Jeff Morris is running an impressive grassroots campaign to replace Wally Herger in California’s Second Congressional District. Last week, Jeff earned the endorsement of United Public Employees of California, LIUNA Local 792 — the first congressional candidate endorsement in the local’s history.
Jeff has also received endorsements from the Five Counties California Labor Council; Carpenters Local Union #1599, Redding; the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO Committee On Political Education; the Operating Engineers Union No. 3, District 70, Redding; and UAW, Region 5.
Meanwhile, Wally received an embarrassing 4% rating from the AFL-CIO in 2007, just a baby step up from his truly dismal 0% rating in 2003.
Wally Herger has spent the last 22 years doing everything he can to help wealthy business interests and doing almost nothing to help the hard-working citizens of District 2. He has consistently voted against raising the minimum wage, citing its effect on small business owners — yet, when a 2007 minimum wage bill also contained tax breaks for small businesses, Herger still voted against it. Herger is also an outspoken supporter of the Bush administration’s “free trade” policies, which have had dramatically negative effects on job security and wages for America’s workers.
In fact, Herger has frequently voted against bills that would help workers, such as the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 (would have established a system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, and provided for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts); Trade and Globalization Assistance Act of 2007 (would have allowed service sector workers and public workers to be covered by trade adjustment assistance); a House Resolution supporting a bill to require the Secretary of Labor to issue interim and final occupational safety and health standards regarding worker exposure to combustible dust; and the Paycheck Fairness Act (would have provided more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex).
Trade agreements are not a bad thing, but unfettered free trade is a race to the bottom … True fair trade, on the other hand, works to balance out subsidized industries with our own to ensure that all factors are considered when agreements are struck. Free trade is always about the bottom line. Fair trade is about a combination of profits and philosophical values and goals.
The only use of the word “fair” that I would use when it comes to unfettered free trade would be that the American economy, jobs and workers are fair game under free trade.
As a small business owner and local government official, Jeff Morris truly understands the needs and concerns of both business interests and workers. He has personally experienced the financial hardships that threaten the Main Streets of our small towns and rural communities. He’s been there in the trenches, facing the problems at the local level and working hard to make real differences in the lives of the hard-working people of District 2. He understands that profitable businesses and fairness for workers are not incompatible concepts — that we can have beneficial trade agreements while protecting local jobs and ensuring that rural economies stay strong.
Please go to Jeff Morris for Congress and give my brother your support! If the economy is hitting you too hard to allow a donation to his campaign, you can always write a letter to a District 2 newspaper supporting Jeff, or post a diary on this site or at a blog in your local community. Every person you reach is potentially one more vote, and in this election, every vote is going to count!
(It is unconscionable that people have to fight for something so basic as safe drinking water. – promoted by Julia Rosen)
Approximately 200 farm workers and their families live in the 49 units at the Rafael L. Silva Migrant Family Housing Center in Los Banos, CA. These workers don’t have access to safe drinking water. Please help.
According to the Merced County Health Department, the water that comes out of their pipes has unacceptable amounts of arsenic, copper and radionuclide. Families get a ration of bottled water. However, they say the amount is not enough to have clean water for household chores and practice good hygiene. Families end up using having to use the contaminated well water.
Martin Jimenez and his family use the well water to shower. “Your hair falls out,” he said, describing the experience. Jimenez also said he has a rash from using the water. Other workers wash their dishes in this water. (July 12, Los Banos Enterprise)
Fish and Game has a pipeline that could provide safe water to these families, but they refuse to allow these families to use it. The Housing Authority has been negotiating with them ever since the camp re-opened in 2006 to be allowed to use Fish and Game’s pipeline until the Housing Authority could put in its own. Every excuse that Fish and Game has given has been resolved. However, they still refuse to allow the community to connect to their water line that receives safe water from the City of Los Banos.
Please help. Sign the online petition TODAY & tell Fish and Game to be a good neighbor and stop forcing kids and their families to use contaminated water.
I’m sitting here at the San José Convention Center at the annual SEIU-UHW West leadership conference, with thousands of members gathered to plan for their union’s future. UHW has a lot of momentum, is engaged in a lot of organizing work to unionize more workplaces, and are among the leading progressive groups in the state at a time when we desperately need such allies.
