JUUstice Washington

A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

FARM WORKFORCE MODERNIZATION ACT (FWMA) IS BAD FOR FARMWORKERS-Please Add Your Opposition

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On Thursday March 18th the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the house with a 247-172 vote; the majority of votes in favor coming from Democrats.

C2C and Farmworker organizations nationally have opposed this legislation since it was introduced in 2019 during the Trump administration. We are deeply concerned that Democrats are giving in to political pressure to move quickly on immigration bills; with a dangerous tradeoff that will set in place the long-term implications of the FWMA.

We remain opposed to the FWMA as it is written.

We urge our supporters to reach out to your senators and tell them to vote “NO” on this bill.

While it is being touted as a bipartisan effort to attain a path for citizenship, what is being left out of the conversation is that this bill’s “path” sets up an 8-year period of exploitation that farmworkers have to survive in order to eventually qualify for citizenship. Workers who are injured during the eight-year process will be disqualified. The ultimate recommendation for citizenship will have to come from employers, which further entrenches the longstanding power imbalance between workers and farm owners.

Two dangerous long-term mandates in this bill are forcing agricultural employers to use E-Verify, the faulty audit system that has resulted in massive detention and deportation. This will put millions of undocumented people living and working in the United States at risk.

The other mandate is linking legalization to the exploitative federal H2A (guest worker) program, and permanently expanding it, making it harder for workers to organize and easier for corporate agriculture to obtain and exploit cheap labor, instead of hiring farmworkers already living in the U.S.

Read our joint statement with the Food Chain Workers Alliance here.

Sign on to Oppose FWMA Here!
Call and write your senators THIS WEEK and ask them to vote NO on the FWMA. Find your senator’s contact info here!

There’s a Right Track and a Wrong Track for the Future of WA State Rail

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Tom White, one of the lead authors of the Amtrak Cascades LRP, and Solutionary Rail Project Lead Bill Moyer, wrote this article about the future of rail in our State:

by Thomas White and Bill Moyer

Washington state has two potential tracks toward a 21st century rail future, with starkly different outcomes.

One provides higher speed, climate-friendly passenger service linking as many as 13 communities on the Cascadia corridor, with increased capacity for freight trains. It has been in development since 1991 and some elements have already been completed. It would provide clean, electrified Amtrak Cascades passenger service at up to 110mph along existing lines. The phased effort would rapidly create jobs, upgrade service and cut carbon pollution. It could be completed in a decade.

Tragically, this shovel-ready plan is being ignored while another flashy vision grabs the spotlight. That is the “ultra-high-speed rail” (UHSR) project proposed by Washington State Governor Jay Inslee’s administration and developed by WSP, a giant engineering firm. It offers a maximum of five stops along the route. To facilitate speeds up to 220mph, it would require an entirely new passenger-only corridor acquired through costly land acquisitions and the controversial use of eminent domain, with many environmental challenges. While science tells us we need to dramatically cut carbon pollution this decade, UHSR would take many years before the first track is put on the ground and decades more to completion — if it happens at all.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

The Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan (LRP) can deliver a proportionate, achievable and impactful transportation solution for our State. And it can serve as a Solutionary Rail pilot project, a huge step for lowering greenhouse gas emissions, tire and air pollution, congestion, wear and tear, and much more.

@Washingtonians: there’s still time to reach out to State Legislators & ask that the Amtrak Cascades LRP be funded.

Please, if you haven’t done so yet, contact your two state Representatives AND your state Senator, asking for:

  1. State funding to update the Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan
  2. Legislators to work with WSDOT to request that Federal Railroad Administration grant programs be generously funded by the federal government.

Send this letter (“Legislative Sponsors Needed”) by email:

  • Click to download the suggested text
  • Copy and paste the subject line and text
  • Send today to each of your State legislators

More info HERE

If you write to your elected officials, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page HERE (or send an email to info@solutionaryrail.org with the names of legislators you contacted) so we can track who has been contacted. If you hear back, please let us know. If your legislator asks for additional info, we can put them in contact with experts to answer all their questions.

Let’s do this, Washington!

How Gerrymandering Silences the Environmental Vote

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This year, state legislatures will redraw the electoral map. The GOP controls most state legislatures, and they are expected to draw congressional districts to favor Republicans, which will make it easier for them to win a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, even if they fail to win the most votes overall. This dynamic will influence policymaking on a number of issues, including the environment. Recent events in North Carolina give some idea of what to expect.

In North Carolina, coal-fired plants historically dealt with the leftover ash by mixing it with wastewater and dumping it into an open pit nearby. Because coal generators need a lot of water, power plants and coal ash ponds usually sit next to a lake or river.

Read more here.

HB 1412 Legal Financial Obligations

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In 2018, the legislature passed a bill reducing legal financial obligations (LFO) imposed on defendants convicted of crimes. At that time, LFO legislation was one of the priorities identified at the 2017 Justice Summit. LFO’s are court costs and other financial costs that recently incarcerated people are required to pay after release, and they can deter them from paying other costs such as housing or job searches. HB 1412 would reduce these costs even more because it:

  • Allows a court to refrain from imposing or waive full or partial restitution and accrued interest owed to any insurer or entity that is not an individual if the offender does not have the means to pay.
  • Allows a court to not impose interest on restitution after inquiring into and considering specified factors and input of the victim.
  • Revises standards for the waiver of accrued interest on restitution and non-restitution obligations.
  • Revises the time periods in which judgments for restitution and non restitution legal financial obligations may be enforced.
  • Establishes a revised standard of indigency for purposes of a number of provisions applicable to legal financial obligations.

Take Action: you can contact your representatives to support the bill by clicking on the bill number, HB 1412, which will take you to the bill information page on the legislative website. Then click on “Comment on this Bill,” fill in details to find your reps, and indicate that you support the bill. Below are some the comments made during hearings on February 3, 2021.

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Carbon Pollution Bill SB 5373 “Washington Strong”

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While SB 5373 is not one of the environmental priorities identified at the Justice Summit, a number of people have expressed interest in the bill. The bill appears to be dead for the session, but there is some possibility of its revival in the budget negotiations. Information below provides some background and notes on a hearing on March 4, 2021.

Provisions of the bill:

  • It imposes a carbon pollution tax beginning January 1, 2022, equal to $25 per metric ton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the sale or use of all fossil fuel within the state of Washington, except for the sale or use of electricity in Washington generated using fossil fuels.
  • It increases the tax rate annually by inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, plus 5 percent beginning July 1, 2023.
  • It establishes a ten-year climate finance program using carbon tax revenue and a bond program to reduce GHG emissions and increase the resilience of Washington’s natural resources to the impacts of climate change

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