 1, 2016 - In the last two years, North Dakota has lost almost half its jobs in the oil and coal industries. The losses aren’t the fault of pesky environmentalists worried about groundwater contamination and global warming. They’re the result of collapsing world energy prices.

Kinder Morgan: The fight starts now! - By Brad Hornick, Rabble.Ca, November 29, 2016 - The words of the late poet Leonard Cohen had become a refuge for me, like many others over the last weeks: everybody knows the dice are loaded and the fight is fixed. We all have this broken feeling that their dog just died, that the politicians are talking to their pockets; that the boat is leaking, the captain lied, and the deal is rotten. That's how it goes!

Life and Politics in Appalachia - By Kenneth Surin, CounterPunch, December 1, 2016 - Politically, the town is a liberal oasis in a desert of Republicanism.  In the recent presidential election, Clinton beat Trump by just over 1% in the county where this college town is located (the county went narrowly for Romney in 2012 and Obama in 2008), while losing to Trump by whopping 20-40% margins in all the surrounding counties.   In these overwhelmingly rural counties rusty and dented trucks sporting Virginia’s Tea Party “Don’t Tread on Me” license plates are a common sight.

Local Green Energy Authority Quietly Launches in Alameda County - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, December 1, 2016 - The Oakland City Council voted last Tuesday to become part of a regional green energy authority, joining twelve other cities in Alameda County. Together the cities represent 90 percent of the county's total electrical load. "Without sounding trite, the future is bright for the power authority," said Victor Uno of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Massacre in Nicaragua - By Courtney Parker, International Cry, December 5, 2016 - In a shocking escalation of the ongoing violent conflict devastating the Indigenous binational autonomous nation of Moskitia, a Mayanga family of three was killed in a brutal attack by ‘Colonos’ at the Llano Sucio site of the Alamikamba community in the Awala Prinsu territory on November 27, 2016. The attack sent shockwaves through the already war torn territories of Moskitia.

Mining accidents in China to spike as country digs more coal - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, November 30, 2016 - According to the country’s Work Safety Committee of the State Council, a government agency, the recent and sharp rally in coal prices has prompted an increase in potentially dangerous mining activity, which unfortunately it’s already taking its toll.

NUMSA demands payment of bonuses by PetroSA - By Irvin Jim, NUMSA, December 5, 2016 - Workers at PetroSA are furious that the company is not paying staff their annual bonus for the second year running, while paying out huge bonuses to top executives.

People’s Climate Movement Groups Call for Urgent Action for Standing Rock - By various, Labor Network for Sustainability, December 5, 2016 - The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline brings together two critically important struggles for environmental justice: the centuries long struggle for respect for the sovereignty of Native tribes and the global battle to curtail the climate crisis. These issues are intertwined, and the outcome of the struggle at Standing Rock will heavily impact what lies ahead on both fronts.

Pipeline protesters in West Texas asking for help from Standing Rock - By David Hunn, FuelFix, December 6, 2016 - Protesters were arrested in West Texas on Tuesday morning near a pipeline being built from the Permian Basin to Mexico...Former oil field worker Arajoe Battista chained himself to a fence there but was not arrested, the sheriff’s office said.

The Repression and Criminalization of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement Must Stop - By various, Global Justice Ecology Project, November 30, 2016 - Early on the morning of November 4, armed police raided the “Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes” (ENFF) in Guararema, Sao Paulo, detained members of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) members and fired live ammunition. The ENFF school is owned and run by the Landless Workers Movement (MST).

Towards a Working-Class Environmentalism - By Erik Loomis, New Republic, December 5, 2016 - The environmental movement has somehow become synonymous with elite technocratic liberalism. That doesn’t have to be the case. [Editor's note: the author of this piece hastily glosses over the class struggle history of Earth First! in the timber wars of northwestern California, so we recommend checking the record on our site for detailed information.]

Trump’s Lies Threaten Wind Techs: Fastest-Growing US Job - By Susan Kraemer, Clean Technica, December 5, 2016 - As of December 2015, there were more than 8,800 wind techs — guys who climb wind turbines to perform maintenance — and wind techs are the single fastest-growing job in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, approximately 21,000 of all ~88,000 US wind jobs are manufacturing jobs, largely in the Rust Belt.

Trump Monument Revocations Would Be Monumental Mess - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, December 5, 2016 - “Having a President Trump take the unprecedented step of trying to unilaterally revoke monuments is guaranteed to trigger lawsuits that will likely remain unresolved during his tenure,” concluded PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that even if the presidential proclamation is rescinded, it is unclear whether the presidential withdrawal of these lands from drilling and mining remains in effect. “Congresspersons who bellyache about national monuments set aside for the American people over the last generation have only themselves to blame for abdicating the constructive and dynamic role in national monuments played by past Congresses.”

