SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
Hannah Connor, Center for Biological Diversity, (202) 681-1676, hconnor@biologicaldiversity.org
Darcey Rakestraw, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-2467, drakestraw@fwwatch.org
Steve Ralls, Public Justice, (202) 861-5246, sralls@publicjustice.net
The Center for Biological Diversity and Food & Water Watch today filed a notice of intent to sue JBS USA and the Swift Beef Company for illegally dumping slaughterhouse pollution into Colorado waterways, putting people and wildlife in danger and violating the Clean Water Act.
The Lone Tree Wastewater Treatment Plant processes up to 4 million gallons of wastewater each year from two slaughterhouses located along the Front Range at the confluence of the South Platte and Cache la Poudre Rivers. For years it has been illegally discharging dangerous wastes, including ammonia nitrogen and suspended solids, into a tributary of the South Platte River, threatening Colorado citizens as well as the survival of an endangered fish called the pallid sturgeon.
"It's disgusting that JBS has been allowed for years to treat Colorado's waterways as a sewer for dangerous meatpacking waste," said Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The company needs to clean up its filthy act, both to protect public health and save endangered wildlife."
Today's notice follows chronic violations of Lone Tree's Clean Water Act permit. The facility, maintained by JBS USA and the Swift Beef Company in the city of Greeley, processes animal fat, meat, pathogens, ammonia and excrement. Its violations include failing to meet toxicity testing standards for discharged waste, unpermitted discharges of total suspended solids and ammonia nitrogen and failing to report violations.
"JBS is among the biggest companies controlling the vast majority of meat consumed in the United States. The consolidated nature of the meat industry means fewer facilities creating more and more toxic waste," said Tarah Heinzen, staff attorney at Food & Water Watch. "It's up to this powerful and extremely profitable company -- not Colorado residents -- to clean up its own mess."
The South Platte River is a vital freshwater resource that originates in the Rocky Mountains and flows through Denver and across northeastern Colorado before entering Nebraska and eventually joining the Missouri River.
The broad, shallow waters of the lower Platte River are downstream from the plant. As it meanders through eastern Colorado and into Nebraska, the river provides important habitat for endangered pallid sturgeon.
The river is also within the migratory path known as the North American Central Flyway. It provides essential habitat for birds, including the endangered whooping crane, northern Great Plains population of the piping plover and interior least term.
"As government agencies increasingly fail to step in and enforce the law, citizens and communities are mobilizing to hold polluters like JBS and Swift Beef accountable in the courts," said Neil Levine, environmental enforcement project staff attorney at Public Justice and counsel for the plaintiffs. "From failing to comply with environmental permits to being the epicenter for massive beef recalls due to E. coli and salmonella contamination, these companies have imperiled their neighbors and their customers for far too long. When regulators refuse to act, the courts have a critical role to play in enforcing the law and protecting public health and safety."
Background
JBS USA is a leading processor of beef and pork in the United States and a majority shareholder of Pilgrim's Pride Corporation, the second largest U.S. poultry company. The Swift Beef Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of JBS USA.
According to a recent report, approximately three quarters of large U.S. meat-processing plants that discharge their wastewater directly into streams and rivers were found to be violating their already lax Clean Water Act permit requirements, with some dumping as much nitrogen pollution as small cities and facing little or no enforcement.
JBS owns the fourth highest number of plants determined in that report to be in violation of their Clean Water Act Permits. Pilgrim's Pride, also owned by JBS, was found to have the second most plants with violations.
In a separate report, JBS facilities, including Pilgrim's Pride slaughter operations, were found to have dumped more than 37.6 million pounds of pollution into waterways between 2010 and 2014.
Wastewater from meat and poultry processing facilities contains high concentrations of pollutants such as total suspended solids, oil and grease, pathogens, nutrients such as nitrogen (including ammonia) and phosphorus, and metals such as copper and zinc. Discharging these pollutants into streams can lead to fish kills and other harm to aquatic species.
Nutrient pollution can also lead to toxic algal blooms that can hurt wildlife and humans. Habitat degradation can also result from increased suspended solids, which block sunlight and may damage spawning grounds and feeding habitats.
The Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of any pollutant, including industrial, municipal and agricultural wastes, from any point source into waters unless allowed by permit. Permit violations are enforceable under the Act's citizen suit provision.
Today's letter gives JBS USA and the Swift Beef Company 60 days to resolve the violations noticed by the Center for Biological Diversity and Food & Water Watch. The organizations are represented in this action by counsel with the nonprofit legal advocacy organization Public Justice, as well as in-house counsel.
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500Unionized machinists are set to vote on the contract on Thursday.
A tentative deal made early Sunday morning between aerospace giant Boeing and the union that represents more than 33,000 of its workers was a testament to the "collective voice" of the employees, said the union's bargaining committee—but members signaled they may reject the offer and vote to strike.
The company and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 reached an agreement that if approved by members in a scheduled Thursday vote, would narrowly avoid a strike that was widely expected just day ago, when Boeing and the bargaining committee were still far apart in talks over wages, health coverage, and other crucial issues for unionized workers.
The negotiations went on for six months and resulted on Sunday in an agreement on 25% general wage increases over the tentative contract's four years, a reduction in healthcare costs for workers, an increase in the amount Boeing would contribute to retirement plans, and a commitment to building the company's next aircraft in Washington state. The union had come to the table with a demand for a 40% raise over the life of the contract.
"Members will now have only one set of progression steps in a career, and vacation will be available for use as you earn it," negotiating team leaders Jon Holden and Brandon Bryant told members. "We were able to secure upgrades for certain job codes and improved overtime limits, and we now have a seat at the table regarding the safety and quality of the production system."
