Toilet paper folded into a fancy triangle point in a hotel room bathroom.Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

TAKE ACTION: UNITE HERE Local 11 supports the Natural Resources Defense Council campaign to protect forests

UNITE HERE Local 11 supports the Natural Resources Defense Council effort to persuade paper corporations to end sourcing from primary forests and to transition to recycled and sustainable alternative fibers when they make paper. Now you can help!

The NRDC has put out a new action alert to write letters to Procter & Gamble to tell them to stop cutting down forests to create fiber for flagship tissue paper brands like Charmin and Bounty.

The NRDC’s project connects to Local 11’s own advocacy for a transition to sustainable paper. In addition to having already been a supporter of the NRDC’s advocacy on protecting forests (see the Union’s letter to the P&G CEO from 2021, for example), Local 11 has also successfully advocated for requiring hotels to use recycled or sustainable paper in their operations. Hotels and event centers use a lot of tissue paper, so our Union, community, and political allies can have a big impact on climate change by making sure hospitality operations source paper sustainably.

Feather Feather Click here to write your letter and protect forests!

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Procter & Gamble (P&G)

“…sources roughly 1.5 million metric tons of wood pulp each year, about one-third of which comes from Canada, where commercial logging is degrading the planet’s largest remaining intact primary forest. Scientists have long called for action to protect these critical ecosystems, noting that industrial logging of primary forests undermines global climate and biodiversity goals in ways that must no longer go ignored. These forests also sustain hundreds of Indigenous communities, who not only rely on the land but also actively steward it using traditional knowledge and practices that help stabilize the climate, preserve biodiversity, and support local livelihoods.”

More ways you can make a difference:

1. Read Local 11’s letter to P&G in support of the NRDC’s effort to protect forests.

Image of a 2021 letter from UNITE HERE Local 11 to CEO of Procter & Gamble Jon Moeller

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Click here to write your own letter supporting the NRDC’s efforts to protect forests.

3. Buy sustainable paper products for your own family. Refer to the NRDC’s report, “The Issue with Tissue,” which includes a report card about the most sustainable paper options to buy.

List of major national toilet paper brands and their forest sustainability ratings per NRDC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Click here to learn more about the NRDC’s campaign to protect forests.

Map of the Laguna Greenbelt and Irvine-

UNITE HERE Local 11 and the Irvine-Laguna Wildlife Corridor

Partner logos for the Irvine Laguna Wildlife Corridor, including UNITE HERE Local 11UNITE HERE Local 11 is a Charter Partner of the Irvine-Laguna Wildlife Corridor, a project of the Laguna Greenbelt that links the south coastal wilderness of Orange County to the Santa Ana Mountains. The goal of the Corridor is to reconnect these wilderness areas for the long-term health of our local wildlife. We are proud to provide this update about the results of our Union’s efforts to create vibrant ecosystems in the communities our members live.

Local 11 has a long history as a coalition member in the creation of the Corridor. Early on, Local 11 joined a coalition of environmental organizations in the Coast to Cleveland Coalition, the predecessor of the the Irvine-Laguna Wildlife Corridor. You can read more about our efforts to protect this land in the letter below from 2018.

Coast to Cleveland letter 2018This key biodiversity corridor came under threat from development. Voters protected it as Open Space Reserve when they passed Measure W in 2002. Local 11 joined a lawsuit with Laguna Greenbelt to protect two key parcels of land near the corridor (outlined in blue and in red in the following map), including one (outlined in blue) called the West Alton Parcel, through which the proposed corridor will now run.

Map showing route of Irvine-Laguna Greenbelt and the key parcels of land UNITE HERE Local 11 helped protect.

Thanks to these efforts, the Corridor project is advancing today. Laguna Greenbelt, Inc. has partnered with the company that is designing the groundbreaking wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway north of Los Angeles and describes some of the benefits of this partnership for our Orange County members: “Humans directly benefit from healthy and robust natural areas within our communities and a fully functioning Wildlife Corridor is not only a key element in sustaining balanced ecosystems, but it also is a functional tool for making roadways safer by eliminating vehicle-wildlife collisions.”

This project will benefit a wide array of species native to the region, from foxes to bobcats to gnatcatchers to roadrunners, ensuring a thriving ecosystem for generations to come. Click here to learn more about the Wildlife Corridor and its progress toward completion, or click the map below to see the latest on Instagram.

Click here to learn more about the Wildlife Corridor and its progress toward completion, or click the map below to see the latest on Instagram.

Map of the Laguna Greenbelt and Irvine-

Local 11 Endorses a Labor Champion for the Environment: Dr. Rocio Rivas for LAUSD Board District 2

Local 11 proudly endorses Dr Rocio Rivas for LAUSD District 2

Dr. Rivas chairs the Greening Schools and Climate Resilience Committee of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education, a group that researches and proposes what the District needs to create sustainable, healthy, resilient, and equitable learning environments.

