For Immediate Release
Thanu Yakupitiyage, thanu@350.org, +1 (413) 687-5160
350.org on SEIU Green New Deal Endorsement: "Economic Justice Is Climate Justice"
WASHINGTON - Yesterday, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) became the first major union to endorse the Green New Deal, specifically underscoring the policy platform’s vitality in prioritizing workers, communities of color, and the working poor in the necessary and just transition to a fossil free world.
On this latest endorsement, Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, 350.org North America Director, issued the following statement:
“Economic justice is climate justice, and 350.org thanks SEIU for exercising its global leadership in endorsing a Green New Deal. True economic justice lifts up those who have been made voiceless and invisible, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color. We must band together to ensure the needs of these communities remain central to the vision and implementation of the Green New Deal.
‘“We have a bold, shared vision for a just and equitable world: renewable energy, modern infrastructure, and resiliency projects creating millions of good jobs; breathable air and clean water for all of us; union, family-supporting jobs for anyone who wants one; job retraining programs; fully-funded pension funds for former and transitioning fossil fuel workers; a $15 federal minimum wage; and those most responsible, instead of our communities, paying the costs of climate destruction.
“While fossil fuel executives and their bought-and-paid-for politicians attempt to delay and divide us, we are coming together to build a movement at scale with the climate crisis. We look forward to building multiracial and multigenerational power together to fight for the world that puts our health, safety, and democracy ahead of corporate profit and greed.”
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350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth. But solutions exist. All around the world, a movement is building to take on the climate crisis, to get humanity out of the danger zone and below 350. This movement is massive, it is diverse, and it is visionary. We are activists, scholars, and scientists. We are leaders in our businesses, our churches, our governments, and our schools. We are clean energy advocates, forward-thinking politicians, and fearless revolutionaries. And we are united around the world, driven to make our planet livable for all who come after us.