Labor Coalition and the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California Join Forces to Stand up to Big Oil’s Multimillion Dollar Campaign of Lies and Injustice
Historic Partnership Will Back Candidates Who Stand for Environmental Justice and Support Healthy Communities
SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California (CSHC) announced it is joining forces with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the California Teachers Association (CTA), the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), the California School Employees Association (CSEA), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and the California Nurses Association (CNA) and other labor unions from Opportunity PAC in a historic partnership to support candidates that stand up to Big Oil’s greed and the candidates they fund. As part of the partnership, CSHC is donating an initial $1 million to back candidates who are facing opponents funded by Big Oil’s deep pockets this election cycle.
“Big Oil’s attempt at a ballot referendum to reverse hard-fought health and safety protections from neighborhood oil drilling failed in every way but two - it exposed their greed and disregard for Californians as something that must be put in check, and it energized Californians to come together,” said Darryl Molina Sarmiento, Executive Director of Communities for a Better Environment, a CSHC Steering Committee Member. "Over the past few years, we've built new alliances and strengthened our collective organizing power to motivate voters all over the state to elect environmental justice champions when they vote down the ballot in legislative races that really matter. Together, we will beat Big Oil.”
“The 750,000 members of SEIU California demand a labor movement that not only fights for fair wages and working conditions for working-class families but also for neighborhoods with clean air and water for their families and the next generation,” said David Huerta, President of SEIU California and SEIU-USWW (United Service Workers West). “We’re proud to stand with the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California through the Opportunity PAC to support candidates who will prioritize the health and safety of working people and our communities over corporate greed. Big Oil is essentially trying to hire its hand-picked candidates for the Legislature, but standing together, working people and our environmental and health allies won’t allow that.”
Big Oil has a history of funding campaigns of politicians they can control in Democrat versus Democrat races with hundreds of thousands of dollars of direct and indirect contributions. This new strategic partnership between CSHC and labor will clearly show voters the many connections between Big Oil and their favorite politicians.
"Educators across California are at the center of communities impacted by the corporate greed of big oil corporations,” said David B. Goldberg, President of the California Teachers Association (CTA). “It's simple: we all deserve elected leaders who will prioritize the wellbeing of our students and communities, not politicians who will do the bidding of big oil CEOs to pad their pocketbooks. We're proud to work together alongside our fellow union members and community allies to demand better for California communities. Working together, we know that our strength in numbers can defeat the incomprehensible and unsustainable wealth a few CEOs have at their disposal."
On the other side of these races are Democrats who dare to stand up to corporate oil interests who get support from nurses, healthcare workers, educators, grocery workers and working families. This fall, CSHC will join that coalition in directly confronting Big Oil and calling out their corporate-funded politicians.
CSHC is an organization which began with community leaders standing up to toxic oil drilling in their neighborhoods and grew in 2024 to include more than 400 organizations, labor unions, community and faith leaders, two Governors of California, public health groups, and environmental justice leaders from across California joined together to stop an oil industry ballot referendum overreach and hold oil companies accountable for creating a public health crisis, especially for communities of color.
For more information, please visit our website at: CAvsBigOil.com
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Emma Lenz, emma@swansoncomm.net