What the Committee is doing:

  • Sustainability, Design, and Construction of High Performance Schools
  • Allow Use of Solar Power at District Schools
  • 100% Clean Energy Pledge
  • Energy & Resource Conservation Policy

Click here to learn more about Dr. Rocio Rivas and the LAUSD Greening Schools and Climate Resilience Committee

Survey: 2 in 3 Santa Monica Voters Say Airport Site is Big Enough to Include Both Affordable Housing and Parks & Open Space

Report: 2 in 3 Santa Monica Voters Support Multiple Uses on Airport Site

Read the memo: 2 in 3 Santa Monica Voters Say Airport Site is Big Enough to Include Both Affordable Housing and Parks & Open Space

Earth Day in Sacramento for AB 3192

On Earth day, 🌎 workers push elected leaders in Sacramento to adopt environmental protections at major coastal golf resorts.

Prompted in part by pesticides and whistleblower-reports at the terranearesort, AB 3192 would create auditing regime for resorts in sensitive areas.

view on Instagram

UNITE HERE Local 11 Tells American Airlines: No More Plastics!

Local 11 led a coalition of dozens of organizations calling on American Airlines to consider the impacts of its catering contractor, LSG Sky Chefs, in its own environmental assessment, adopt goals requiring Sky Chefs to be more sustainable and transparent about its own environmental commitment and impacts, and reduce at least 90% of single use plastics from its flights and catering operations. Click here to read more at labor4sustainability.org, the website of the Labor Network for Sustainability.

 

Read our letter below or click here for a PDF.


Environmental Groups and UNITE HERE Local 11 Call Out Terranea “Eco-Resort” Owners Lowe & JC Resorts for Execs’ Funding of Climate Change Deniers

As Congressional climate agenda stalls, environmental activists and UNITE HERE Local 11 press resort owners whose leaders fund anti-environment politicians

Open Letter to Terranea “Eco-Resort” Owners Lowe and JC Resorts: Stop your top execs from funding climate change deniersLos Angeles: This week a coalition of environmental organizations and allies called out Terranea Resort owners JC Resorts and Lowe for throwing millions at anti-environment politicians and other conservative causes.

The Terranea, a sprawling property along an environmentally sensitive stretch of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, bills itself as a “sustainable” and “eco-friendly” resort.

Yet an open letter to the resort signed by leading environmental groups highlights that since 2012 executives of Terranea’s owners Lowe and JC Resorts have collectively contributed over $2 million to anti-environment Republicans like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Donald Trump and conservative causes like the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity PAC.

Nico Gardner Serna with Sunrise Movement Los Angeles, a signatory to the letter, said: “As an environmental activist/leader with the Sunrise Movement Los Angeles who was raised in and currently lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, I am deeply concerned about Terranea’s ownership executives making political contributions that stand in the way of our fight against global climate change. Political contributions are moral statements. I would like to see them stop giving money to climate change-denying politicians like Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy, and Lindsey Graham, and instead commit to protecting the land, air, water, and animals in this region.”

In addition to the Sunrise Movement Los Angeles, the open letter is signed by Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, Communities for a Better Environment, CA Environmental Voters (League of Conservation Voters), Physicians for Social Responsibility, LAANE, Labor Network for Sustainability, and the hospitality workers’ union UNITE HERE Local 11.  Examples of political donations highlighted in the letter, which can be accessed here, include the following:

  • House Minority Leader Republican Kevin McCarthy was the largest recipient of Lowe executives’ largesse, receiving $189,800 since 2012. McCarthy received a 3% lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters and has opposed the Biden Administration’s efforts to move the country away from fossil fuels.
  • Robert J. Lowe Sr. contributed $50,000 to the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Action (AFPA) from October 9, 2020 through October 1, 2021.  According to the Center for Media and Democracy, “AFP’s messages are in sync with those of other groups funded by Charles Koch—opposing labor unions, health care reform, stimulus spending, and any effort to combat climate change.”
  • Contributions from JC Resorts Chairman Paul Reed included $16,600 to Donald Trump. The New York Times has reported that “the damage done by the greenhouse gas pollution unleashed by President Trump’s rollbacks may prove to be one of the most profound legacies of his single term.”

“As a union, we are committed to ensuring that workers across the hospitality industry work in environments where they and their surrounding communities are treated with dignity and respect. That extends to the natural environment, animals, and habitat.  It is outrageous that executives of the owners of Terranea, a resort billed as environmentally friendly, would be funding the politicians responsible for blocking reform to stop catastrophic climate change,” said Kurt Petersen, Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11.

The signatory organizations are calling on “Terranea’s owners Lowe and JC Resorts to immediately stop their leaders from making donations to Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy and Republicans like them who are standing in the way of our fight against global climate change.”