LOS ANGELES – At 4:00 PM on Wednesday November 15th, Mighty Earth, Public Citizen, and the Sunrise Project will host a panel discussing how to clean up auto supply chains as the industry transitions to Electric Vehicles (EVs). The panel is happening in the days leading up to one of the world’s largest auto events, the LA Auto Show.
The unprecedented transition to EVs represents a huge opportunity not only to cut pollution globally but to spur the creation of thousands of family-sustaining auto manufacturing and auto supply chain jobs for workers to build clean vehicles of the future. However, as the EV transition spreads, by 2040, 60% of embodied emissions from EVs are expected to come from the materials used to build the cars, such as high-carbon materials like steel and aluminum that are made with coal-fired energy. Pollution from these coal-dependent processes is linked to respiratory illnesses, cancer, and premature death for predominantly communities of color on the fence lines of these operations.
This panel will explore these issues and how workers and communities on the frontline of supply chain operations are launching campaigns to pressure global automakers to ensure auto supply chains are fossil-free, equitable, and sustainable.
WHAT: Panel event with experts
WHEN: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 from 4-6pm PST
WHERE: E-Central Hotel, 1020 S Figueroa St, Olympic Room, Los Angeles, CA 90015
SPEAKERS:
- Rafael Jaime – United Auto Workers, Local 2865, president
- Henry Salazar – United Auto Workers, Region 6, organizer
- Erika Thi Patterson, Public Citizen, auto supply chain campaign director
- Kate Finn – First Peoples Worldwide, executive director
- Elfidar Iltebir – Uyghur American Association, president
- Veronica Wilson – Labor Network for Sustainability, California organizer
- Bahram Fazeli – Communities for a Better Environment, director of research and policy
- Chris Alford – Sunrise Project, senior strategist
