Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) supports the refinery workers in the United Steelworkers International Union (USW) in their ongoing nationwide strike against oil refining corporations in the U.S. At stake are worker health and safety rights—and, ultimately, our environmental health and safety, and yours. Environmental justice demands everyone’s right to a safe and healthy work environment and challenges the false choice that would force us to choose between our health and our jobs. Indeed, fighting for worker rights protects community health and safety. Our research documents a grim reality in refinery communities: preventable ‘incidents’ injure and kill workers and nearby residents alike while oil companies that fight stronger oversight still cut corners on safety in refineries. The workers on the front line, operating the plants, are our last line of defense against another toxic spill, fire, or explosion. Worker rights are critical, also, to protecting our climate. The transformation from fossil energy to sustainable energy that we need to avert a climate disaster is a big job that will take all of us, and our solution needs to take care of all of us. CBE’s vision for climate justice demands a ‘just transition’ for workers, and that starts with worker rights. The fight for clean, safe jobs is your fight too. We can be healthier and safer together. Articles on the oil workers struggle: Residentes exigen que agencias estales asuman responsabilidad y cumplan con leyes ambientales con cerre definitive de Planta Exide. [Aviso de Rueda de Prensa] Residents and Exide neighbors call on the DTSC and elected officials to place community health and safety before financial interest. [Media Advisory] Refinery neighbors and concerned groups testifying before SCAQMD on 02/06/15 to urge the governing board to proceed with a full environmental review. For CBE’s lawsuit challenging the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s rubber-stamping of a Phillips 66 expansion project in Carson, CA and the SCAQMD governing board hearing, click [HERE]. Carson residents, CBE members and allies fought off 200 wells proposed in the City of Carson! See CBE and the Center for Biological Diversity’s legal and technical comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for Oxy’s massive oil production development proposal, and see our 2014 community update regarding the project, which could have involved dangerous well stimulation techniques including hydraulic fracturing and harmful air, soil and groundwater emissions in an already disproportionately burdened environmental justice community. Check out more coverage of Oxy’s withdrawal [here] from the Daily Breeze. December 11, 2014 CBE statement regarding police violence Communities for a Better Environment joins the millions of people mourning the senseless violent killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. We mourn for Andy Lopez, Tamir Rice, and Ayina Jones, three children who fell victim to police violence. We mourn for Rekia Byod, Yvette Smith, and the countless women of color who have been killed by police but whose deaths are often not recognized as symptoms of the same racism that kills people of color. These men, women and children are now added to the impossibly long list of human beings whose breath has been stolen by actions of police who, more often than not, have gone unpunished. The nature of these killings and the subsequent lack of justice represent a long history of total disregard for the lives of people of color in this country. Black people have been lynched, tortured, and killed by police for centuries; migrants from Mexico, Central and South America have been murdered by border patrol along the Mexico U.S border for decades; and Native Americans continue to suffer the consequences of government-sanctioned genocide. We believe that the justice system is broken and unable to deliver justice for people of color. We support many proposed changes to help in the short term, but until we attack, head on, the root cause — institutionalized racism — communities of color will not have access to justice. This failure of justice applies as much to cops killing black men and women as it does to corporate polluters killing children and elders. We stand in solidarity with our members in Southeast Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Wilmington, Richmond, Oakland and communities of color across the U.S as they demand justice for the lost lives as a result of poor air quality, exposure to toxins, lack of economic opportunity and the militarization of their communities. Everyone has the right to a safe and healthy community. This is the fight for freedom to breathe. Power to the People, Byron Gudiel — For the PDF file click, here Thursday, Dec. 4, 2:30pm. Join CBE and allies for a virtual Town Hall on smog in LA. Learn how poor air quality effects you and how you can advocate for more clean air. More info on the call, here. December 10th, 9am-1pm at Lynwood Bateman Hall. Hear from our local elected officials of the Latino Legislative Caucus, top experts on environmental health issues and community leaders on air quality, clean transportation, and green jobs. More information here. Supervisor Gloria Molina criticized DTSC for not protecting community needs and public health. NBC4 News reports from the news conference held on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014. Join CBE and allies on December 17, 2014 at 9:30 a.m. at Air District Board of Directors Public Meeting at 939 Ellis Street (near Van Ness), San Francisco, CA 94109. Click here for Climate Justice Policy on Oil Refining background.
CBE Supports Striking Refinery Workers
East Bay USW Tesoro Workers Strike
Residentes Piden Justicia Ambiental! (English below)
[Media Advisory] Re: SCAQMD
OXY Petroleum Pulls out of Carson!
CBE statement regarding police violence
Executive Director
CBE Exposes More Tar Sands Crude in California
Call In for Clean Air
Healthy Future for California’s Latino Communities
[Video] Los Angeles County Supervisors critical of DTSC & Exide settlement agreement
Climate Justice Policy on Oil Refining
