green unionism

By Climate - Capitalism vs the Climate, November 16, 2015

There’s going to be a climate rally at the state Capitol soon about replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy. That all sounds good, but we want to form a contingent that’s loud and clear about the need for systemic social change. We hope you’ll join.

Look for us with the banner that says ‘End capitalism’ at the bottom.

• Capitol Building Hartford CT
• Saturday, Nov 21st, at 12 PM
• https://www.facebook.com/events/1518104615179767/

“100% renewable energy” isn’t enough.

We need community control and a rejection of false solutions. Putting a wind turbine on top of a genocidal system doesn’t make it green. Did you know Solar City has been installing solar panels made by prisoners paid pennies to the dollar? That Malloy’s been counting renewable mega-hydro power as green despite its infringement on indigenous Innu land in Quebec? That Bridgeport takes trash from surrounding suburbs and burns it in a low-income neighborhood in order to produce so-called renewable energy? Sometimes renewable energy is just as socially and environmentally destructive as fossil fuels.

Rallies and lobbying aren’t enough

We need direct action. We don’t think the Keystone XL would have been (partially) stopped if it hadn’t been for the countless actions and arrests of the Texas tree-sitters, the Lakota spiritual campers, the White House protesters and others. We’d like to see climate campaigners in CT learn from the (partial) KXL victory and step it up a little bit.

Get Spectra out of Connecticut

Spectra Energy’s fracked gas pipeline expansion could endanger tens of millions of lives, due to its dangerous location near the Indian Point nuclear power plant and its contribution to global climate change. We see Spectra’s expansion as a symptom of the deadly grow-or-die system that’s squeezing the Earth and its inhabitants to extinction. Isn’t stopping Spectra one of the things we can unite around, or is naming it being too specific and divisive for those trying to play nice with Malloy?

By That Green Union Guy - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, November 11, 2015

Author's Note: This article is a sequel of sorts to my previous piece, Unions and the Climate Justice Movement, which briefly mentions the No Coal in Oakland campaign. The image, depicted at the right, compares a pro-capitalist-logging poster (yellow, near right) ostensibly created by timber workers (but actually crafted by the employers) to mobilize support for a counter-demonstration to a rally and march, held in Fort Bragg in July 1990, organized by the Redwood Summer coalition (which included timber workers). The green poster (far right), represents the Redwood Summer coalition's response, and accurately summarizes their position on timber workers and timber jobs.

At first glance, the Oakland City Council meeting, held on September 21, 2015 looked much like many public hearings where public opposition had organized in response to the plans, practices, or proposals of capitalist interests that threatened the environment. For most of the evening, and well into the night, council members and the Mayor watched and listened as speaker after speaker (out of a total of over 500) either spoke in favor (or against) coal exports or ceded their time to their allies. On one side were a widely diverse group of activists, organized by a coalition known as No Coal in Oakland-- adorned in red (union made and printed) T-shirts--opposed to plans to export coal through a proposed Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT), as part of the Oakland Global Trade and Logistics Center (or Oakland Global), and on the other were the project's supporters, dressed in business attire accompanied by several dozen union workers, many of them from the Laborers' Union, dressed in yellow.  As is often the case, the project's supporters tried to frame the opposition as being composed of insensitive outsiders, and themselves and the supporting "workers" as placing the economic interests of Oakland and its residents above all else. "We support good paying union jobs that will help the struggling, predominantly African-American residents of west Oakland" opined the supporters, trying to suggest that those in opposition didn't.

This is an old, and shopworn script, that has been trotted out numerous times in the past quarter century or more. Anyone who has experienced or studied the "Timber Wars" that took place in the Pacific Northwest during the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s will recall the armies of loggers and mill-workers decked out in yellow shirts, sporting yellow foam car radio antennae balls or yellow ribbons who would show up en massé (at the behest of their employers, often with pay) to oppose limits to clear-cutting or protections for the Northern Spotted Owl and to denounce (often) green shirted environmentalists as "unwashed-out-of-town-jobless-hippies-on-drugs" and/or upper middle class "elitists" (or--defying logic--both). Sometimes, in drawn out campaigns, the employers have often furthered this illusion by creating false front "Astroturf" groups, ostensibly composed of workers, to distract attention away from themselves.

The truth is far much more complex and nuanced, of course. Usually the "jobs" promised by the projects' supporters often don't materialize (indeed, the opposite--namely automation, downsizing, and outsourcing--usually occurs). Those in opposition to environmentally destructive practices and proposals are usually composed of and led by locals, most of whom are, themselves, gainfully employed, and sympathetic to the needs and concerns of the affected workers (in fact, the opposition's counter proposals, if well thought out, do more to create "jobs" and job security than those in support of the project). Meanwhile, the actual level of support among the rank and file workers purportedly backing up the capitalists interests could accurately be described as a mile wide and an inch deep, at best. And the bosses? When they speak of jobs, they actually refer to profits. Nevertheless, in the past, the capitalist media has typically and dutifully reported that these projects are opposed by "green clad environmentalists" (or red in this particular case) and supported by "yellow clad workers" (often neglecting to draw any distinction between the workers and their employers).

