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Over 100 environmental, advocacy, consumer, and civil society groups today called on the Big Three automakers to move quickly to agree to a contract that protects workers rights and prioritizes workers in the United States as the vehicle fleet transitions towards electric vehicles (EVs). Members of United Auto Workers (UAW) are set to go on strike this week if automakers fail to meet their demands.
In an open letter signed by Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace USA, Mighty Earth, and Labor Network for Sustainability, groups called on General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., and Stellantis N.V., to center workers and communities in negotiations and protect those workers in the EV transitions.
The letter insists that the transition cannot be a “race to the bottom” that further exploits workers. Its demands include:
As part of the letter, Public Citizen, Mighty Earth, and Labor Network for Sustainability held a rally outside of Detroit’s Huntington Place, home of the 2023 North American International Auto Show. The event, held on the first day of the show, included speakers from the three organizations. During the rally, speakers urged the Big Three automakers to meet the UAW’s demands, revealed a banner of support, and then distributed postcards with links to the solidarity letter to passersby.
Quotes:
“The Inflation Reduction Act is poised to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into the automakers efforts to transition to electric vehicles. As taxpayers help propel the transition, automakers must prioritize creating millions of good, union jobs for employees—alongside switching to green steel, sustainable recycling of EV batteries, and robust transparency for consumers and communities.” – Erika Thi-Patterson, auto supply chain campaign director at Public Citizen’s Climate Program.
“UAW’s fight for fair wages, equal pay for equal work, good EV jobs, and economic security for workers and communities on the cutting edge of the clean energy transition is a struggle shared with all advocates of climate justice. For the transition off fossil fuels to succeed, it’s imperative that it is a just transition that can convince millions of people to take the leap of faith into the new green economy. Big 3 Auto CEOs may be benefiting from taxpayer-funded EV subsidies, but their failure to provide a strong contract that meets the demands of their workers is holding the climate movement back. The Labor Network for Sustainability is honored to stand in solidarity with auto workers, and on the right side of history.” – Joshua Dedmond, co-director at Labor Network for Sustainability.
“The transition to a carbon-neutral material supply chain for electric vehicles must include respect for human rights, including strong union jobs. The EV transition cannot be a ‘race to the bottom’ that further exploits workers and fenceline communities. The transition can be a vehicle for economic and racial justice if we use UAW’s demands as our roadmap: equal pay for equal work, fair wages tied to living costs, equitable treatment in battery production, and the creation of secure, safe, and unionized EV jobs.” – Matthew Groch, senior director for Heavy Industry Decarbonization at Mighty Earth.
“We do not have to choose between good jobs and green jobs. Corporate titans will try to split our movement by presenting us with a false choice. They’ll try to argue that building more clean cars is more important than supporting workers. But we know better. Our collective movement can only succeed if workers directly benefit from climate action. Evergreen and the environmental movement are ready to stand with workers because a fair transition to a clean energy future does not just mean deploying clean technology—it means advancing a working class economic agenda that supports workers and communities. It is incumbent on the president and the climate movement to further support the UAW in this fight and help ensure that the EV transition doesn’t become a corporate race to the bottom.” – Trevor Dolan, industry and workforce policy lead at Evergreen Action.
“Greenpeace USA commends the 150,000 UAW auto workers for bravely confronting the corporate greed of the ‘Big 3’ automakers by demanding that ‘record profits must mean record contracts’ for workers. Greenpeace USA has joined over 100 climate organizations and millions of Americans uniting in solidarity with auto workers because we know that economic and racial justice for workers and our communities is possible if we fight for it together. The revival of domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles must also deliver on the promise of safe, dependable, good paying UNION jobs across the entire supply chain. In addition, we call on the Biden Administration and all those in government at the federal, state and local level to use every tool at their disposal to ensure strong labor standards are deployed alongside any support that taxpayers provide for EV automakers. It’s time for the Big 3 CEOs to deliver what these workers have demanded — a fair contract and a just transition now!” – Ben Smith, senior campaigner at Greenpeace USA.
