Dear friends,
I thought I’d get a post out yesterday, but it did not happen. So, we blew by my gloomy Monday post and we have only good news today.
Jess Craven, phone-banker extraordinaire, reported that Democrat Henry Whitehorn was elected Caddo Parish Sheriff in Louisiana, defeating his Republican opponent by one vote! This year, the Environmental Voter Project began working in Louisiana and mobilized low-propensity environmental voters for this race!
Get involved with the Environmental Voter Project!
To start, 1,000 feet of canal managed by the reservation will be covered with solar panels, a pilot project that tribal officials said will hopefully be expanded across the reservation’s 140-mile irrigation system, a critical resource in a region where water is increasingly scarce. The tribe is using federal funds for the first phase of the $6.7 million project, which is slated for completion in 2025, and will work with the US Army Corps of Engineers to construct it.
The biggest solar farm — ever, anywhere. . . so far — will power nearly 200,000 homes and eliminate over 2.4 million tons of carbon emissions annually in the United Arab Emirates. The construction was completed quickly as part of a PR campaign ahead of COP28, the annual global climate summit that kicks off in Dubai this week.
There is good news for public employees in NYS: the governor just signed an amendment to section 80 of the civil service law to protect more experienced workers from being the first to be let go because of their high salaries. The amendment also ensures
that those who are laid off have the first opportunity to have their old jobs back.
Governor Hochul also signed a bill to protect freelance workers. Among other things, it stipulates that freelancers must be paid within 30 days of completion of service and that employers may not compel workers to accept less than the agreed-upon sum of money.
The law protects workers against retaliation from employers and creates a mechanism for filing complaints with the NYS Commissioner of Labor when there are violations.
Transportation Workers Union Locals 2001 and 2055 have reached a tentative labor agreement with Metro-North Railroad, winning a retroactive wage increase of 9.5 percent for 600 train mechanics, inspectors, cleaners and cabinet makers. The increase goes back to September 2019.
Starbucks workers staged their Red Cup Rebellion on the company’s biggest promotional day, and found that consumers were very supportive. The union has not yet successfully negotiated a contract since the union organized its first stores. Benjamin I. Sachs, Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School, believes that the public reception of the strike on Red Cup day may be
the morale boost [needed by] union workers, who are "forming a union and facing these legally imposed hurdles to concluding an agreement.”
Negotiators are currently working to further extend the ceasefire in Gaza. Each extension brings new releases of people who were kidnapped by Hamas and Palestinians who were imprisoned in Israel. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have reached Gaza and the first of three US military planeloads of humanitarian aid is on its way.
Artist Rachel Schragis “developed Vent Diagrams with restorative justice educator E.M. Eisen Markowitz.”
Shop at the Spread the Movement Store for art that explores the gray areas where we must dwell if we are going to build peace!
You’ve probably heard the terrible news from Burlington, VT. Here’s something positive you can do, courtesy of Lena Greenberg, the Zealous Observer.
Call US Attorney for the District of Vermont, Nikolas Kerest. Tell him what to do. The script and number are below.
Here’s some good news from Burlington. ARLO market began operation a few weeks ago to provide Affordable, Reliable, LOcal food.
ARLO has a pricing guide that allows SNAP recipients to pay just 50 percent. Unfortunately, when the market first opened, they had not yet secured the ability to let folks pay with their benefits, which are called 3Squares in Vermont. This problem has been solved in time for the next market date.
We can solve problems. We can work for peace. We can improve the lives of workers and people in public housing. We can win elections on the issues that matter to peoples’ lives. We can address the climate crisis.
Thanks for being here, in the work!
with love,
L