Tube workers in dispute as bosses’ cuts take their toll - By staff, Socialist Worker, December 6, 2016 - Tube drivers’ strikes on London Underground’s Piccadilly and Hammersmith & City lines, set for Tuesday, were suspended by the workers’ RMT union.

US Oil Sands lays off staff, defers Utah mine startup - By staff, Calgary Herald, December 5, 2016 - The Calgary company developing an oilsands mine in Utah says it has delayed the project’s startup and temporarily laid off most of its Canadian and American employees while it secures new financing.

Why U.S. Coal Industry and Its Jobs Are Not Coming Back - By James Van Nostrand, Yale e360, December 1, 2016 - President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to revive U.S. coal production and bring back thousands of jobs. But it’s basic economics and international concern about climate change that have crushed the American coal industry, not environmental regulations.

Workers’ Climate Plan four-week report - By Lyndsey Easton, Iron and Earth, November 29, 2016 - Four weeks ago Iron & Earth concluded a whirlwind engagement tour in Edmonton, Alberta. It started with a Visioning Workshop where we we invited both our committed members and prospective allies to engage with our core leadership team and each other to learn about everything we do, identify key priorities and contribute ideas for the next phase of our work.

By staff - Socialist Worker, December 5, 2016

The thousands of water protectors and their supporters camping by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation scored a major victory on Sunday, December 4, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it wouldn't grant a permit to builders of the planned Dakota Access Pipeline to drill under the Missouri River.

The announcement, a significant milestone in the effort to compel the government to recognize Native sovereignty over tribal lands, came one day before a deadline given to protesters to clear out of the camps they had constructed to oppose construction of the pipeline. Throughout the previous week, thousands of people had arrived to protect the camp from any attempt by law enforcement to uproot it.

Questions remain about what will happen next. The Army Corps has said it will consider an alternative route, and President-elect Donald Trump favors completion of the pipeline project. But for now, the pipeline is stopped, giving protesters time to continue their organizing efforts.

Here, we publish eyewitness accounts by contributors to SocialistWorker.org from New York City--Leia Petty, Edna Bonhomme, Emily Brooks, Sumaya Awad and Dorian Bon--who traveled to North Dakota for this weekend to show solidarity with the #NoDAPL struggle.

By Charles Idelson - Common Dreams, December 2, 2016

As Third Delegation of RN Volunteers Heads to North Dakota
RNs Call to President Obama, Attorney Gen Lynch to Intervene

National Nurses United today announced that it is donating $50,000 to support U.S. service veterans who are assembling this weekend as peaceful, unarmed defenders for the water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota who are enduring military style police assaults for opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) project.

U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, herself a decorated veteran, will be joining with the Veterans Stand for Standing Rock mobilization to support the protectors and help raise public attention to the growing human rights emergency that has emerged at the protest site in the face of increased attacks.

The NNU donation will assist a delegation of Navajo veterans from Arizona and New Mexico who will join the veterans gathering this weekend. Through NNU’s Registered Nurse Response Network, RN volunteers have worked with Navajo First Nation members before, providing first aid in September at the Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, AZ.

Veterans Stand for Standing Rock plan a deployment December 4 to 7 of 2,000 veterans of the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard who intend to “defend the water protectors from assault and intimidation of the militarized police force and DAPL security.”

Concurrently, NNU is dispatching its third delegation of RN volunteers Saturday to stand in solidarity with the water protectors and their supporters.

“We salute the brave veterans who are standing up for the rights of the water protectors, and all of us who support this critical defense of the First Amendment right to assemble and protest without facing brutal and unwarranted attacks,” said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN.

In a letter last week to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, NNU urged the Department of Justice “to promptly end the militarized response to Standing Rock water protesters and immediately stop the law enforcement use of military grade weapons and equipment that comes from the federal government.”

Nurses also support the call by tribal leaders on President Obama to deny the easement for the pipeline and “to protect the water for Standing Rock citizens and the 17 million people downstream”  as well as the call on North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple to “stop the constitutional and human rights violations that are happening at Standing Rock.”

A combination of police agencies in apparent collaboration with DAPL private security contractors have reportedly used rubber/plastic bullets, tear gas grenades, pepper spray, sound cannons, and water cannons in sub-freezing temperature against those who oppose construction of a pipeline that the Standing Rock Sioux and allies say threatens water resources and ancestral sacred sites.

One protester, 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky, has faced the loss of an arm after being hit with a police concussion grenade, according to the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council.

NNU volunteers will also be on hand this coming weekend. One RN headed to the site this weekend, Amy Bowen, said she is “committed to exhausting every effort to help save our environment and take a stand for our most basic human necessity: clean, oil-free water.

“I, along with other nurse volunteers with RNRN, will stand in solidarity to support the water protectors,” Bowen said.

National Nurses United, with close to 185,000 members in every state, is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in US history.