UNITE HERE Local 11 advocates for improvements to housing, transportation, and the environment in our communities. The union mobilizes our members to hearings to speak in favor of initiatives that serve their needs and to oppose ones that threaten access to housing, force workers into longer commutes through worsening traffic, or damage the environment we live in. Our members often live in neighborhoods with the least green space, and we believe that our governments must use every inch of open space to promote organic, native landscaping and healthy ecosystems.

There is nothing new about unions advocating for environmental protections. UNITE HERE Local 11 has roots in the movement of the United Farm Workers union of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who led multiple efforts to ban pesticides used on grapes and strawberries and called for testing grapes in stores to see if they were contaminated with poisonous residues. Environmentalists stood with workers in creating OSHA, the first agency dedicated to worker health and safety on the job. The UAW and Steelworkers sponsored the first Earth Day in 1970 and supported some of the first environmental laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, the inspiration for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

 

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