And they’re facing the threat of losing their elected leadership to the SEIU International, which is attempting to place UHW under trusteeship. The International accuses UHW of financial improprieties involving an “educational fund” segmented for a possible health care ballot initiative. UHW leaders and many outside observers believe the charges are groundless. The next move is a hearing on September 22-23UPDATE: Yesterday Stern announced the hearing has been moved to September 26-27.
These developments dominate the meeting, but the rank and file members I’ve talked to seem resolute in their desire to defend union democracy. A group of allied reformers from other SEIU locals, SMART, have a significant presence here, a reflection of the intense battles going on within the broader SEIU movement regarding union democracy.
Whatever the outcome, there is a strong commitment to democracy among the 2,000 members here – democracy in the workplace, democracy in their union, democracy in their nation. Despite the internal politics that is an extremely positive sign. The labor movement has been at the forefront of social democratic politics in this country for over 100 years. When labor is strong, progressive politics are strong. Which makes the SEIU’s efforts to trustee UHW all the more disappointing, as we need unions to be laser-focused on this election and on the policy battles that will begin as soon as the dust settles in November.
Several Democratic politicians have already spoken at the convention, and more will be here tomorrow. Steve Westly spoke on behalf of the Obama campaign, exhorting members to sign up to help canvass for the campaign, particularly in Nevada and New Mexico. Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown are speaking tomorrow. I’ll have more coverage of their remarks at that time.
I have been writing about the heat deaths of the farm workers in California since May. (After the fold are links for diaries for background.)
Six have died since May. The latest one was Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, who died early this month. The first one to die was 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who died in May. Marie was about one month pregnant when she died, and likely did not ever know she was pregnant. The state fined the labor contractor $262,700 for failing to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken, but that won’t bring her back. And the deaths have continued at an accelarated pace since then.
You can help to end this tragedy!
This Monday, August 18, more than 800 farm workers from throughout California want to go to Sacramento.
They want the chance to tell the governor and their elected officials to support AB 2386, “Secret Ballot Elections for Farmworkers,” which has moved out of the assembly and which will be voted on that afternoon in the state senate.
After the fold, I’ll tell you how you can help the farmworkers help themselves.
(also on docudharma and a version will be on Daily Kos tomorrow)
I have been writing for months on the deaths of farm workers in California from the heat. Six farm workers deaths are being or have been investigated because of heat-related causes since May.
This brings to 15 the number of farm workers whose death have been investigated as heat-related since Governor Schwarzenegger took office.
You can learn more details of this continuing tragedy in these diaries:
As UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez said at the funeral of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez:
How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?
The state has fined the labor contractor for whom Maria Isabel worked:
Atwater-based Merced Farm Labor, the contractor investigated in the death of Lodi teen Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez last spring, was fined $262,700 by the state [in July] for failure to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken.
Jimenez, a 17-year-old pregnant farm laborer, collapsed May 14 in a Farmington vineyard operated by West Coast Grape Farming and died two days later. Her death from heatstroke was ruled an occupational death by the San Joaquin County coroner.
Since then, five more farm workers have died from what appears to be heat-related causes.
August 2, 2008: Maria de Jesus Alvarez.
July 31, 2008: Jorge Herrera.
July 9, 2008 Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez.
July 9, 2008 Abdon Felix Garcia.
June 20, 2008 Jose Macrena Hernandez.
These deaths make it clear the state does not have the capacity to protect farm workers. With all the budget cuts and other issues in California now, the state, even if well intentioned, simply has not been able to protect these workers. So they must protect themselves.
We can make a difference and it will not take much.
The vital legislation that Nunez has introduced–and the workers want to go to Sacramento and lobby for–protects farm workers’ right to a secret ballot election and will make it easier for farm workers to organize and enforce the laws that the state cannot enforce.
If you can’t attend please make a donation to help the United Farm Workers rent 14 buses, additional vans, plus pay for food and other supplies which will cost in excess of $31,770 for the day.
There is nothing more powerful than hearing a farm worker story face-to-face, especially to lawmakers.
Doroteo Jimenez, grape worker and uncle of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez who died in May explains why she must go to Sacremento.
I want to go to Sacramento and speak to the legislators.
My niece Maria Isabel died because growers treat us like tools instead of like people. I spoke up and I was unjustly fired. This needs to change now. I don’t want to see other families suffer like our family has. This bill can change farm workers’ lives for the better.
Please help us.
