Earthworker Co-op Hunter Region | Community organisation

Earthworker Co-op Hunter Region

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23.01.2022 I worked for fossil fuels but I support student strikers Tommy-John Herbert September 18, 2019 4:20pm I’m a proud member of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), and have spent most of my working life in the maritime industry. Like many of my workmates, I have been inspired by the high school students leading strikes across the world, calling for urgent action in the face of a climate catastrophe....Continue reading

23.01.2022 It was wonderful to open the factory doors yesterday, to welcome a big crowd with Minister Lily D'Ambrosio MP, and to host the official launch of the Community ...Power Hub Latrobe Valley - a project which, like ours, aims to assist communities to take charge (and ownership) of their own energy transition. We're proud that the Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative is LIVE - manufacturing premium quality solar hot water products in a democratic worker-run factory in the Latrobe Valley! We're also glad to be part of the Community Power Hub's first project, the 'Gippy Bulk Buy' of solar PV and our 'Made in Morwell' solar hot water systems. Take part to lower your power bills, carbon pollution & support growing dignified livelihoods in the Latrobe Valley: www.gippybulkbuy.com.au It's great to see Latrobe City Council, Baw Baw Shire Council & Wellington Shire Council's cooperating to support the bulk buy along with Gippsland Climate Change Network, Yarra Energy Foundation & Sustainability Victoria As many of you know, it's been years of persistence, hard work & enduring support from within the trade union & environment movements, and from thousands of community members across the country, to get the Earthworker Energy factory to this point. Thank you for your belief and investment. Thanks also to the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation for their funding support. It's been people power that's got us this far, and it will be people power that allows us to grow! If you're a Gippslander, check out the Gippy Bulk Buy. Check out the new Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative website: www.earthworkerenergy.coop And stay tuned for more announcements about the range of 'Made in Morwell' solar hot water products available!

22.01.2022 Earthworkers join the big union rally in Melbourne yesterday

18.01.2022 "The work of creating more democratic workplaces and economies is already underway." Here's a piece co-written by Earthworker secretary, Dan, on why worker ownership should be a central plank to rebuild more sustainable, equal and resilient post-COVID-19 economies. Earthworker isn't just waiting for revolution, the "agenda isn’t to simply smash capitalism but build something better".... #democracy #COVID19Aus #crisis #cooperatives See more

18.01.2022 Australian unions call for 'just transition' from coal-generated electricity https://t.co/bUfhGl1Vge

15.01.2022 An excellent analysis of the coal industry and prospects for transition in the Hunter Valley by Lock the Gate's Steve Phillips. "We've interviewed about 400 people in one of the most mining-dependent population centres of the Hunter, and the results have been illuminating. Of our respondents in Muswellbrook, one third of residents believe that the coal-mining industry has done more harm than good to our region. About 45% of people believe that the spread of coal-mining in our... region has gone far enough, and that no further coal mines or mine expansions should be approved. These results are remarkable, given we're talking about Muswellbrook, where residents live in the heart of the Hunter coal industry and who, in large numbers, rely on the industry for employment. But the most remarkable figure comes in the responses to our third survey question, which asks, Do we need a plan for a post-coal economy in the Hunter? 9 out of 10 people in Muswellbrook think we do."

11.01.2022 If you're in or around Newcastle, come and see this new inspiring film that's all about how people power worked in the Northern Rivers when the Bentley blockade successfully stopped Metgasco's CSG project. It's time to harness that community power again for Santos' Narrabri gas project. You can sign your Environmental Impact Statement submission on the night.

11.01.2022 Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative is Australia's first worker-owned factory. Producing solar hot water systems in Gippsland, it is the pilot project ...of Earthworker Cooperative, a member group of Friends of the Earth Australia. The two-pronged approach these folks have taken not only provides an alternative to gas-powered hot water systems, it also helps to ensure a just transition for communities significantly impacted by the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Read more about our COVID-19 Blueprint for Climate Justice here >> https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/covid_19_climatejustice_blu

10.01.2022 "...one group of workers has taken the task of creating new jobs into their own hands. The Earthworker Cooperative has been around for about 20 years, but since the closure of the Hazelwood power station in 2016 the group has taken steps to realising its dream a worker-owned factory in the industrial town of Morwell." The Earthworker Co-op is embodying solutions not only to a transition from fossil fuels, but a transition to a more just society. Earthworker is owned by its ...members, and so decisions are made based on the needs of their members and not maximizing profits for absent shareholders. You can read more on Earthworker's website >> https://earthworkercooperative.com.au/cooperatives/ #climatecrisis #justtransition #latrobevalley

10.01.2022 David Pope, The Canberra Times Trumble Card

07.01.2022 Today Earthworkers express our solidarity with the Latrobe Valley community, which will lose hundreds of jobs from March next year due to the announced closure ...of Hazelwood Power Station. Hazelwood’s closure is inevitable, necessary, and has been expected for over a decade, but this is still hard news for a community already struggling with high unemployment. Our thoughts are with those now facing an uncertain future. The tragedy is not that an old, inefficient and dirty power station will close; the tragedy is that successive governments at all levels have failed to prepare for the inevitable. The Latrobe Valley has powered Victoria for almost 100 years. The community now deserves support to ensure a #justtransition. There is an urgent need for more diverse and sustainable livelihoods in the Latrobe Valley livelihoods rooted in and owned by the communities in which they exist. Communities should be at the forefront of deciding what a clean and just future looks like. Earthworker's mission to establish worker and community-owned cooperatives in sustainability-focused industries is an important step in this direction. Through sustained community support, we now have the factory machinery, intellectual property, skills, know-how and desire to establish our first cooperative factory in the Latrobe Valley manufacturing household renewable energy technology, and providing dignified employment opportunities. We’re asking the the Victorian Government to help kick-start this cooperative factory by committing to install locally made solar hot water systems and battery storage technology in public housing. Please add your voice to the call here: www.megaphone.org.au/pet/solar-hot-water-for-public-housing Today we stand in solidarity with Hazelwood workers and their unions - the CFMEU and GTLC - in demanding support for retraining and/or finding other employment within the region. We demand that Hazelwood’s owners, Engie, take full responsibility for employing local workers to fully rehabilitate their mine and power station in line with community needs and wishes. We call on governments at all levels to support initiatives for new diverse, dignified and sustainable livelihoods in the Latrobe Valley. And we continue, as we have for years, to forge practical steps to meet our needs in enterprises and economies that are sustainable, democratic and fair.

06.01.2022 "It’s easy, then, to understand why the local government was so excited by a 700 million pound investmentalmost $900 millionthat was going to rejuvenate their suffering downtown by bringing national chains to a giant new shopping mall in the center of the city. Seen as the only game in town, it was devastating when the deal completely fell apart in 2011. But thanks in large part to Preston City Councilor Matthew Brown, the city seized the opportunity to take a different ...path. Brown had been inspired by something he had learned about on the other side of Atlanticinnovative work in Cleveland, Ohio, with the Evergreen Cooperatives, a network of worker-owned businesses designed to create living wage jobs by localizing the purchasing power of anchor institutions like the cities’ large nonprofit hospitals and universities, including the world-famous Cleveland Clinic." See more

03.01.2022 South Australia is at a crossroads. 24 hour on-demand solar thermal, not gas, will create jobs for workers formerly employed in coal power while partnering perfectly with SA's fleet of wind farms.