Therefore, it is both surprising and refreshing, that in spite of the attempts by the employing class to replay that same script on September 21, 2015 in Oakland, the attempt backfired, due to the diligent and tireless organizing by their grassroots opposition. A closer examination of what happened, and how the opposition organized, will illustrate why this is so and how others can duplicate the organizers' efforts to defeat further attempts by capitalist interests to use divide and conquer tactics to push their climate and environment (not-to-mention job) destroying projects through.

By Eric Dirnbach - Waging Nonviolence, November 4, 2015

The debate on how to revive the troubled U.S. labor movement has been around for decades. Labor activists generally believe that much greater rank-and-file democracy and workplace militancy is the key to labor renewal. However, an essential perspective that is usually missing from the conversation is well represented by Staughton Lynd’s “Solidarity Unionism: Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below,” which was first published in 1992 and has been recently reissued.

Lynd is a legendary progressive lawyer and activist from Youngstown, Ohio. He is the coauthor with his wife Alice Lynd of the classic “Rank and File: Personal Histories by Working-Class Organizers,” a collection of oral histories of militant union organizers, which informs much of the framework of “Solidarity Unionism.” At around 100 pages, the book reads more like a summary of his organizing philosophy, and many readers will come away wanting a more extensive discussion. It should be read along with several other recent books which make similar arguments: Stanley Aronowitz’s “The Death and Life of American Labor: Toward a New Workers’ Movement,” and “New Forms of Worker Organization: The Syndicalist and Autonomist Restoration of Class-Struggle Unionism,” edited by Immanuel Ness, who also provided the introduction for “Solidarity Unionism.”

Lynd argues for a rethinking of the assumptions of the labor movement and for a revived version of labor organizing that was more prominent in the pre-New Deal era that he calls “solidarity unionism.” What may surprise most labor-oriented readers is that central to this kind of unionism is the absence of a contract between the union and the employer.

Isn’t the whole point of forming a union to get a written collective bargaining agreement? Lynd doesn’t think so and he argues that workers fighting together with direct action on the job to make improvements in the workplace do not need a contract and may be hurt by having one. He is critical of the “management rights” and “no-strike” clauses that are standard in almost all union contracts. He believes they reduce the power of workers to influence major decisions in how the workplace is run and to solve their problems at work immediately as they arise. Contracts tend to remove agency from the workers and place it in the hands of union staff who typically bargain and process grievances while the members may be uninvolved and cynical. Lynd is also skeptical of a union’s exclusive representation of all workers in the workplace and automatic dues check-off, preferring for workers to actively join the union and pay dues because they want to.

Lynd’s view of the prevailing “contract unionism” differs from standard labor history, which considers the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, or NLRA, labor reforms as a progressive advance for workers. In the mainstream view, workers organizing, with the support of President Roosevelt, finally won full government enforcement for the right to organize and bargain collectively. In exercising this right, unions typically hold workplace elections and then negotiate contracts with employers that set the conditions of employment and also guarantee labor peace (no strike/no lockout) for the term of the contract. This industrial relations framework led the way for millions of workers to organize and improve their wages and working conditions. This “class compromise” held for several decades until employers changed their mind and increased their opposition to unionization again.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, November 3, 2015

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.

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

Lead Stories:

• Elon Musk’s solar company used panels made by cheap prison labor for a big taxpayer-subsidized project - By Aura Bogado, Grist, October 28, 2015
• Volkswagen and GM's deadly conspiracies pale in comparison to collusion against mass transit - By Daniel Tyson, Rabble.Ca, October 27, 2015

Ongoing Mobilizations:

