Support for the People’s Climate March, scheduled for September 21 in Manhattan, continues to mushroom. More than 750 organizations, including 1199SEIU, have endorsed what organizers say will be the biggest rally of its kind in history.
“I’ll be there marching proudly with my Union,” says Marcelino Guillen, a social worker at Montefiore Bronx Westchester Square hospital. “I believe we all have a responsibility not just to ourselves and the people we care for, but also for future generations,” he says. “Healthcare workers and unions such as ours have a special responsibility.”
Guillen traces the beginning of his environmental activism to attending a showing of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the awarding winning film about global warming co-produced and narrated by former Vice President Al Gore.
“I see the effects of our toxic environment on our patients every day,” Guillen notes.
He mentions the importance of safeguarding the air we breathe, the food we consume and the waters that surround us. Much of the Bronx where Guillen works sits in the nation’s poorest Congressional district. As such, it also is among the counties in the nation with the greatest concentration of power plants, waste incinerators, truck routes and wholesale markets...
Because the climate crisis disproportionately impacts poor and working people, march organizers have made a special effort to represent those communities. They hope the action will mark a key step in the building of a broad and deep movement for economic and environmental justice.
In addition to 1199SEIU, many of New York City’s other large unions are backing the march. They include SEIUs Local 32BJ representing property service workers, the New York State Nurses Association, District Council 37 representing city employees, and Local 3 representing electrical workers.
“We are the gatekeepers of Mother Earth,” Guillen says. “The march is not just about today, it’s about the world we want to see tomorrow.”
“I’ll be there marching proudly with my Union,” says Marcelino Guillen, a social worker at Montefiore Bronx Westchester Square hospital. “I believe we all have a responsibility not just to ourselves and the people we care for, but also for future generations,” he says. “Healthcare workers and unions such as ours have a special responsibility.”
Guillen traces the beginning of his environmental activism to attending a showing of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the awarding winning film about global warming co-produced and narrated by former Vice President Al Gore.
“I see the effects of our toxic environment on our patients every day,” Guillen notes.
He mentions the importance of safeguarding the air we breathe, the food we consume and the waters that surround us. Much of the Bronx where Guillen works sits in the nation’s poorest Congressional district. As such, it also is among the counties in the nation with the greatest concentration of power plants, waste incinerators, truck routes and wholesale markets...
Because the climate crisis disproportionately impacts poor and working people, march organizers have made a special effort to represent those communities. They hope the action will mark a key step in the building of a broad and deep movement for economic and environmental justice.
In addition to 1199SEIU, many of New York City’s other large unions are backing the march. They include SEIUs Local 32BJ representing property service workers, the New York State Nurses Association, District Council 37 representing city employees, and Local 3 representing electrical workers.
“We are the gatekeepers of Mother Earth,” Guillen says. “The march is not just about today, it’s about the world we want to see tomorrow.”
