As union electricians, we wire this metropolis. My siblings within the trades pour the concrete, hoist the metal, lay the pipe and preserve the lights on. We construct Chicago block by block, shift after shift. We go house to the neighborhoods we assist create.
I dwell on the Southeast Aspect with my household. My great-grandparents immigrated from Mexico and taught me to work onerous, be loyal and type and present up for my neighbors. I’m happy with these roots. I need my youngster to inherit a house that’s secure, not a ZIP code that shortens their lives, like most Latino communities in Chicago.
That’s why I help the Hazel Johnson Cumulative Impacts Ordinance.
Union of us know this: a contract isn’t nearly wages. It covers security guidelines, coaching, PPE, healthcare and a say in how the job will get achieved. We don’t settle for “belief us” from a boss who desires to chop corners. We negotiate requirements and implement them.
Our neighborhoods deserve the identical deal.
For too lengthy, the Metropolis of Chicago has allowed heavy trade to build up in communities of colour like mine. Every new facility will get evaluated by metropolis businesses reviewing the appliance by itself, as if it operates in a vacuum. In the meantime, Black and brown residents from these communities breathe the mixed air pollution from vehicles, stacks, mud and particles.
One allow for a brand new industrial facility would possibly look fantastic on paper. Ten new heavy industrial amenities collectively in a single space of Chicago is usually a catastrophe to our well being.
We see the outcomes of those inhaled toxins each day: inhalers on classroom desks and bronchial asthma vans exterior the colleges, neighbors with cancers that don’t run within the household,the “closed home windows right now” warnings that include each robust wind and children not having the ability to play in their very own yards out of concern of publicity to poisonous metals.
This isn’t the way you deal with the individuals who constructed your metropolis.
The Hazel M. Johnson ordinance is straightforward and lengthy overdue. Earlier than main new industrial amenities transfer right into a neighborhood that’s already carrying a heavy load from the air pollution emitted by these amenities, town has to contemplate the cumulative well being impacts. Not simply what one facility emits, however what all of the stacks, vehicles and websites collectively will imply for the lungs and lives of the individuals downwind and subsequent door.
This method shouldn’t be radical, it’s frequent sense. It’s the union method– have a look at the entire job, set the usual and maintain everybody to it.
Critics will say this threatens jobs. I don’t purchase it. Staff know a false selection after we hear one. We will construct issues the suitable method, in the suitable locations, with guidelines that defend each paychecks and other people. Sturdy requirements create higher jobs – expert, secure, long-term work that doesn’t go away a poisonous tab for the neighborhood.
That is about taking part in by the principles. If you wish to revenue right here, they have to meet the identical expectations staff face on the job. If a mission can’t clear that bar, it’s not an excellent mission for Chicago.
Labor belongs on the entrance of this struggle. Our actions rise and fall collectively. A secure job web site doesn’t imply a lot if the block you go house to is making your child(s) sick. Wages matter. Work situations matter. Dwelling situations matter. They’re a part of the identical struggle, dignity for working individuals. We shouldn’t have to decide on between a job and our well being and security.
Hazel Johnson – the Mom of Environmental Justice – began that struggle proper right here on the Southeast Aspect. She organized so her neighbors may breathe. She stood as much as energy and demanded equity. This ordinance carries that legacy ahead. It says town should rely what counts: our well being.
I need fellow union members to see themselves on this. We take delight within the high quality of our craft. We don’t slap collectively junk and name it a day. We repair what’s damaged. We plan. We stop it. We defend our personal. Supporting this ordinance follows the identical ethic, after the whistle blows and we head house.
Chicago has an opportunity to steer with a regular that’s fundamental and simply: earlier than piling extra trade into one space, measure the complete burden and defend the individuals who dwell there. Make choices with all of the information, not simply the slender slice that appears neat on a allowing kind.
I’ve been a union electrician for 26 years. I like my metropolis. I’m happy with my ancestors’ sacrifices and the life we’ve constructed right here. I need all of our youngsters to develop up in a neighborhood the place “progress” doesn’t imply extra inhalers and fewer time exterior.
Go the Hazel Johnson Cumulative Impacts Ordinance. As a result of the individuals who construct Chicago need to breathe in it. Nothing about us, with out us!
Marcelina Pedraza is a fourth-generation union electrician and member of UAW Native 551 at Ford’s Chicago Meeting Plant. She is a Southeast Aspect Chicago neighborhood chief centered on labor and environmental justice.
Cowl Picture: Marcelina Pedraza at a UAW strike in 2025 (Oscar Sanchez, SETF)