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

• Bolivia: “For a Lasting Solution to the Climate Crisis We Must Destroy Capitalism” - By Cécile Barbière, EurActiv.com, October 14, 2015
• It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm: The Road to Paris and Beyond - By staff, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, October 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Open letter: Milk Powder in favour of real milk to produce healthy dairy products - By Genevieve Savigny and José Miguel Pacheco Gonçalves, La Via Campesina, November 2, 2015
• Acclaimed Mermaid Delivers Strong Message to Chicken of the Sea - Greenpeace Press Release, EcoWatch, October 28, 2015
• The Big Chicken Industry Really Treats Its Workers Like Shit - By Tess Owen, Vice News, October 27, 2015
• The Hellish Conditions Facing Workers At Chicken Processing Plants - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, October 27, 2015
• The Human Cost of Cheap Chicken - By Emily Nink, EcoWatch, October 27, 2015
• Labor conditions are awful at chicken plants, according to big report - By Katie Herzog, Grist, October 27, 2015
• Eliminate Child Labor from Cocoa by Emphasizing Children, Not PR Claims - By Kerstin Lindgren, Medium.Com, October 19, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Black lung debated during federal oversight hearing - By Daniel Tyson, Register Herald, November 2, 2015
• DOC staff to take industrial action as Conservation Week begins - By staff, New Zealand Public Service Association, November 2, 2015
• Suit to Enforce Federal Contractor Whistleblower Law - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 29, 2015 November 2, 2015
• Failed Toxic Cleanup at Malibu Schools - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 29, 2015
• No New Chemical Safety Investigations Opened in Seven Months - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 29, 2015
• Is the USDA trying to silence a pesticide researcher? - By Nathanael Johnson, Grist, October 28, 2015
• USDA Scientist Punished for Pollinator Research - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, October 28, 2015
• Are coal-mine safety violations ‘inevitable’? - By Ken Ward Jr, Coal Tattoo (Charleston Gazette), October 27, 2015
• Railroad workers say long shifts unsafe - By Heidi Desch, Whitfish Pilot, October 27, 2015
• Sudbury mining safety conference in wake of Glencore death - By Jonathan Migneault, Northern Life, October 27, 2015
• What Apple’s Solar Plans In China Could Mean For Tech Laborers - By Lauren C. Williams, Think Progress, October 27, 2015
• Nurses in Saratoga Springs rally against oil trains - By Mark Mulholland, WNYT NBC TV 13, October 21, 2015
• Ken Saro-Wiwa and the power of resistance - By Ken Henshaw, Red Pepper, October 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Chevron will lay off thousands more workers, slash spending - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, October 30, 2015
• Coal Export Industry's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week - By Guest, DeSmog Blog, October 30, 2015
• Noble Energy planning more layoffs, company confirms - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, October 29, 2015
• Devon cuts 200 employees in Canada - Bloomberg Press Release, FuelFix, October 28, 2015
• Lockdown: the end of growth in the tar sands - By Hannah McKinnon, Oil Change International, October 27, 2015
• More Trouble in Coal Country: Health Care at Risk for 12,000 Retired Miners and Their Families - By Alec MacGillis, Pro Publica, October 27, 2015
• 'A lot of people are hurting': 1,100 laid off US Steel employees face uncertainty, hard times - By Jeremy Gray, AL.com, October 26, 2015
• Why Merrill Lynch Is Throwing in the Towel on AK Steel and Steel in General - By Chris Lange, 24/7 Wall Street, October 26, 2015

Just Transition:

• Can the Electronics Industry Provide a Living Wage? Not While Corporations Set the Rules - By Nicki Lisa Cole, Truthout, October 30, 2015
• Just Transition with Mateo Nube of Movement Generation - By Marissa Mommaerts, Transition United States, October 29, 2015
• Berkeley: Environmentalists warn of state refinery projects amid oil glut - By Tom Lochner, Contra Costa Times, October 28, 2015

Other News:

• Michigan utilities face growing lineman shortage - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, November 2, 2015
• Michigan Transit Workers Fight To Prevent City Bus System From Eliminating Their Pensions - By Jeff Smith, In These Times, October 28, 2015
• More magic tricks from the Air District - By Ratha Lai, The Yodeler, October 27, 2015
• Peruvian Land Defender Killed After 48-Hour Anti-Mining Strike - By Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros en el Perú (English Translation by Earth First!), Conflictos Mineros, October 27, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW

By Milo Wolf - Labor Beat, October 26, 2015

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.

Motivated by the need to prevent dangerous and toxic railroad accidents, railroad workers, environmental and community activists met on Sept. 19, 2015 in Chicago for a conference organized by Railroad Workers United. A recurring topic was the 2013 railroad disaster in Lac-Megantic, Canada involving what is known as a "bomb train" of oil tanker cars that wiped out a significant part of that community. That doomed train in fact went through Chicago on its way to Lac-Megantic.​

This video demonstrates how squeezing increased productivity from rail workers produces negative effects that extend into the community and environment, in addition to the problem of exploiting workers.

After years of debating with management, retired locomotive engineer Fritz Edler concluded: "We demanded that they produce the evidence that you could do these [work] schedules and have it not be unsafe. And what they would do is stand up in the room and say 'fatigue is not a safety factor'. This is why we can't have this discussion just inside the railroad. We can't do that because they would never say that out in public."

Interviews and speakers featured: Ron Kaminkow, General Secretary of RWU; Dr. Lora Chamberlain, Chicago Oil by Rail; Jeff Kurtz, former BLET Iowa State Legislative Chair; Rozalinda Borcila, Artist, Compass; Ed Michael, RWU; Fritz Edler, BLET Div. 482 Local Chair (ret.); Vince Hardt, Chicagoland Oil by Rail.