green unionism

By Steve Zeltser - Labor Video Project, February 13, 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.

Striking USW 5 Tesoro oil workers rallied on February 12, 2015 at the refinery in Pacheco, California. They were joined by CNA nurses and environmentalists who raised the issue of health and safety for not only the workers but the communities. This is the first national strike since 1980 and the companies have record profits.

Some workers face extreme fatigue with 14 days of continuous work and also short staffed crews that threaten their safety and the communities.

Additionally protesters charged that Richmond Chevron refinery managers are threatening to continue to operate the refinery with replacement workers if the USW workers go on strike

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 10, 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:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Refinery Strike Is Not Just About Safety; It's About Pollution - By Mike Ludwig, Truthout, March 6, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• California State Senate holds hearing in Torrance on refinery explosion - Associated Press, March 5, 2015
• Contract worker speaks on safety issues in US oil strike - World Socialist Web Site, YouTube, March 4, 2015
• 5,000 Oil Workers Enter Third Week of Strike Over Safety and Working Conditions - The Real News, YouTube, February 21, 2015
• It's all about safety - United Steelworkers, YouTube, February 13, 2015
• Loera: Refineries have long ignored workers' pleas for safety - By Debbie Loera, Houston Chronicle, March 4, 2015
• More labor board charges filed in Steelworkers strike - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 4, 2015; [response] Steelworkers fire back over unfair labor practice charges - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 5, 2015
• Steelworkers rally at Shell HQ as talks set to resume Wednesday - By Sarah Scully, FuelFix, March 6, 2015
• Strike Solidarity Guerrilla Movie Night -  Peter Menchini, Vimeo, March 5, 2015
• The United Steelworkers’ intimate ties to Wall Street - By Shannon Jones, World Socialist Website, March 6, 2015
• USW Statement on March 4 Talks with Oil Industry - United Steelworkers, March 4, 2015
• [Historic Archives] Chevron Oil Refinery Strike, January 31, 1969 - San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive

Carbon Bubble:

• “Default Monday”: Oil & Gas Companies Face Their Creditors as the Fracking Bubble Bursts - By Wolf Richter, Naked Capitalism, March 5, 2015
• Oil sector loses jobs in February - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, March 6, 2015
• Public ownership of oil refineries will see Alberta through low oil prices, says AFL President Gil McGowan - By Ella Bedard, Rabble.Ca, March 5, 2015

Energy Democracy:

• Greece Revokes Key Authorization for Foreign-Run Mine - By Michael Lerner, Blouin News, March 3, 2015
• With corporate energy, we're stuck in the dark ages; let's switch to public ownership - By Calum McGregor, Open Democracy, March 4, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Animation of Fire at Chevron's Richmond Refinery - Chemical Safety Board, YouTube, April 19, 2013
• Behind the Curve - Chemical Safety Board, YouTube, October 28, 2014
• Blast survivors tell harrowing stories at Lakeland inquest - By Mark Nielsen, Prince George Citizen, March 5, 2015
• Reporting on Workers’ Comp [Podcast] - By Nicole Collins Bronzan, ProPublica, March 9, 2015

Other News:

• Cross Harbor rail tunnel idea debated at hearing: Union workers differ with civic and community board over proposal - By Christopher Barca, Queens Chronicle, March 5, 2015
• Declaration of South African Food Sovereignty Campaign - By the Food Sovereignty Campaign Coordination Committee, Climate and Capitalism, March 1, 2015
• How a small town's green energy plans went disastrously wrong - By Roy MacGregor, The Globe and Mail, March 6, 2015
• The Site C Dam and Christy Clark, union maid - By Rod Mickleburgh, Rabble.Ca, March 5, 2015
• Study emphasizes the enormous cost of poorly regulated toxic chemicals - European Trade Union Institute, March 6, 2015
• Uber, Lyft, and the growing problem of temp jobs - By Heather Smith, Grist, March 4, 2015
• We want system change not climate change - By Andrea Ferrant, Geneviéve Savigny, Unai Aranguren, La Via Campesina, March 4, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 5, 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:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Five years post-explosion, Tesoro strikers still push for safety measures - By J.M. Wong, Seattle Globalist, March 3, 2015
• Op-Ed: Oil refineries need to heed concerns, implement safety improvements - By Antonia Juhasz, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Crossing the Line: Money, Safety, Power; What Makes a Union Strike at a Bad Time for Oil and Gas? - By Dianna Wray, Houston News, March 3, 2015
• Daughter of Man Killed at Texas City Refinery Watches USW Strike - By Dianna Wray, Houston News, March 3, 2015
• ‘Disappointed’ in union, Shell says it is hiring relief workers - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• Environmental groups join St. Charles Parish refinery workers on picket line - By Jennifer Larino, The New Orleans Times-Picayunne, February 25, 2015
• Letter to USW Oil Workers - By Leo W. Gerard, Thomas M. Conway and others, United Steelworkers, February 26, 2015 [related] This is What We're Fighting For.
• LyondellBasell accuses Steelworkers of threatening returning workers - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• Shell unveils plan to replace USW refining workers - By Lynn Doan and Zain Shauk, Bloomberg, March 3, 2015
• Steelworkers’ local reminds strikebreakers of their union oath - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• Striking USW refining workers, Shell to resume labor talks Wednesday - By Lynn Doan and Lucia Kassai, Bloomberg, March 2, 2015
• USW strike is about worker safety - By Susan Criss, The Daily News, March 3, 2015, February 18, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Bank of England Issues Warning Over Looming 'Carbon Bubble' Threat - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, March 4, 2015
• Kentucky Doesn’t Have Any More Working Union Coal Miners - By Erica Peterson and Whitney Jones, WFPL 89.3 FM, February 26, 2015
• Nabors cuts nearly 3,500 jobs as U.S. drilling takes big hit - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, March 3, 2015
• US running out of room to store oil; price collapse next? - Associated Press, March 3, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Coal Mine Explosion in Ukraine Traps Dozens - Associated Press, March 3, 2015
• 'Fracking' and worker safety: U.S. oil boom is in full swing, as are questions about hazards - By Tom Musick, Safety + Health, November 23, 2014
• Inspector General Auditing FRA's Railroad Bridge Safety Oversight - OSHA Online, March 2, 2015
• Oil — The risks outweigh the rewards - Editorial, Daily World, February 28, 2015
• Tank Car Debate Rolls On - By Jerry Laws, OSHA Online, March 1, 2015
• 350 Seattle Hub Unanimously Approves Support of Two Railroad Workers (United) Resolutions  - By 350 Seattle, March 4, 2015, February 26, 2015
• Transporting Tar Sands “As Dangerous” As Shale Oil - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, March 2, 2015

Other News:

• American mass transit is dying - By Henry Grabar, Salon, March 1, 2015
• Commentary: The risks that arise from violating CSR norms - By Mark N. Sills and Jennifer L. Egsgard, Northern Miner, March 2, 2015
• Community Voices: Fighting for the Rights of Farmworkers in the Border Region - By Andrianna Natsoulas, Why Hunger, March 2, 2015
• Goodbye, Mr. Spock: Leonard Nimoy’s passing reminds us of the spirit of wonder and discovery represented by Spock and the Star Trek series - By Leigh Phillips, Jacobin, March 2, 2015
• Oregon's signature solar energy project built on foundation of false hopes and falsehoods - By Ted Sickinger & Jeff Manning, The Oregonian, February 27, 2015
• The Problem with the Environmental Movement - By Alexis Goggans, The Equation, February 20, 2015
• The Risk of Climate Catastrophe Is So Severe, We Had to Break the Law, Say Activists - By Peter Rugh, Vice News, March 2, 2015
• Tiny radio stations a big tool against gentrification - By Anna Goren, Seattle Globalist, February 19, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Railroad Workers United and Others - railroadconference.org, March 1, 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 Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment is the title of two back-to-back conferences; the first on Saturday, March 14, 2015 in Richmond, California; the second on Saturday, March 21 in Olympia, Washington.

Everyday a tragic trail derailment occurs, often transporting highly flammable Bakken Shale or Tar Sand, from North Dakota or Alberta, to refineries across North America. The 47 -- preventable-- deaths in Lac-Mégantic has wakened people to the dangers of oil trains and the movement of trains in general through their communities. Environmental activists are up-in-arms about the amounts of fossil fuels moving by rail. Farmers and other shippers are concerned about the congestion that has occurred in recent months, but in part to the oil boom. The rail networks in the U.S. and Canada and clogged with crude-by-rail, displacing the already heavy traffic of grains headed to port for export.

The public generally has no idea what goes on daily on America’s railroads. Chronic crew fatigue, single employee train crews, excessively long and heavy trains, draconian availability policies, short staffing, limited time off work create challenging safety issues of concern not just to railroaders, but to the entire population.

Please join us at this cutting edge conference that brings together railroad workers, environmentalists, community activists and concerned workers from other sectors, in order to build the movement for a safer and greener railroad, on that is more responsive to the needs of workers, trackside communities, citizens in general, and society as a whole.

Richmond is a perfect confluence for this conference as it has always been a company town, first for Santa Fe Railroad as the western terminus of its transcontinental railroad in 1900, then for Standard Oil (later becoming Chevron) in 1901 and its massive refinery complex, and again for Kaiser Industries with its four assembly line-like shipyards in the late 1930s through World War II. From 1910 until 1959 the Pullman Company located its largest West Coast rail car repair shop adjacent to the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe lines in the center of Richmond. It also fronts the San Francisco Bay with access to a channel of 40-60 feet deep, allowing the largest seagoing ships (mostly oil tankers these days) to call its ports. Despite still being the location of the Burlington Northern Sante Fe rail yard and Chevron's massive refinery, Richmond is a bottomed out deindustrialized city that puts its largely working class people of color population in the toxic shadow of oil, chemical and other polluting heavy industries.

