Good News for the Little Guy
And for the Earth, too
Welcome to a Friday evening edition of Progress Report.
I’ve never been the best at following directions or aligning with strict timelines, so maybe it was fated that we’d wind up in the delivery room at 3:30 on Thursday morning, five days before my wife’s due date and two days before I’d planned to go on leave from work. Shea Martin, born healthy 12 hours after my wife and I piled into a cab headed downtown, set the tone from the very start: we operate on his schedule now.
It’s an uneasy time to have a baby in the United States. We are obviously thrilled about our baby’s safe arrival, but are angry that it’s such a privilege to have good health care and autonomy in the process. Pregnancy, even at its most uneventful, is exhausting and difficult, and the years that follow, even at their most rewarding, are all the more challenging. That there’s even a debate over whether women can control their own bodies and reproductive fates is an indictment of a failed society; that so many states have now banned abortion is a historic tragedy.
Just today, a judge in Arizona green-lit a near-total ban on abortion in the state by allowing a law passed all the way back in 1864 — before Arizona was even a state — to be re-implemented. Abraham Lincoln was still president when the law now once again governing women’s bodies in Arizona was originally passed. It’s an absolute failure.
We’ve got a little more than six weeks to win enough elections to turn the tide on this catastrophic cascade of anti-choice laws that are sweeping the nation. I’m going to take most of the next week to spend time with family and then return with a charged up version of Progress Report, featuring new writers from all over the country, reporting on vital issues that will play into the upcoming elections — including reproductive freedom.
We kicked off with some good news, and tonight, Natalie Meltzer is rounding up some of the best developments and news stories to happen this week — many of which probably eluded your radar.
Oh, and about that Ron DeSantis billboard I mentioned in the Tuesday newsletter? We’ve were able to close the deal. It’s going up on October 3rd. Thank you to everyone that helped out!
by Natalie Meltzer
David Topples Goliath Petrochemical Plant in Louisiana
A state district judge withdrew the air permits for a massive petrochemical complex along the Mississippi River in southern Louisiana, giving local activists a major win in their years-long battle to stop the plant.
Taiwanese industrial giant Formosa Plastics planned to build the $9.4 billion, 2,400 acre complex in St. James Parish, a predominantly Black community in a region known as “Cancer Alley” for its high concentration of dangerous pollutants.
An analysis by ProPublica found that the air around Formosa’s proposed site is already more toxic with cancer-causing chemicals than 99.6% of industrialized areas of the country. They also estimated that the complex would have doubled to tripled the levels of cancer-causing pollutants in the vicinity.
“Stopping Formosa Plastics has been a fight for our lives, and today David has toppled Goliath,” said Sharon Lavigne, founder and president of RISE St. James, a community organization established to stop the plant. “The judge’s decision sends a message to polluters like Formosa that communities of color have a right to clean air, and we must not be sacrifice zones.”
A Rare Bipartisan Move to Address Climate Change
In a rare bipartisan move, the U.S. Senate took a big step forward on climate change, ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol with a final vote of 69-27—including 21 Republicans who voted in favor.
The Amendment sets a timeline for the global phaseout of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), greenhouse gases used in heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration that are significantly more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the HFC phaseout could cut half a degree Celsius off of warming by the end of this century, a big deal when the goal is to keep it below 1.5 or 2 degrees in total.
The Amendment represents a rare confluence of business and environmental interests, with groups including the American Chemical Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and National Association of Manufacturers as well as Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Sierra Club lobbying in support of its passage.
The world's leading producers of substitutes for HFCs are in Louisiana, New Jersey, Texas, and elsewhere in the United States.
“Ratifying the Kigali Amendment will allow us to lead the clean technology markets of the future, by innovating and manufacturing those technologies here in America,” President Biden said in a statement. “Ratification will spur the growth of manufacturing jobs, strengthen U.S. competitiveness and advance the global effort to combat the climate crisis.”
State High Court Upholds Montana Voting Rights in November Election
The Montana Supreme Court released an opinion on Wednesday that blocks enforcement of two laws restricting voting rights passed by Republican legislators last year.
The decision reinstates election day voter registration and blocks new voter ID requirements that would disproportionately impact young and indigenous voters in advance of the November general election.
“Obviously we are cautiously optimistic that this is a step in the right direction in terms of equaling the playing field for Native voters across Montana,” Western Native Voice Political Director Keaton Sunchild told Montana Free Press. “We’re hoping that this is a chance to put the legal proceedings behind us for good and start working on getting as many people to the polls, one way or another, as possible.”
