Letter invites Trades to join in campaign to protect lake, create jobs

A Press Release from the Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie (ACLE), from January 2nd, 2019.

TOLEDO – Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie (ACLE) today sent a letter to Shaun Enright, Executive Secretary of the NW Ohio Building and Construction Trades, asking why his union opposes the Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) and proposing a joint campaign to protect the lake and create jobs.

The letter asks Enright why his union has opposed LEBOR with three separate legal motions even though “surely building trades members rely on Lake Erie for drinking water, enjoy fishing and in general know how important it is to keep it healthy.”

Reminding the union official that “well over 100 (factory farms), containing millions of animals in Lake Erie’s watershed produce more waste than the sewage from Chicago and Los Angeles combined and spread it, untreated, on fields draining into Lake Erie,” and that, “Just one large dairy CAFO in northwest Ohio produces as much waste as half of Toledo,” the letter then proposes a joint union-environmental campaign.

“Therefore, we would like to invite the building and construction trades to drop its opposition to LEBOR and join with Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie to support legislation requiring CAFOs to install smaller versions of the sewage treatment facilities Toledoans have paid for to protect the lake. This would help immensely to bring Lake Erie back to health, provide a job bonanza for construction workers and leave a thriving lake to sustain both our community and the economy for future generations.”

Adopted by the ACLE coordinating committee, the letter states, “Many of us are current or former union members and believe unions benefit working people and our community as a whole (we) believe that protecting the environment not only sustains the systems that support life, it also creates jobs,” citing as an example, “Toledo’s massive construction projects to improve its sewage treatment plant and control sewer overflows.”

LEBOR supporters are waiting for a ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court on the second complaint filed by building trades member, Josh Abernathy, to keep the citizen initiative off the ballot after gathering over 10,000 signatures. On February 26 another citizen initiative on the county jail will be voted on in a special election.

-end

Read the letter HERE.

Read Release HERE.

List of corporations that filed to keep the Lake Erie Bill of Rights off the ballot can be found HERE.