In adjacent cities of Rodeo there is the Conoco Phillips Refinery, Benecia has Valero Refinery, and Martinez has both Shell and Tesoro Refineries (the latter currently on strike). They are served by both BNSF and Union Pacific Railroads and maritime wharfs. This area along the San Francisco and San Pablo Bays is statistically known as a "cancer cluster."

By Steve Zeltser - The Daily Censored, February 16, 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 epidemic of refinery explosions and derailments  leading to massive explosions seem to increase by the week. Behind this collapse of health and safety protection according to advocates is the failure to protect health and safety whistleblowers. The fear of workers to complain about serious health and safety problems is a key part of this failure. Now a Federal lawyer at OSHA Darrell Whitman has charged along with health and safety whistleblowers that the agency management and the DOL have not been enforcing the law to protect not only the whistleblowers but the health and safety of all Americans.

In an explosive document sent to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez in May 2014, Federal OSHA attorney Darrell Whitman, charged that there is systemic corruption in the agency that is preventing the protection of health and safety whistleblowers. As a result of making these charges with extensive documentation, Whitman has himself become a target of workplace bullying and moves to terminate him from the agency. In fact according to Whipple his supervisor Joshua Paul who is also an attorney at the agency ordered him to falsify federal documents  which is a criminal felony. On February 21, 2015 the agency sent a mover to his house and took his documents and badge preventing him from doing his work.
Whitman has a lot of years under his belt. He has been working over 10 years for state and Federal agencies so he knows a bit about how the Federal government operates.

His latest job was as an investigator in the OSHA program that investigates health and safety complaints by workers in industries from oil, rail, trucking and other companies in OSHA region 9 which covers nearly 40 million workers in the West.
As one of the 6 OSHA staff in this unit, there have been only three that actually doing investigations. Whitman investigates whether OSHA complaints by workers are valid and then makes a determination of whether or not their complaints are serious enough to gain a merit status. Under Federal law this merit status provides full back pay and can provide punitive damages to workers who are terminated for making their health and safety complaints.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, March 2, 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:

Today in Green/Labor History: Earth First! activist and IWW organizer Judi Bari (b.1949) died on this date from cancer. Bari and her comrade Darryl Cherney survived a terrorist bomb in Oakland, CA, in 1990. The police and FBI immediately blamed her for the bombing, claiming that she was the terrorist and that the bomb was intended for the logging companies. She was arrested and handcuffed to her hospital bed. Bari and Cherney were eventually exonerated and won a hefty settlement for the FBI’s role in violating their civil liberties.

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• Bay Area Workers and Unions Finance the Fracking Boom; Bay Area workers and unions are increasingly joining the climate justice movement, but their pension funds have been quietly investing in the oil and natural gas boom - By Darwin BondGraham, East Bay Express, February 25, 2015
• 2015: Oil Industry Off to a Rough Start - By Elizabeth Douglass, InsideClimate News, February 27, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• BP Whiting Refinery suffers second major malfunction this week - By Joseph S. Pete, NWI.com, February 25, 2015
• Neighbors fearful after another flare-up over BP Whiting Refinery - By Joseph S. Pete, NWI.com, February 26, 2015
• Steelworkers, Shell to speak Wednesday - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 27, 2015
• Union official: 'Solidarity' is key for striking BP Refinery workers - By Karen Caffarini, Chicago Post Tribune, February 28, 2015
• United Steelworkers Oil Refinery Strike Spreads - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, February 26, 2015
• US oil workers threaten to expand strike to California port - Bloomberg, The Business Times, February 26, 2015
• USW, International Guests Present ‘Award’ To Glencore - United Steelworkers, February 26, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Boomtown, USA: An Historical Look at Fracking - By Henry Wiencek, Not Even Past, February 18, 2015
• CGG to cut about 400 jobs after 2014 $1.2 billion net loss - Bloomberg, FuelFix, February 26, 2015
• Dresser-Rand to cut 8 percent of its workforce - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, February 27, 2015
• Glencore slashes coal production, cuts jobs as downturn continues - By Glen Norris, The Courier Mail, February 27, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• California communities seize control of their energy futures - By David Roberts, Grist, February 25, 2015
• Count on Coal! - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, February 26, 2015
• Green Jobs: The Newest Challenge for Workers and Unions - By Greg Albo, The Socialist Project, February 22, 2015
• If Coal Companies Had to Show What They Pay Miners For - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, March 1, 2015

