An attack on public employees is an attack on the environment

I was asked to speak for the Sierra Club at the rally to save the American Dream held on the steps of the Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois in solidarity with Wisconsin public employees. The large crowd was fired up from previous speakers so I was glad to have very enthusiastic response. Here's the text of my speech from the February 26 rally.


(Springfield NAACP President Teresa Haley on the left introduced speakers.)

I’m here to say a few words as Chair of the Illinois Sierra Club about why Sierra Club and other environmental groups are supporting these rallies across the nation. But I’m also here because I’ve been a union member and organizer. And because my dad was a state employee in AFSCME Council 31 from before I was born until he retired.

I know what the right to organize means for a workplace. I know that those politicians who try to take away our right to organize are the same ones who would take away our right to clean air and clean water. Those who would unfairly apply budget cuts to public employees are the same forces attempting to gut environmental protections.

I know that an organized workplace that protects the safety of its workers is more likely to protect the safety of the environment and the community they work in. It's no coincidence that non-union coal mines with poor safety records are usually the same mines with poor environmental records.

The Sierra Club knows we don’t have to choose between a healthy environment and good union jobs. Auto plants in Michigan and Illinois are reopening to build fuel efficient cars and hybrids. Illinois fields that cover abandoned coal mines are now growing wind farms that are providing the good union jobs of our energy future. America's economy is being rebuilt on a foundation of green union jobs.

Public employees in Wisconsin, Illinois and all 50 states are working to protect your environment through EPA, the Department of Natural Resources and other agencies. They work to protect natural areas and prevent corporate polluters from dumping toxins in our communities. Well trained professionals protected from retaliation are better empowered to stand up for clean air and water. An attack on public employees is an attack on the environment.

The Sierra Club stands today with our brothers and sisters in the labor movement in support of an American Dream that protects the right to organize, the right to a safe workplace, and the right to a healthy community.