The tide of labor relations is changing as news comes in from our communities and around the country, of wage workers taking on the Amazon and Starbucks corporate commands and demanding labor unions.
This union fever is not just predominant in the corporate sector, as a March Time article “Inside the Capitol Hill Staffers’ Effort to Unionize Congress” shows. The need for folks to be respected, have fair wages, and work a fair schedule is a pervasive need across different sectors. This news shows why lessons from the past are so important in how we move our society forward in the face of uncertain circumstances
We are in the 10-day period between Earth Day and May Day, which has roots in the Chicago Haymarket uprisings. Historically these days were honored separately and unfortunately organized labor, immigrant workers and climate activists were pitted against one another by the wealthy. But this year we refuse to be divided, and unite under a common goal of winning a Green New Deal.
In this last year, we have witnessed worsening climate catastrophes, a growing number of climate refugees, fossil-fuel driven conflict and a pandemic. We’ve seen the federal government fail to take action on climate change or provide pathways to citizenship for migrant workers, while a partisan divide on public health grows. In the meantime, billion-dollar corporations such as Amazon take home record profits at the expense of its workers and our environment.
Many of our nation’s immigrants have been forced to leave their homes by crises of climate and capitalism. I am one of those immigrants. When my father was left jobless after an American factory shut down in Mexico, my family was unable to find work due to the decimation of the local economies and land by colonialism and capitalism.
We migrated to Illinois in search of work to sustain our family. I am a DACA recipient that DREAMs of a future. A future where we value and protect the clean air, water and land, where all workers can have a good union job, and all migrants have a pathway to citizenship. To achieve this we must pass a Green New Deal.
This Earth Day to May Day, we celebrate wins and demand a future. We celebrate the tremendous success of the organizers who forced Chicago to deny an operating permit for a scrap metal shredder on the Southeast Side. We need a future where elected officials protect our right to clean air without monthlong hunger strikes. We stand with McKinley Park effort to shut down the MAT Asphalt plant, located between two schools and across from the neighborhood’s largest green space.
Across Illinois, many of our working-class communities of color and immigrant communities are experiencing exploitation on the job. These workers and their families also come home to neighborhoods at the fence lines of major polluters, where they experience poor air quality and the resulting public and personal health concerns. When working-class Black, Latino and Asian American communities are hit first and worst by climate crises, environmental justice is a racial justice fight, a workers’ rights fight and an immigrant justice fight.
Emissions in communities of color account for about 75% of total diesel personal exposure in the country. According to a recent air quality report released by Warehouse Workers for Justice, “Diesel pollution … acts as a compounded burden on top of existing inequities, worsening quality of life and health outcomes for communities. … Not only are people of color living closest to sites of diesel and other kinds of pollution but working-class communities and communities of color are often employed in polluting industries.
Emissions in communities of color account for about 75% of total diesel personal exposure in the country. According to a recent air quality report released by Warehouse Workers for Justice, “Diesel pollution … acts as a compounded burden on top of existing inequities, worsening quality of life and health outcomes for communities … Not only are people of color living closest to sites of diesel and other kinds of pollution but working-class communities and communities of color are often employed in polluting industries.
In Illinois, Black and Latino workers account for 85% of temporary workers in factories and warehouses despite the state’s overall workforce being only 35% nonwhite.”
Despite these unprecedented environmental justice and worker wins, elected officials and regulatory agencies continue to act as roadblocks. When our government fails to take into account the environmental and labor implications in the procurement process, they disregard public process, land and health. Elected officials and regulatory agencies alike must commit to an immediate and just transition to renewable energy that centers the needs of workers and communities.
We need a future that can only be built together across race, class and sector lines. We need a livable climate, jobs and citizenship now. We need a Green New Deal, because the solution must be as interconnected as the problems.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Daniel Robles is a Chicago volunteer with the Sunrise Movement, a national organization that advocates political action on climate change.