“The UAW contracts with the Big Three are a rare moment to lead on both worker justice and climate justice. We know that auto manufacturers can afford to do both of these things. Quality careers at the Big Three have historically been a pathway to the middle class – especially for rural and Black workers – but previous concessions have made it harder for these workers to obtain these quality careers. The Big Three have been able to keep wages stagnant through two-tier wage systems and threaten to lower pay and safety standards at new electric vehicle manufacturing plants throughout the South. Transitioning to a cleaner energy future must empower workers and secure thriving careers for generations to come. Jobs With Justice stands with UAW!” – Nafisah Ula, organizing director at Jobs with Justice.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
(202) 588-1000"Trump cozying up with the industry is wildly unpopular," asserted climate campaigner Jamie Henn.
Noting former U.S. President Donald Trump's coziness with the fossil fuel industry and the fact that an overwhelming majority of voters want politicians to tackle its greed, one prominent climate campaigner urged Vice President Kamala Harris—the Democratic nominee—to highlight her Republican opponent's Big Oil ties during Tuesday night's debate.
"Harris should absolutely go after Trump for being in the pocket of Big Oil," Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn said on social media, adding that "89% of Americans want politicians to crack down on Big Oil price gouging."
In a
separate post, Henn urged ABC News, which is hosting the first—and likely only—2024 presidential debate, to ask the candidates about the climate emergency.
"Ninety-nine percent of Americans have experienced some form of extreme weather this year," he wrote. "If ABC News doesn't ask about the climate crisis this evening, it's journalistic malpractice."
On Tuesday, a trio of Democratic U.S. lawmakers called on fossil fuel executives to comply with a request for "information regarding quid pro quo solicitations" from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier this year promised to gut climate regulations if they donated $1 billion to his Republican presidential campaign.
Climate campaigners have been warning of the dangers of a second term for Trump, who during his previous administration rolled back regulations protecting the climate, environment, and biodiversity, resulting in increased pollution and
premature deaths and fueling catastrophic planetary heating.
"If a Trump administration was merely going to be a four-year interregnum, it would be annoying. But in fact it comes at precisely the moment when we need, desperately,
acceleration," 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben wrote in a Guardian opinion article last week.
"The world's climate scientists have done their best to set out a timetable: Cut emissions in half by 2030 or see the possibilities of anything like the Paris pathway, holding temperature increases to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, disappear," he continued. "That cut is on the bleeding edge of the technically possible, but only if everyone is acting in good faith. And the next presidential term will end in January of 2029, which is 11 months before 2030."
"If we elect Donald Trump, we may feel the effects not for years, and not for a generation," McKibben added. "We may read our mistake in the geological record a million years hence. This one really counts."
"Anti-abortion opponents are trying everything to keep abortion rights questions away from voters—but their dirty tricks keep failing," said one campaigner.
Reproductive freedom defenders on Tuesday cheered the Missouri Supreme Court's restoration of an abortion rights referendum—one of numerous 2024 ballot initiatives seeking to codify access to the healthcare procedure in states from coast to coast.
Missouri's highest court overturned Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh's ruling removing Amendment 3—also known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative—from the November 5 ballot. Limbaugh ordered Republican Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who decertified the measure on Monday, to place it back on the ballot.
“The majority of Missourians want politicians out of their exam rooms, and today's decision by the Missouri Supreme Court keeps those politicians out of the voting booth as well," Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action vice president of external affairs Margot Riphagen
said on social media. "On November 5, Missouri voters will declare their right to reproductive freedom, ensuring decisions about our bodies and our healthcare—including abortion—stay between us, our families, and our providers."
Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project—which provides funding and technical assistance to abortion rights campaigns in Missouri, Arizona, Montana, and Florida—said in a statement that "anti-abortion opponents are trying everything to keep abortion rights questions away from voters—but their dirty tricks keep failing. They know that when voters have a say, reproductive freedom is upheld time and time again."
Chris Hatfield, a lawyer representing abortion rights groups in the case, toldThe New York Times: "This is a big deal. The court will send a message today about whether, in our little corner of the democracy, the government will honor the will of the people, or will have it snatched away."
Missouri has one of the nation's most draconian abortion bans, with the procedure
prohibited in almost all circumstances "except in cases of medical emergency." The ban—which dates to 2019—took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturnedRoe v. Wade in 2022.
The Midwestern state joins
at least seven others in which abortion will be on the ballot this November. Every abortion rights ballot measure since the overturn of Roe has passed.
In neighboring Nebraska, the state Supreme Court on Monday
heard arguments in three lawsuits filed by activists trying to keep multiple abortion rights referenda off the ballot.
