SEIU 1021 members joined a crowd of a couple thousand people gathered at Lake Merritt in Oakland on a beautiful sunny Saturday, April 29, 2017, to urge the Trump administration to take the threat of climate change seriously. It was a truly striking moment of unity, organized by the People’s Climate Movement for Justice, Jobs, Peace and the Planet and was endorsed by SEIU 1021, the Alameda Central Labor Council, and 75 organizations working on behalf of environmental, economic, and social justice.

The Bay Area event was one of more than 250 actions linked to the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. that drew more than 200,000 people to the US capitol.

SEIU 1021 and Alameda Labor Council activists joined demonstrators as music played in the background and people held signs saying “Make Mother Nature Great Again” and “Don’t Be a Fossil Fool”.

Representative Barbara Lee implored the crowd to embrace the WOKE philosophy of action. Josie Camacho, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, comprised of 126 affiliated unions and 134,000 union members in Alameda County said:

“We stand in Solidarity with everyone as we demand: Climate Justice for All! We demand a just transition from the fossil fuel economy to a green, renewable energy economy! We demand Environmental Justice for communities of color most affected by Climate Change and Global Warming!”

Josie Camacho concluded by saying “ This is a global fight. In the era of Trump, we must organize and fight even harder for our climate and our environment. We must organize, resist reaction and continue to move forward. Future generations are depending on us.”

Mary Kay Henry, International President of SEIU, representing 2 million workers, expressed similar sentiments in a statement before the Washington, D.C. People’s Climate March saying, “Every day SEIU members and our communities experience the impact of toxic pollution in our air and water and the catastrophic impacts from climate change that are made worse from this pollution. We march because we are on the frontlines. As working people, people of color, and immigrants, we march because our families are disproportionately hardest hit by pollution and climate change’s impacts.”

“We march because as service and care workers we are on the frontlines of caring for and responding to impacted families and communities. We march because it’s time to hold corporate polluters who wreak havoc on our communities accountable to us. We march because it is time to hold self-interested politicians who rig the rules to put corporate polluters before working people accountable. We march because our families, our health, and our future depend on it.”

The 1021 Climate Workgroup (part of the Social Economic Justice Committee) meets every 4th Wednesday at 6pm, alternating between SF and Oakland offices. They work to address environmental problems as a union, provide information to members, and link efforts to fight locally for clean air, clean water, and a sustainable future. Contact co-chairs Martha Hawthorne marta222@sbcglobal.net and James Muller historymacc@gmail.com for more information.