Jordan Zakarin of the pro-labor media organization More Perfect Union reported that feedback he'd received from members indicated "a strike may still be on the cards," and hundreds of members of the IAM District 751 Facebook group replied, "Strike!" on a post regarding the tentative deal.
The potential contract comes as Boeing faces federal investigations, including a criminal probe by the Department of Justice, into a blowout of a portion of the fuselage on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 jetliner that took place when the plane was mid-flight in January.
The Federal Aviation Administration has placed a limit on the number of 737 MAX planes Boeing can produce until it meets certain safety and manufacturing standards.
As The Seattle Timesreported on Friday, while Boeing has claimed it is slowing down production and emphasizing safety inspections in order to ensure quality, mechanics at the company's plant in Everett, Washington have observed a "chaotic workplace" ahead of the potential strike, with managers "pushing partially assembled 777 jets through the assembly line, leaving tens of thousands of unfinished jobs due to defects and parts shortages to be completed out of sequence on each airplane."
Holden and Bryant said Sunday that "the company finds itself in a tough position due to many self-inflicted missteps."
"It is IAM members who will bring this company back on track," they said. "As has been said many times, there is no Boeing without the IAM."
Without 33,000 IAM members to assemble and inspect planes, a strike would put Boeing in an even worse position as it works to meet manufacturing benchmarks.
On Thursday, members will vote on whether or not to accept Boeing's offer and on reaffirming a nearly unanimous strike vote that happened over the summer.
If a majority of members reject the deal and at least two-thirds reaffirm the strike vote, a strike would be called.
If approved, the new deal would be the first entirely new contract for Boeing workers since 2008. Boeing negotiated with the IAM over the last contract twice in 2011 and 2013, in talks that resulted in higher healthcare costs for employees and an end to their traditional pension program.
"Expressing one's vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power," said one demonstrator.
In cities and towns across France on Saturday, more than 100,000 people answered the call from the left-wing political party La France Insoumise for mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron's selection of a right-wing prime minister.
The demonstrations came two months after the left coalition won more seats than Macron's centrist coalition or the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the National Assembly and two days after the president announced that Michel Barnier, the right-wing former Brexit negotiator for the European Union, would lead the government.
The selection was made after negotiations between Macron and RN leader Marine Le Pen, leading protesters on Saturday to accuse the president of a "denial of democracy."
"Expressing one's vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power," a protester named Manon Bonijol toldAl Jazeera.
A poll released on Friday by Elabe showed that 74% of French people believed Macron had disregarded the results of July's snap parliamentary elections, and 55% said the election had been "stolen."
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), or France Unbowed, also accused Macron of "stealing the election" in a speech at the demonstration in Paris on Saturday.
"Democracy is not just the art of accepting you have won but the humility to accept you have lost," Mélenchon told protesters. "I call you for what will be a long battle."
He added that "the French people are in rebellion. They have entered into revolution."
Macron's centrist coalition won about 160 assembly seats out of 577 in July, compared to the left coalition's 180. The RN won about 140.
Barnier's Les Républicains (LR) party won fewer than 50 parliamentary seats. French presidents have generally named prime ministers, who oversee domestic policy, from the party with the most seats in the National Assembly.
Barnier signaled on Friday that he would largely defend Macron's pro-business policies and could unveil stricter anti-immigration reforms. Macron has enraged French workers and the left with policies including a retirement age hike last year.
Protests also took place in cities including Nantes, Nice, Montpellier, Marseilles, and Strasbourg.
All four left-wing parties within the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition have announced plans to vote for a motion of no confidence against Barnier.
The RN has not committed to backing Barnier's government yet and leaders have said they are waiting to see what policies he presents to the National Assembly before deciding how to proceed in a no confidence vote.
"Our fight to ensure that voters—not politicians—have the final say is far from over," said one organizer.
Campaigners who last month celebrated the success of their effort to place an abortion rights referendum on November ballots in Missouri faced uncertainty about the ballot initiative Friday night, after a judge ruled that organizers had made an error on their petitions that rendered the measure invalid.
Judge Christopher Limbaugh of Cole County Circuit Court sided with pro-forced pregnancy lawmakers and activists who had argued that Missourians for Constitutional Freedom had not sufficiently explained the ramifications of the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative, or Amendment 3, which would overturn the state's near-total abortion ban.
The state constitution has a requirement that initiative petitions include "an enacting clause and the full text of the measure," and clarify the laws or sections of the constitution that would be repealed if the amendment were passed.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom included the full text of the measure on their petitions, which were signed by more than 380,000 residents—more than twice the number of signatures needed to place the question on ballots.
Opponents claimed, though, that organizers did not explain to signatories the meaning of "a person's fundamental right to reproductive freedom."
Limbaugh accused the group of a "blatant violation" of the constitution.
Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for the group, said it "remains unwavering in [its] mission to ensure Missourians have the right to vote on reproductive freedom on November 5."
"The court's decision to block Amendment 3 from appearing on the ballot is a profound injustice to the initiative petition process and undermines the rights of the... 380,000 Missourians who signed our petition," said Sweet. "Our fight to ensure that voters—not politicians—have the final say is far from over."
Limbaugh said he would wait until Tuesday, when the state is set to print ballots, to formally issue an injunction instructing the secretary of state to remove the question.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom said it plans to appeal to a higher court, but if the court declines to act, the question would be struck from ballots.
As the case plays out in the coming days, said Missouri state Rep. Eric Woods (D-18), "it's a good time for a reminder that Missouri's current extreme abortion ban has ZERO exceptions for rape or incest. And Missouri Republicans are hell bent on keeping it that way."
The ruling came weeks after the Arkansas Supreme Court disqualified an abortion rights amendment from appearing on November ballots, saying organizers had failed to correctly submit paperwork verifying that paid canvassers had been properly trained.