“This is a victory for Montana voters and especially for students and young Montanans more broadly,” said Hunter Losing, executive director of one of the plaintiffs — the Montana Public Interest Research Group. “Young people use Election Day Registration at twice the rate of older Montanans.”
Everybody Hates Sinema and the Supreme Court
According to a recent poll, a majority of Americans support expanding the Supreme Court. Public opinion polling is inconsistent and does not necessarily drive policy (see: abortion, healthcare, and gun control), but it’s good to see that the needle is moving on this issue.
According to a recent poll, a majority of Americans also agree that Kyrsten Sinema sucks. As we’ve reported, Sinema’s backers in business and finance make her a formidable opponent, but the more people see Sinema for the corporate shill she is the better the chances for the movement to primary her.
The only thing that would be sweeter than defeating Sinema in a 2024 Democratic primary would be trouncing Sinema so hard that she becomes toxic to all the biggest DC lobbying shops and corporate boards.
Big Wins for Workers
Note: This one’s by Jordan
Last fall, a sudden surge of union strikes and organizing drive, unofficially but universally dubbed “Striketober,” helped catalyze a decades-in-the-making labor uprising that continues to metastasize and reorient public opinion around some of the country’s biggest corporations. This week in particular has been a very successful one for organizing workers, featuring big wins and important steps taken all around the country:
Workers at a Philadelphia Home Depot went public with an organizing drive to unionize the chain of hardware stores founded by Ken Langone, a billionaire and hilarious inept Republican super-donor.
Langone backed Chris Christie in 2016, then got behind Trump before announcing that he felt betrayed by the man who built his career on betraying people. He most recently maxed out to Joe Manchin after the West Virginia senator killed Build Back Better, then saw him architect the Inflation Reduction Act.
Workers at a unionized Starbucks in Boston declared victory after a 64-day strike over the company’s new mandatory availability policy, which was suspiciously implemented once stores started winning union elections en masse. Starbucks rescinded the policy in Boston, though it still exists in other markets.
The coffee chain is ramping up its war on its pro-union workers to unprecedented heights; on Sunday, I broke the news about its decision to end Covid sick pay and deny union members a new benefit that would replace it. I also reported and produced this exclusive look at the negotiations that Starbucks is purposely stalling:
The NLRB filed a complaint against Amazon for its illegal interference with union organizing at a second warehouse in Staten Island. Amazon Labor Union lost the election at LDJ5 a few weeks after its unlikely and historic triumph at the JFK8 warehoused on the same property, and according to the labor board, Amazon’s illegal conduct was a big part of why the union fell short.
The NLRB alleges that Amazon management created such a hostile and intimidating work environment for organizers at LDJ — interrogations, demanding the removal of pro-union desk flags, threats, and selective rule enforcement — that the election couldn’t have possibly been conducted fairly.
Fast-Food Workers Get a Supersized Win in California
After falling three votes short last year, the California legislature passed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, or FAST Recovery Act.
The FAST Recovery Act will increase bargaining power for more than 500,000 fast food workers in the state by addressing several challenges to improving the dismal wages and working conditions in the fast-food sector. This important step could help build a new model of standard-setting for the fast-food industry and the country.
Most significantly, the Act establishes a “Fast-Food Sector Council” charged with setting standards on wages, benefits, safety, and other working conditions in the entire industry. It also would make franchisors liable for labor violations in their franchisees and shield whistleblowers from retaliation.
These steps are critical because most fast-food locations are owned by franchisees, not the big chains themselves. Franchise agreements give the major companies control over many aspects of the business, including prices and suppliers, leaving franchisees to focus on cutting labor costs as much as possible. If a franchise owner did improve wages or working conditions, they might not be able to compete in the market or make a profit. And because the big fast-food chains do not directly employ the workers at their franchisee locations, they are not liable for labor violations.
Under the FAST Recovery Act, however, the standards set by the Council — which would include representatives of government agencies, fast-food chains, franchisees, workers, and advocates for fast-food employees — would create an even playing field by applying to all workers in the industry, regardless of franchise or union status. It would also provide workers with a direct line to communicate with policymakers and regulators.
As Los Angeles-area McDonald’s worker Lizzet Aguilar told More Perfect Union last year, “This bill is something we’ve been waiting for, eagerly waiting for with our hands to our hearts.”
Sectoral bargaining is making a comeback!
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Congrats on welcoming Shea Martin to the world! And thank you for trying to make it a better world for him to grow up.
Mazel tov to your new little one!