Environmental Justice

April 20, 2020

How Strikes and Community Coalitions Can Address the Crises We Are Facing

The Leap presents a webinar, 6pm ET, on how a property service union in Minnesota, representing 4,000 janitors who clean corporate office buildings, went on strike with support of environmental justice groups during their recent contract fight. Their lessons learned can be applied to our current moment, when bargaining for the common good is a tool we all need to address a global pandemic and economic crisis.

Visibility: 

"A U.S. Tribe’s Uphill Battle Against Climate Change"

"For several years, Fawn Sharp has seen her tribe on the coastline of Washington state lurch from crisis to crisis: rising sea levels have flooded the Quinault Indian Nation’s main village, and its staple sockeye salmon in nearby rivers have all but disappeared – a direct hit to the tribe’s finances and culture."

Source: Reuters, 04/14/2020

"EPA Charts Path To Suspend Hazardous Waste Cleanup Amid Coronavirus"

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday announced that the cleanup of hazardous waste sites and other pollution spills may be slowed or paused during the coronavirus outbreak."

Source: The Hill, 04/13/2020

"He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus"

"An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response."

Source: NY Times, 04/13/2020

EPA Skips Normal Public Process To OK BASF’s Cancer-Linked Pesticide

"This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that soybean farmers in 25 states are now able to spray a pesticide that the agency has determined is likely to cause cancer and drift hundreds of feet from where it is applied."

"White House: Pandemic Throws Wrench Into Trump's Rulemaking Timeline"

"The Trump administration has been rushing to finalize environmental rules by mid-May to bulletproof them from future Democratic overturn, but the COVID-19 pandemic may throw off that schedule."

Source: Greenwire, 04/10/2020

Unprotected, Farmworkers Live in Fear of Covid-19 but Keep Working

"As Americans shelter in place across much of the country, washing their hands and making sure to stay six feet away from others, the farmworkers carpool on grocery runs. At day's end, most retreat to cramped, crowded quarters, sleeping several to a room."

Source: InsideClimate News, 04/06/2020

Tribes Have Highest Rates Of Diseases That Make COVID-19 More Lethal

"They hastily piled all the dumbbells and treadmills in the back of a gym to make room for 23 extra hospital beds. The beds aren’t needed yet, but on a reservation where residents suffer high rates of diseases that exist throughout Indian Country, the Lummi Tribal Health Clinic is taking every precaution to prepare for the deadly coronavirus."

Source: Washington Post, 04/06/2020

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