Please join us for this exciting forum on connecting the fight to stop climate change with the struggle for social and economic justice for First Nations and working class communities.

Location: Unifor’s Western Regional Office (15 minutes walking from New Westminster Skytrain Station)

Format: One hour panel speeches followed by one hour of open discussion and a brief wrap up.

Donations at the door are appreciated but no one will be turned away.

Organizations that wish to participate in the event can contact us directly through our Facebook page and request space to set up a table and hang a banner in the room.

PURPOSE
Political leaders and oil industry pundits have divided us for years claiming that we have to make a choice between good jobs and strong communities on the one hand and justice for First Nations and real climate action on the other. Yet the impacts of climate change are already being felt in BC, killing jobs and local economies dependent on fisheries and forestry, with First Nations and working class communities suffering the consequences.

This forum is aimed at dispelling the myth that we have to sacrifice the environment to create jobs and showing how real climate justice is only possible by uniting the struggle for First Nations justice and reconciliation and the struggle for a just transition to good green jobs for workers in the fossil fuel industry.

SPEAKERS
Melina Laboucan-Massimo – Lubicon Solar

Russ Day – President, Unifor Local 601 (Chevron Refinery Workers)

Lliam Hildebrand – Iron and Earth (ironandearth.org)

Marc Lee – Chief Economist, Climate Justice Project – Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

LUBICON SOLAR (http://www.lubiconsolar.ca/)
Lubicon Solar is one of many inspiring examples of First Nations leading the way in creating green jobs for their communities and building the infrastructure of a green economy. And it’s happening in the heart of the Alberta Tar Sands!

UNIFOR Local 601 represents refinery workers at the Chevron Refinery in Burnaby which refines 60% of the fuel consumed in the Lower Mainland. They have joined the fight, along with their national union, to stop Kinder Morgan as it directly threatens their jobs.

IRON AND EARTH (ironandearth.org) is an exciting initiative led by workers in the Alberta oil industry to accelerate the transition to good green jobs by creating government funded training opportunities and pushing for green energy projects.

CCPA’s Climate Justice Project (https://www.policyalternatives.ca/projects/climate-justice-project) has led the way in developing the economic arguments for a rapid transition to a green economy that is run on 100% renewables.