Margarita Hernandez, grape worker knows that that there must be changes in the workplace:
The reason for me to go to Sacramento is because I want changes in the working conditions at my job and the other companies. In the place where I work, Sun Pacific, we don’t have shade and the drinking water is without ice until 9 am-though they know that by that hour it is already hot. There have been people have felt sick from the heat and the company people always ask if they feel bad because of something they ate…I feel there is no respect for the farm worker, even though many farm workers have died. The companies don’t change their treatment towards the farm workers. That is why I am going to Sacramento. I have the hope that one day, we will be treated better.
Just to rent the buses and vans needed, will cost $26,570 and that does not cover the food and other supplies needed.
The UNF hopes that internet supporters would contribute $5,510 towards this expense. This will cover the transportation costs of 140 workers at $39.36 per worker. Let’s show them that Daily Kos can do it and more!
Can you make sure Doroteo, Margarita and others get seats on the bus?
Where farm workers are protected by union contracts, the laws are honored.
And when growers know it is easier for farm workers to organize and bring in the union, employers are much more careful about obeying the law because they don’t want to give the union an advantage.
So the answer, sisters and brothers, is self-help-making it easier for farm workers to organize so the laws on the books are the laws in the fields. Then more important human beings like Maria Isabel won’t have to die.
If you can’t attend please make a donation to help the United Farm Workers rent 14 buses, additional vans, plus pay for food and other supplies which will cost in excess of $31,770 for the day.
(This is an incredibly important story. (Also on Daily Kos and Docudharma) – promoted by Brian Leubitz)
(a commenter on Daily Kos suggested I cross post this diary here. It’s the right place. Please hit the link in the diary and send a message to your legislator. This cannot go on. Not in California and not in America.)
I have been writing about this story since May. (after the fold are links for diaries for background). Yet another farmworker has died from the heat. This is the sixth this summer.
Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, died from heat exposure in the fields on August 2. Her death makes six farm workers who died of heat exposure since May and the 15th farm worker heat death since California Governor Schwarzenegger took office. Even one is too many. Six this year is a tragedy. These deaths show that the state of California is unable to protect farm workers.
We must act. We must force action by the state to allow farm workers to protect themselves. For there are no others to do so.
If you care, join me after the fold.
I have been writing for months on the deaths of farm workers in California from the heat. You can follow the details of this continuing tragedy here.
As UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez said at the funeral of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez:
How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?
Yet another has fallen, a 63 year old woman, working in the fields. Would people ignore her death if this were their mother or grandmother? She’s somebody’s mom and somebody’s grandmother. She has value in herself. We all do and this should not happen to anyone.
Here’s the story of her final hours:
Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine died on August 2. Maria had been picking table grapes for Anthony Vineyards and was employed through farm labor contractor Manuel Torres during the afternoon of July 15. She began feeling ill and went home. According to witnesses, she was working in a crew of 150 workers and they had no shade nor had they received training in heat stroke prevention and precautions as mandated by state law. According to weather.com, the high that day was 111 degrees.
After Maria’s condition deteriorated, she was taken to a hospital on July 19. The doctor determined she was severely dehydrated and had suffered heat stroke. After being treated and admitted by two different hospitals, Maria died Aug. 2.
Maria’s death makes six farm workers who died of heat exposure since May and the 15th farm worker heat death since CA Governor Schwarzenegger took office.
These recent deaths make it clear the state does not have the capacity to protect farm workers. As California’s summer sizzles we must do everything we can to ensure that no more farm workers fall victim to the heat because the laws written to protect them are not enforced.
Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez has introduced secret ballot legislation which has moved out of the assembly and which is now in the state senate. The bill, “Secret Ballot Elections for Farm Workers”, protects farm workers’ right to a secret ballot election and will make it easier for farm workers to organize and enforce the laws that the state cannot enforce.
Your donation will help us keep the pressure on by launching a media campaign, lobbying the politicians, pressuring the growers, marching in the street, and doing everything we can to make sure this never happens again.
Governor Schwarzenegger came to Maria Isabel’s funeral and said he would do everything possible to prevent this from happening again. But 5 more have died since then. E-mail Gov. Schwarzenegger today!
If you know of any heat violations on California farms please call the United Farm Workers at 1-800-894-0746.
There are political and moral aspects to this, and they intertwine. The moral aspect is we simply cannot call ourselves civilized human beings and let this continue. Not In Our Nation.