"You don't have to agree with the tactics of climate activists to understand the importance of defending their rights to protest and to free speech."
Rich Western countries have cracked down on non-violent climate protests with harsh laws and lengthy prison sentences, in violation of international law and the civil rights they champion globally, according to a report released Monday by Climate Rights International.
CRI, an advocacy group based in California, found that Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States had used heavy-handed measures to silence climate protesters in recent years. The measures aren't in keeping with the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association enshrined in international law, the report says.
"You don't have to agree with the tactics of climate activists to understand the importance of defending their rights to protest and to free speech," Brad Adams, CRI's executive director, said in a statement.
"Governments too often take such a strong and principled view about the right to peaceful protest in other countries—but when they don't like certain kinds of protests at home they pass laws and deploy the police to stop them," Adams toldThe Guardian.
“These defenders are basically trying to save the planet... These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by governments & corporations as a threat to be neutralised. In the end it’s about power & economics”
- @MaryLawlorhrdshttps://t.co/WPunhbDhCq
— Dr. Aaron Thierry (@ThierryAaron) September 10, 2024
The CRI report details relevant international law, disproportionate actions taken against climate protestors, and draconian new laws established in four of the countries studied. It also lays out recommendations and proposed reforms. CRI was founded in 2022 with a mission that states, "Progress on climate change cannot succeed without protecting human rights—and the fight for human rights cannot succeed without protecting our planet against climate change."
The examples of government crackdowns on climate protesters are numerous. In October 2022, Just Stop Oil activists Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker climbed the cables of a major bridge in England and remained there for two days, causing police to stop traffic across the bridge. They called for the U.K. to stop licensing new oil and gas projects in the North Sea.
Trowland and Decker were each subsequently sentenced to more than 30 months in prison under a 2022 law passed by the Conservative government that led the country at the time. The sentencing prompted concern from a United Nations special rapporteur. An op-ed published Tuesday in The Guardian by Linda Lakhdhir, CRI's legal director, indicated that the Labour Party, now in power in the U.K., has not made a total break from the Conservatives policies.
A similar U.K. case involved Just Stop Oil's disruption of traffic on a highway in November 2022. Five campaigners, including Roger Hallam, well-known as a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, had spoken on a Zoom call designed to increase participation in the direct action. This July, they were each sentenced to at least four years in jail, with Hallam receiving a five-year sentence—the longest sentences ever given in the country for non-violent protest, The Guardianreported.
Michel Forst, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, attended part of the trial and called the sentencing a "dark day for peaceful environmental protest."
The attempt to silence climate protest has gone well beyond the U.K. In late August, a German court sentenced a 65-year-old man to nearly two years in prison for blocking a road as part of a protest. An Australian protester was given 15 months in prison for blocking one lane in a five-lane road for 28 minutes in 2022.
In April 2023, Joanna Smith was one of two protesters who put water-soluble paint on the protective case of a sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She faced unexpectedly harsh federal charges—for two felonies—that could have landed her in prison for five years, and ended up making a plea deal for a 60-day sentence. Her fellow protestor, Timothy Martin, has a trial scheduled for November.
The report makes the following four general recommendations for governments:
The final recommendation stems from the fact that some jurisdictions and judges have prevented climate activists from stating the reasons for their civil disobedience in court. A U.K. judge, Silas Reid, has repeatedly denied climate protesters the ability to explain their motivations to juries, and even jailed two of them for contempt of court when they did so anyway.
The U.S. has not passed a harsh federal bill along the lines of the 2022 U.K. law, but many states have placed anti-protest laws on the books in recent years, and other state legislatures have considered measures, the report says. A 2019 Texas law strengthened penalties for protests around pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, and a 2020 Tennessee law did so for "inconvenient" protests.
Harsh penalties are not the only danger that environmental defenders face. Nearly 200 environmental defenders were killed across the world in 2023, according a report released Tuesday by Global Witness.
Crackdowns on non-violent protest in rich Western countries extend beyond the issue of climate. Pro-Palestinian campus protests in the U.S. have also seen harsh crackdowns in the past year, with fears among campaigners that anti-protest measures could increase.
The report posits that governments should take a different approach to such civil disobedience, given its importance in spurring social change in the past.
"Governments should welcome peaceful protests as the sign of an engaged citizenry," the report says. "Those who engage in peaceful protest should, at a minimum, be assured that their rights will be respected."