Marble Falls It’s hot here, but across the pond, the heat is new and different for our affiliates there. One of our organizers was delayed on a train to Scotland, because the tracks were so hot, it slowed all of them down. In France, reports indicate that the country may have experienced its hottest day in history.
JusticaEnsemble, ACORN’s affiliate there made the most of a terrible situation for some of our tenant members in Lyon, France’s second-largest city. A housing block with 400 units where we have an organization was feeling the heat without any remedial action by the landlord, so they took action. Tenants put red posters in their windows demanding shutters. Others hung sheets out of the window with the ACORN symbol. Some members called the press and rallied outside of the building, demanding shutters for all apartments and fans at the least. Heat was the headline, so the action gathered huge attention, making national news all over France.
The building is owned by a bank. Hearing our demands, they agreed to negotiate on the spot. We arrived at a deal that was favorable to the tenants. When the press contacted the bank’s representative for comment, they actually upped the amount of money they had committed. We won one-million euros as a commitment to add shutters and a guarantee that the bank would provide fans for every unit.
Maybe this could be model, although in Toronto and other Canadian cities we have won access to air conditioners as well. In France, fans were important, because no one with air conditioners wanted to pay the cost, when the landlord should have been prepared ahead of the heat.
In India where we represent informal workers, who are food delivery gig workers, street vendors, recyclers, and others, the temperatures have blown past 40C. We have demanded that excess heat be declared a disaster, like flooding and earthquakes, so that there would be resources available for response for workers and residents. In New Orleans, we won an ordinance that provides breaks and water to outdoor contract workers. Something similar is needed everywhere. In Little Rock, where we represent city workers, we are trying to expand the protections and increase breaks once the temperatures hit the mid-80F.
Canada has led the fight in some areas by winning a precedent setting “maximum heat bylaw.” Toronto ACORN forced a heat study, which has recently been released, and hopefully will set the stage for a similar bylaw.
Heat is a serious issue around the world. More than 20 cities in India and a dozen in Canada have signed onto ACORN’s Beat the Heat Campaign and the day of action on July 15th with others joining in France, Africa, Honduras, and more. Greenpeace joined with us in Delhi the other day, and the Anthropocene Alliance has signed onto the campaign in the USA.
Climate change is real and excessive heat can be a killer. We’re taking action to force change. There’s no place to hide from global warming. We have to fight to win.