The political aspect is that we can help make it easier for farm workers to organize so the laws on the books are the laws in the fields:
This governor issued the heat regulation in 2005, after three previous governors refused to act. Yet Governor Schwarzenegger is well aware of the limits of government. One of those limits is that even legal protections issued by a well-meaning governor mean little if we cannot give farm workers a way to use our good laws to protect themselves.
Our union has always believed that given the chance, farm workers could solve their own problems by organizing themselves and winning UFW contracts.
Where farm workers are protected by union contracts, the laws are honored.
And when growers know it is easier for farm workers to organize and bring in the union, employers are much more careful about obeying the law because they don’t want to give the union an advantage.
So the answer, sisters and brothers, is self-help-making it easier for farm workers to organize so the laws on the books are the laws in the fields. Then more important human beings like Maria Isabel won’t have to die.
The Los Angeles-based union, which represents low-wage caregivers, also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, a Beverly Hills cigar club, restaurants such as Morton’s steakhouse and a consulting contract with the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent shop, records show.
In addition, the union paid six figures to a video firm whose principals include a former union employee. And a now-defunct minor league basketball team coached by the president’s brother-in-law received $16,000 for what the union described as public relations, according to the union’s U.S. Labor Department filings and interviews.
It’s not clear if there are any legal violations here, and Freeman and his family members deny that there was anything inappropriate in the contracts and spending:
“Every expenditure has been in the context of fighting poverty,” [Freeman] said…. Freeman, 38, said the union’s members have benefited from the money spent on the video production and day-care companies that his wife and mother-in-law operate at their homes, because of what he termed the high quality of the services.
The article goes on to detail the expenditures and flaws with them, some of which went to nonprofits in trouble with the IRS and “entities” associated with former LA Rams star Eric Dickerson that have been suspended from doing business in California.
Labor unions constantly have to battle the usually false perception that they misuse funds, and face a well-funded right-wing campaign that seeks to undermine unions for even the slightest error. Most unions, including those I’ve been a part of, are very scrupulous about how they use money to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, so I am very surprised to hear that this was going on.
And I’m not alone in that. The article quotes Nelson Liechtenstein, one of the nation’s leading labor historians, as follows:
It’s very important for unions not to do this kind of thing,” he said. “Union leadership is a public trust — all the more so when the people being represented are among the lowest-paid in America.”…
Lichtenstein said the [$418,000 golf] tournament spending was troubling under any circumstances.
“I don’t care if they’re making money or not,” he said. “It’s disconnected from the world of the people they’re representing. No one’s playing golf who’s a home healthcare worker.
So this is going to be a difficult test of the union movement in LA and nationallly. But it’s a test. Freeman needs to step down and offer a full-throated apology. The union needs to ask for an independent audit of the local. And the public needs to hear immediately from union leadership — Stern, county labor chief Maria Elena Durazo, other top SEIU leaders such as janitors’ union chief Mike Garcia — about how such conduct must not be permitted in the movement. So far, the silence is deafening. Stern, in the story, refuses to address the conduct in question. That won’t cut it.
Why does the action need to be so clear-cut? Because the labor movement is on the rise in Los Angeles. To attend a city council meeting or a mayoral press conference is to watch the labor movement governing the city. As the journalist Harold Meyerson has written, the rise of the LA unions as a labor force has been aided by the widespread perception that our unions are not old-style, corrupt empires. This is supposed to be new labor. The public needs to see transparency and accountability in the response to this.
As for Freeman, I hope he can make amends for this conduct and have a future in the labor movement. But it can’t be as president of this local.
Matthews has it exactly right. The SEIU leadership needs to show that they won’t tolerate this kind of action within their ranks. Union democracy is important, and so is union accountability, union honesty, and union ethics. The misdeeds of one local unfortunately tend to get used to attack the labor movement as a whole – and Andy Stern and Tyrone Freeman in particular owe that movement answers and action.
Yesterday Julia gave the full, disheartening rundown on Governor Schwarzenegger’s attack on state employees. Also, Courtni Pugh shared the results of an SEIU poll demonstrating that Californians expect better from their Republican legislators on the budget to prevent these sort of wage cuts.
Today Courage Campaign releases a video in which state employees of SEIU 1000 speak out on the impact of the pay cuts. It’s right there, g’head and click play, then rate it up and add it to your favorites and other neat things. SEIU has been tremendous in this fight, not just pushing the politics of it all, but really pushing to make things happen for its members where the rubber hits the road. The Courage Campaign petition drive and call drive were great successes, but it’s the synergy with our labor allies that’s really pushing this to a new level.