Other News:

• After Anti-Union Violence Exposed, Bangladesh Garment Workers Win Victory Against Apparel Companies - By Jonathan Brozdowski, In These Times, February 26, 2015
• Aging Track Caused Canadian National Railway Fiery Derailment - By John Kristensen, Railroaded, March 1, 2015
• Death By A Thousand Cuts: Earth Enters The ‘Danger Zone’ - By David Edwards and David Cromwell, Media Lens, March 2, 2015
• Fewer Labor Unions Means More Income Inequality - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, February 27, 2015
• Klein vs. Klein - By Out of the Woods, The New Inquiry, January 7, 2015
• 10 Ways to Fight the Corporatocracy; Democracy will not be won without guts and solidarity - By Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet, February 17, 2015
• There is no Agroecology without Women - La Via Campesina, February 26, 2015
• The Warming World: Is Capitalism Destroying Our Planet? - By Alexander Jung, Horand Knaup, Samiha Shafy and Bernhard Zand, Der Speigel, February 25, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, February 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.

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

Lead Stories:

• Register now for the Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community & the Environment Conferences: Richmond, California (March 14, 2015) and Olympia, Washington (March 21, 2015) - railroadconference.org
• OSHA Whistleblower Investigator Blows Whistle on Own Agency; Employee says the federal whistleblower program isn’t protecting whistleblowers or the public - By Vicky Nguyen, Liz Wagner and Felipe Escamilla, NBC Bay Area, February 24, 2015

USW Refinery Workers Strike News:

• Flare-up roars at BP Whiting Refinery - By Joseph S. Pete, NWI.com, February 23, 2015
• On strike against the next "accident" - By Ragina Johnson, David Judd and Elizabeth Schulte, Socialist Worker, February 24, 2015
• Some contractors (unionized) not so bad, Steelworkers say - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 25, 2015
• Steelworkers union, Occupy Wall Street dump manure at ExxonMobil Torrance refinery - Staff, Daily Breeze, February 22, 2015
• Strike at U.S. Refineries Widens; Workers Walk Out of Three More Facilities - By Erin Ailworth and Alison Sider, Wall Street Journal, February 22, 2015
• Union chief says U.S. refinery strike could spread - By Erwin Seba, Reuters, February 24, 2015
• Union is striking for safety, Steelworkers’ international head says - By LM Sixel, FuelFix, February 24, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Bill to regulate vans and shuttles for railroad crews draws fans and foes - By Cathy McKitrick, Ogden Standard-Examiner, February 23, 2015
• Canada: Oil train accident shows new safety rules inadequate - Associated Press, February 23, 20155
• CN derailment shows new safety standards inadequate, watchdog says - By Paola Loriggio, The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2015
• Report Predicting 10 Oil-train Derailments Per Year Underscores Need for Immediate Moratorium on Crude-by-rail; Dangerous Trains Risk Hundreds of Deaths, $4 Billion in Damages Annually - By Jared Margolis, Center for Biological Diversity, February 23, 2015
• Unifor reaches late-night deal with CN - By Ella Bedard, Rabble.ca, February 24, 2015
• Why bitumen isn’t necessarily safer than Bakken - By David Thomas, Railway Age, February 23, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Labor negotiations at a standstill at Bruce Mansfield power plant - By Sam Kusic, Pittsburgh Business Times, February 24, 2015
• Oil Giant Shell Shelves Dirty Tar Sands Mine - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, February 24, 2015
• Is Oil Returning To $100 Or Dropping To $10? - By Martin Tillier, OilPrice.com, February 22, 2015
• Shell pulls plug on long-delayed Alberta oil sands mine - By Jeff Lewis, The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2015
• Shell Withdraws From Largest Tar Sands Project Yet - By Ari Phillips, Think Progress, February 25, 2015
• Texas oil tool companies cutting more than 1,100 jobs - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, February 23, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• Labour and Nature: Power in Numbers - By Tegan Tallullah, Post Growth Institute, February 24, 2015

Other News:

• Climate Strike! - By Sean Farmelo, Slaney St, January 18, 2015
• Flood Wall Street goes on trial - #Flood11 Collective Statement, February 24, 2015
• Government Documents Reveal Canadian Embassy Backed Mining Abuses in Mexico - By United Steelworkers Union and Mining Watch Canada, Mining Watch Canada, February 25, 2015; [related]: Community Responds to Report Revealing Complicity between Canadian Embassy in Excellon Violations against La Sierrita - By Ejido La Sierrita de Galeana, Tlahualilo, Durango, Mining Watch Canada, February 25, 2015
• Palisades Nuclear Power Plant denies wage lawsuit claims - By Jim Hayden, Holland Sentinel, February 24, 2015
• The Paris climate talks and the failure of states - By Gabriel Levy, People and Nature, February 25, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC