Joint Letter - People Power United signs on to an open letter to the BIG 3 Auto CEOs

🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 18, 2023

In response to the United Auto Workers strike, People Power United - a progressive grassroots group - joined several other organizations to send a letter to the Big 3 Auto CEOs. Shout out to UAW for leading this effort. Here is a copy of the letter sent on behalf of our membership:

To The CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis:

(Mary Barra, Jim Farley, and Carlos Tavares)

We, the undersigned climate, environmental, racial, and social justice organizations, stand in solidarity with auto workers and their union the United Auto Workers (UAW) in their upcoming contract negotiations with the “Big 3” automakers: General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis. We firmly support the UAW members’ demands and believe that the success of these negotiations is of critical importance for the rights and well-being of workers and to safeguard people and the environment. Only through meeting these demands will the United States ensure a just transition to a renewable energy future.

Lack of fair wages, job security, and dignified working conditions have left workers and our communities reeling. Worse, in recent months, workers and their communities have experienced unprecedented extreme heat, smoke pollution, flooding, and other disasters. The leaders of your companies have historically made decisions that exacerbated both of these crises over the past few decades — driving further inequality and increasing pollution. That is why we are standing in solidarity with the UAW and all workers and communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis and the necessary transition.

Within the next few years — the span of this next contract — lies humanity’s last chance to navigate a transition away from fossil fuels, including away from combustion engines. With that shift comes an opportunity for workers in the United States to benefit from a revival of new manufacturing, including electric vehicles (EVs) and collective transportation like buses and trains, as a part of the renewable energy revolution. This transition must center workers and communities, especially those who have powered our economy through the fossil fuel era, and be a vehicle for economic and racial justice. We are putting you on notice: Corporate greed and shareholder profits must never again be put before safe, good-paying union jobs, clean air and water, and a liveable future.

The EV transition cannot be a “race to the bottom” that further exploits workers. We call on you to honor the demands of the UAW.

These demands include:

• End Tiers – Equal Pay for Equal Work: Ending the unjust tier system for workers

• Don’t Leave Workers Behind – Just wage and benefit increases that keep in line with the cost of living and provide a good life for workers and their communities

• Batteries Included – Workers in sustainable battery production have the same pay and safety standards as under the National Agreements

• EV Jobs that are Good, Safe, and Union – A robust, fair and just transition into the EV economy with no loss of autoworker livelihood

Right now, President Biden’s administration is poised to infuse billions to boost your companies’ transition to electric vehicle manufacturing and component production. As these billions in taxpayer dollars move into the auto industry, you are also undermining President Biden’s promise of this money creating millions of “good, union jobs.”

General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis – you can either do right by the workers who have sacrificed to keep your companies profitable, or you can face a united labor, environmental, and climate movement standing in solidarity, ready to fight side by side with UAW workers in winning their demands. The choice to preserve and strengthen good union jobs should be as crystal clear as the need to transition to a clean transportation system.

We, and millions of Americans, want what UAW is bargaining for: family-sustaining, community-supporting, union jobs in a green energy economy; one that allows us all to make a living on a living planet.

Signed,

Labor Network for Sustainability

350.org

Greenpeace USA

Sunrise Movement

Oil Change International

Friends of the Earth

Climate Justice Alliance

Sierra Club

Earthworks

Fridays for Future US

Gen-Z for Change

Green New Deal Network

Interfaith Power & Light

Observatoire d’Etudes et d’Appui à la Responsabilité Sociale et Environnementale (OEARSE)

GreenLatinos

Center for Biological Diversity

Mothers Out Front

League of Conservation Voters (LCV)

Public Citizen

Jobs to Move America

The Sunrise Project

Climate Organizing Project

Climate Mobilization Project

Mighty Earth

Climate and Community Project

Lead the Charge

Michigan Interfaith Power & Light

Industrious Labs

Investor Advocates for Social Justice

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

Evergreen Action

Dream.org

Union of Concerned Scientists

Climate Hawks Vote

Center for American Progress

Grand Rapids Climate Coalition

Local Progress

198 Methods

Breach Collective

North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE)

Pacific Environment

STAND.earth

Sunflower Alliance

MOVE Ohio

Natural Resources Defense Council

Southeast Environmental Task Force

Just Transition Northwest Indiana

Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

Progress Michigan

National Campaign for Transit Justice

Alliance for a Just Society

Unitarian Universalist Association

Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community

SolidarityINFOService

Action Group on Governance and Environmental Management (AGGEM)

350 Mass

Breast Cancer Action

Cleveland Owns

Fossil Free California

Friends of the Congo

Climate Crisis & Militarism Project, Veterans For Peace

Socialist Action org committee

POWER Interfaith

Autoworker Caravan

State Fairgrounds Development Coalition

Warehouse Workers for Justice

BlueGreen Alliance

Progressive Workers Union

Connecticut Climate Crisis Mobilization (C3M)

350 Bay Area

Central Coast Climate Justice Network

IBEW 1362

San Francisco Transit Riders

Rights CoLab

NC League of Conservation Voters

NC Climate and Jobs Roundtable

Ecology Center

EV Charging for All Coalition

Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area

Elected Officials to Protect America

San Francisco Climate Emergency Coalition

Clean Air Coalition of Western New York

Institute for Policy Studies Climate Policy Program

Sustainable CSRA

Earth Action, Inc.

Aid/Watch Australia

Amrod Entertainment

Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice

Jobs With Justice

North American Climate, Conservation and Environment (NACCE)

Michigan Climate Action Network

Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition

Taproot Earth

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)

We The People Michigan

Earthjustice

United for Respect

AFGE Local 704

East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice

Rainforest Action Network

International Campaign for Responsible Technology (ICRT)

Carbon Cycle Institute

The Alliance for Collective Action / Coalition for a Regenerative Future

PowerSwitch Action

Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action

Zero Hour

GreenFaith

Center for Popular Democracy

VISIÓN – Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods

The Climate Reality Project

Michigan League of Conservation Voters

Food & Water Watch

AFGE Local 3331

AFGE Council 238

The Architecture Lobby

Justice is Global

AFGE Local 3631

WV New Jobs Coalition

Oil and Gas Action Network

People Power United