These testimonials from state employees are often times difficult to hear. Not being able to pay bills, being forced to leave their homes, being driven out of the state workforce because it’s simply nowhere near a livable wage. This stunt by the governor is entirely backwards, and there’s plenty of evidence in the video. Punishing the people who are actually getting things done for the state as some sort of blustering threat to the few who aren’t getting it done is just nonsensical. You’d think he would at least be honest about it, but when signing the order yesterday, Schwarzenegger dropped this insulting gem:
QUESTION: Do you think that your action today will force the legislature, the added pressure, to come up with a budget solution faster?
GOVERNOR: This is not meant to do that.
If we’re to take him at his word then, he’s just cutting essential services and punishing honest, hard working public servants because he’s too lazy or uncreative to do anything productive. Which is why it’s so important to have the testimonials like in this video to bring public opinion to bear on Arnold’s outrageous behavior. Saving this state from its inner demons demands that these partnerships with labor continue to grow and strengthen. This is a great start that’s starting to deliver encouraging results.
Today was supposed to be the day that Schwarzenegger signed the executive order to cut over 200,000 state employees pay to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour. He has delayed that action until at least Thursday, which SEIU Local 1000, the Courage Campaign, True Majority and CREDO Mobile can take some credit for.
I just got back from a great day of actions at and around the capitol on this proposed wage cut. After picking up over 28,000 signed petitions, a big backdrop and an easel I headed to the airport to pick up Rick Jacobs, my boss and Chair/Founder of the Courage Campaign and Jethro Rothe-Kushel, our videographer.
We headed straight for the noon rally held by SEIU Local 1000, which represents nearly half of the workers at risk of living in poverty due to the proposed callous action by the governor. It was a great rally of about 200 Local 1000 members wearing their purple shirts, marching, chanting, blowing whistles and waving signs. Jethro snagged a few interviews with some Local 1000 members and it should be part of the video he produces in a day or two. The folks at Local 1000 were really happy to see all of these non-union activists being so supportive of their members and pushing back against the governor.
After the rally we grabbed a sandwich and then headed over with the sign, stand and the two boxes of petitions across the street from the Hyatt, where the governor stays when he is in town. Assemblyman Dave Jones joined us there. Sen. Florez and Controller Chiang had conflicts, but wanted to be there. We started off across the street from the capitol with Rick and Jones doing some one on one interviews. KCRA (local NBC affiliate), KXJZ (local NPR) and a few other print folks were there. The governor actually left in his motorcade as Jones was doing an interview.
Rick carried the big box (that sucker must have weighed at least 60 lbs) and Jones the smaller one across to the Hyatt, plastered with the Courage logo. We decided to drop them off at the Hyatt to point out how out of touch Arnold is with what he has proposed. The governor pays $293/night to stay in the suite. It would take someone working 44.7 hours at the federal minimum wage, without any taxes being taken out to afford just one night’s stay at the governor’s special rate. That is more than a week’s worth of work! (flip it…)
The concierge at the Hyatt was very nice, but explained that they had a policy of not accepting things for the governor and politiely suggested we take it to his office. Then a dude came up and asked if we had permission to be filming in the hotel. He was rather rude about it and insisted that the cameras be shut off, which everyone ignored and Jones took some umbrage with his statements.
So, we walked across the capitol, with Rick and Assemblyman Dave Jones carrying the box together and cameras and reporters in tow. This of course attracted other reporters once we got inside. Univision and the Bee among others. CHP stopped us at the door and asked what we were up to an explained we could not go inside. There seemed to be a crowd of folks, staff and lobbyists I presume inside. CHP had a staffer come out and talk to us. At first she suggested we take the boxes to the mail room, when Rick piped up and said something to the effect of “do you really want Assemblyman Jones to deliver this to the mail room”. She quickly rethought her plan and said she would be right back. A minute or two later she popped out and told us someone would be with us shortly.
It took about 10 minutes, while Rick and Jones did interviews, for the governor’s press secretary to show up. He said he would make sure they were handled properly and gave his speil to the Rick/Dave Jones. Well….really for the press’s benefit, about how the governor is hoping the legislative leaders work everything out in their negotiations.
He took them inside the office, but then emerged later and was headed in the direction of said mail room.
