Helping to Make Louisiana Safe for Future Generations
ACTION-ALERT
July 12, 2010
BP Makes Me Sick!
Amazing! 57,264 people joined our "BP Makes Me Sick" coalition in only 4
days. As BP blocks Gulf clean-up workers from wearing respirators when
dealing with harmful toxins, thousands of us are asking President Obama to
step in. (Keith Olbermann explains the issue here.) The Washington Post,
Huffington Post, Baton Rouge Advocate, and others all wrote about this new
coalition!
We have momentum -- can you help us reach 100,000 signers by joining our
coalition today? Click here! (Then, forward to others!)
Today, we are proud to announce that our effort is endorsed by 50 partners
across the nation. This includes:
Waterkeeper Alliance President Robert Kennedy Jr. and the Save Our Gulf
Waterkeepers
Louisiana Environmental Action Network Executive Director Marylee Orr
Major Senate candidates -- Roxanne Conlin (IA), Jack Conway (KY), Kendrick
Meek (FL), and Elaine Marshall (NC)
27 House candidates -- including bold progressives Ann McLane Kuster (NH),
Bill Hedrick (CA), David Segal (RI), and others (full list here)
9 House members -- including Carolyn Maloney (NY), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH),
Jared Polis (CO), Chellie Pingree (ME), and Alcee Hastings (FL)
National organizations like Democracy for America, Color Of Change, and
Commercial Fishermen of America
Please join our coalition and stand up for workers today -- then, pass
this email to others.
Press Coverage:
Louisiana Watermen Demand Proper Safety Equipment In Gulf Oil Cleanup
By Ryan Grimm
The Huffington Post
July 8, 2010
In the harried cleanup that followed the attack on downtown New York on
September 11th, managers of the process famously failed to equip workers
with protective gear, damaging countless lives of those who came to the
rescue. Environmental advocacy groups and commercial watermen, who are
more often joined in combat than alliance, have come together with
bloggers and public officials to prevent the pattern from repeating in the
Gulf.
Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance, the United Commercial
Fisherman, the Louisiana Shrimp Association, Commercial Fisherman of
America, the Nassau Sierra Club in Florida and the Louisiana Environmental
Action Network, among dozens of others, are calling on BP to properly
equip rescue workers mired in the toxic muck that has been spewing from
the Gulf floor for nearly three months.
"We cannot let the denial of protective gear that hurt so many 9/11
clean-up workers happen again with the Gulf clean-up workers," reads a
statement signed by the groups, organized by the Progressive Change
Campaign Committee. "President Obama and the federal government must
demand that BP allow every clean-up worker who wants to wear respiratory
protective equipment to do so -- and ensure that workers get the equipment
and training they need to do their jobs safely."
The fishing organizations represent those who have been transformed into
cleanup workers by the spill. A scientist with the Louisiana Environmental
Action Network recently testified before Congress on the hazards of Gulf
cleanup.
The groups are organizing an online petition at BPMakesMeSick.com, where a
full list of the coalition, which includes local bloggers and national
politicians such as Florida Democratic Reps. Alan Grayson and Kendrick
Meek, can be found.
Go to the article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/louisiana-watermen-demand_n_639094.html
Gulf Fishermen, Bloggers, RFK Jr. Say "BP Makes Me Sick"
By Nancy Scola
Tech President
July 8, 2010
A growing coalition of local bloggers, elected officials, online
organizers, workers, environmental groups, and public figures formally
launched today a drive to get BP to allow workers wear health-saving
protective gear as they go about cleaning up the Gulf coast.
The new BP Makes Me Sick Coalition is, it's probably fair to say, the
first high-profile push we've seen to use political organizing tactics,
online and offline, to shape the ongoing disaster in the Gulf. The
implicit tactic is to coalesce public opinion around a tangible idea --
one itself important, but that stands for something bigger. The BP Makes
Me Sick Coalition is a project spearheaded by the Progressive Change
Coalition, with the backing of local groups like Atchafalaya Basinkeeper
and Galveston Baykeeper, Gulf fishermen, local blogs like the Burnt Orange
Report and Texas Kaos, local electeds like Reps. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and
Kendrick Meek (D-FL), and national figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who
helps head the New York-based environmental group Riverkeeper.
The group, explained PCCC's Adam Green, started taking shape about two
weeks ago, after Marylee Orr, the head of the Louisiana Environmental
Action Network, talked on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show about BP's alleged
efforts to prevent clean-up workers from wearing respirators on the job.
"It's a choice between feeding their family, and not having money to feed
their family," Orr told Olbermann. "They're willing to sacrifice their
health to feed their family, and I think that's tragic. When our fishermen
folks had their respirators on, they were told to take them off, that they
would be fired if they used them." (Clip here.) Through Orr, says Green,
PCCC connected with local fisherman's organizations. Through them, they
reached out to local environmental groups, and on to Kennedy, who came
aboard yesterday.
This being a PCCC joint, there's also a strategic twist. The subtext of BP
Makes Me Sick is using the relatively discrete matter of protective
respirators to press President Barack Obama on his leadership in the Gulf
-- or, to flip it around, his supposed deference to BP. Fleshing out that
angle is a note on the site echoing the George W. Bush-era: "We cannot let
the denial of protective gear that hurt so many 9/11 clean-up workers
happen again with the Gulf clean-up workers."
At the moment, BPMakesMeSick.com features an online petition that anyone
can co-sign.
Go to the article here:
http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/gulf-fishermen-bloggers-rfk-jr-say-bp-makes-me-sick
NY DAILY NEWS: Group Demands BP Provide Cleanup Workers With Respirators
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2010/07/group-demands-bp-provide-clean.html
SAN FRAN CHRONICLE: Sources: BP threatens to fire cleanup workers who wear
respirators
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=67426#ixzz0t87rmAfd
DAILY KINGFISH: Kingfish joins coalition to protect cleanup workers
http://www.dailykingfish.com/diary/1575/kingfish-joins-coalition-to-protect-cleanup-workers
Visit SaveOurGulf.org to get more information about the BP Deepwater
Horizon disaster from Waterkeeper organizations across the Gulf Coast and
donate to Save Our Gulf!
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