Mair Receives Standing Ovation at Texas AFL-CIO Convention

This past Saturday, June 24, former Sierra Club President Aaron Mair spoke at the Texas AFL-CIO Constitutional  Convention before an audience of over 400 union members, including many who work in the oil and gas industries. This invitation arose from Mair’s speech at the March on Mississippi this spring, where he joined NAACP President Cornell Brooks, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, actor Danny Glover, United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams, and more than 5,000 of their closest friends  in supporting  workers at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi factory in their push for recognition of their union.

Mair pulled no punches in Saturday’s speech before the Texas trade unionists. Reflecting on his family’s roots in South Carolina, first as enslaved African Americans and eventually unionized as Teamsters, he pointed out that slavery was in its essence a system of labor exploitation, and he reminded attendees of the roots of the labor movement in organizing against slave labor. Mair said the labor movement is essential to workplace democracy, and workplace democracy is a prerequisite to political democracy.

At the same time, Mair noted that the transition to a clean economy is necessary and inevitable. He brought up the recent use of union labor to build offshore wind farms off Rhode Island and New York, and talked about the tremendous potential economic and environmental benefits of “swapping out” leak-prone oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf for family-sustaining union jobs building offshore wind platforms. Mair noted that leaks from offshore drilling rigs destroy not only ecosystems but livelihoods, making it difficult to sustain even a commercial fishing industry. He compared spill-prone oil platforms to offshore wind platforms, saying “the only thing they spill is wind.”  Mair received a standing ovation at the close of his speech.

"The path to winning on our climate agenda begins with educating and supporting organized union labor's demands for a just transition to the clean energy economy!" says Mair.