Hopefully, there will be some media coverage and it will place more pressure on the governor to rethink his proposal. As soon as the video is done and I get the pictures, I will be sure to put them up. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition, Credo and True Majority for helping push this out to their members and all of you who forwarded it to your friends and family. This is what activism is all about.
(Cross posted from Daily Kos and various other places. This diary talks about issues important to all, including Californians. If you want to protect the coast from off-shore drilling, the change in Teamster policy is a good thing. As the Blue/Green coalition grows, it’s good for all of us, no matter where we live. It’s the future. I also included the updates from Daily Kos in this diary)
This is big.
Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance! The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.
“We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing-not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,” Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. “We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power.”
Jim Hoffa announced the union’s withdrawal from the ANWR coalition, citing the need to build a green economy that fosters the development of alternative energy sources and creates good union jobs-instead of lining the pockets of big oil tycoons.
“Our economy is in shambles. Gas is climbing to $5 a gallon. The dollar has collapsed. Inflation is on the rise. Americans are seeing their paychecks shrink. Their family health care is being slashed,” Hoffa said. “Finding a long-term solution has a tremendous upside. It will be environmentally friendly and will serve as a much-needed boost to our sagging economy.”
Hoffa also thanked labor’s partners in the environmental movement, who are currently working to reduce emissions from port trucks. He urged the strengthening of the alliance, known as the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, to achieve a common goal: Good jobs and clean air.
“If we are to prosper as a nation, our future lies in a green economy,” he said. “But it’s up to us to help define the rules of that new green economy. A green economy means we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And it means creating good union jobs in America’s growing industries.”
This is the core of the Blue/Greeen alliance that will rebuild and remake a just America:
“A green economy means we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And it means creating good union jobs in America’s growing industries.”
Both.
The Sierra Club praised the Teamsters for this move.
“The Sierra Club and the environmental movement applaud your announcement and look forward to building a powerful movement together-a movement that helps workers, protects the environment, prevents global warming and rebuilds our economy with good, green jobs,” said Greg Haegele, The Sierra Club’s Director of Conservation. “We are proud to stand here today, as allies and friends of the Teamsters.”
Hoffa and the Teamsters are joining with Al Gore and Barack Obama in working to build a Green economy and all realize that we cannot drill our way out of this mess. We need alternative energy.
Barack Obama last week:
“For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President. It’s a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer.”
We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.
But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we’re holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.
The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.
In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of “solutions summits” with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.
What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don’t cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?
“We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing-not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power.”
Working together with labor, environmentalists and Democratic candidates, we can change America, solve our energy crisis, rebuild a greeen economy with good union jobs, and address global warming.
Jim Hoffa at Yearly Kos in 2007.
We need to work with the Teamsters and other unions to rebuild a Green America. Thank you Mr. Hoffa and all Teamsters! Solidarity!
Update. From Change to Win in the comments. Grist has a good write up on this:
For years, the Teamsters have supported opening the Arctic Refuge and other protected areas to oil drilling; they ran ads bashing John Kerry on it in 2004. So it is a Very Big Deal that the Teamsters have just come out and rejected drilling as a solution to the energy crisis.
At an event in Oakland, Calif., Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said that drilling won’t do anything to help; he announced that the Teamsters are withdrawing from the coalition pushing for Arctic drilling; and he stressed that pushing for “alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power” will revitalize the economy and create jobs.
It looks like reality is finally starting to bite in American politics.
UPDATE I: Kate called up Teamsters spokeswoman Leigh Strope for more on the move.
“Americans are suffering in this difficult economy,” said Strope. “[President Hoffa] really realized, like a lot of people have, that there needs to be a long-term energy solution. Like he said, we can’t drill our way out of this problem … We need a comprehensive energy policy to deal with this crisis.”
“It’s important to our members,” Strope continued. “There’s an opportunity to really explore the whole issue of green jobs, and that would obviously benefit Teamsters and all Americans.”
Update II: The Republicans are doubling down on drilling. This shows how important the Teamster decision to support alternatives is. Hoffa, Gore, and Obama all said it: “we can’t drill our way out of this.”
Senate GOP hands Dems oil ultimatum
By Manu Raju
Posted: 07/23/08 07:43 PM [ET]
Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed.
We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of the country,” McConnell said. “This is the biggest issue since terrorism right after 9/11. People are pounding on their desks, saying, Why don’t these people get together and do something about this problem?”
