The film shares the stories of women who work in multinationally-owned factories in Mexico. For example, after making television components all night, Carmen comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. She earns six dollars a day.

As Carmen and a million other maquiladora workers produce televisions, electrical cables, toys, clothes, batteries and IV tubes, they weave the very fabric of life for consumer nations. They also confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos — life on the frontier of the global economy. In MAQUILAPOLIS, Carmen and her colleague Lourdes reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change: Carmen takes a major television manufacturer to task for violating her labor rights. Lourdes pressures the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory.

The event is at 7 pm at the Kenmore Library on Delaware Road.

July 7th at 7:00 pm: EPA and DEC Community Update

We’re hosting folks from EPA in New York and local DEC staff involved in the enforcement action at Tonawanda Coke. They will be there to show all the changes that have been made at the plant and answer our questions. Come prepared with questions, and bring friends! We need to let them know we’re grateful for the progress that has been made and that we’re not going away until the job is finished!

July 15th at 7:00 pm: Department of Health Study Update

Jim Bowers from the NYS DOH will join us to share information on the health study for Tonawanda. He’ll be sharing the boundaries they’ve identified and hear our feedback.

Both events are at the Sheridan Parkside Community Center, 169 Sheridan Parkside Drive in Tonawanda.

Be sure to check back often for updates on how to get involved over the summer!

JD Crane, owner of Tonawanda Coke, has a history of abusing workers and communities in cities across the country. Today, he has two plants up and running: one here in Tonawanda and another in Erie, PA.

The plant in Erie has received nearly as much attention as Tonawanda Coke. The state filed a public nuisance suit against the company and Crane faces serious fines if they do not clean up soon. Like Tonawanda Coke, Erie Coke has frequent equipment failures that result in heavy smoke and odors. We blogged about their most recent power failure in March.

Residents in Tonawanda and Erie need to work together if we’re going to ensure JD Crane cleans up his act. So the Clean Air Coalition is heading to Erie, PA on June 4th. We have plans to meet with residents and activists who are working to clean up the plant. We’ll get a tour of the neighborhood around the plant and brainstorm ways of working together to ensure worker and community health is protected at both plants.

We have plenty of seats available! To come along, just shoot an email to erin@cacwny.org.

The event is an opportunity for us to come together to celebrate our work this year and raise money to support our work in the future. We’re hosting Lois Gibbs as they keynote speaker. Lois has been a big fan of our work, and she was happy to join us.

We’ll also be premiering a short film about our campaign against Tonawanda Coke and honoring our organization’s most dedicated advocates.

The event will take place Friday, April 30th at the Holiday Inn in Grand Island at 100 Whitehaven Road. The doors open at 6:30 and dinner will be served at 7:30. It’s not too late to reserve your tickets! The cost is $30 per person.

All tickets must be bought in advance. You can reserve your seat by mailing a check with your contact information to 1250 Niagara Street, Buffalo, NY 14213 or by clicking here to purchase your tickets online.

We hope you will be able to join us. If Lois is half as inspiring as she is in the video below, we know we’re in for a treat!

Lois Gibbs on Organizing

As promised, Denny Larson from the Global Community Monitor came to visit us this weekend – and we had a great time!

On Saturday, Denny showed our new members how to test the air in our community. We tried to take an air sample on Kaufman, but it was too windy. YNN did a great job capturing our day – check out their piece here.

Given that we don’t know how much longer the DEC funding will be available to monitor the air in Tonawanda, it’s especially important that residents know how to test what’s in the air. To help us fight to keep the DEC air monitoring up and running sign our online petition.

We plan to keep the Tonawanda Bucket Brigade up and running all summer. Want to be part of the patrolling unit? Email erin@cacwny.org or come to our next community meeting April 19th at 7:00 PM at the Sheridan Parkside Community Center.

Well Denny is returning to Buffalo! He’s proud of the work we’ve done since the first bucket and ready to help us kick-start some of our new campaigns.

We will meet at Legion Post 264 at 60 Main Street in Tonawanda at noon on Saturday, April 10th. Denny will speak for a bit, show us how to use the bucket and then we’ll head out to take our own air samples!

We plan to use the results of the bucket to launch our new campaign for clean air in Tonawanda. We hope you can make it!

Today I got a call that an ally over at the Wastewater treatment plant could see flames coming from the plant.

So I hopped in my car. Sure enough, I could see the dark smoke from Riverside.

I sat there for about 20 minutes. Even with the wind blowing away from Kaufman Ave, it stunk.

I met up with Kathy Ryan and together we discovered the flames coming from the plant.

Apparently, the plant had an exhaust failure. That’s a fancy way of saying the gases didn’t make it to the right places to be taken care of safely. Instead, the ovens were opened and the gas was set on fire and vent right into the atmosphere.

I spoke with the DEC, they say the problem will be fixed by 1:00PM.

Did you see this? Did you smell it? Report it to the DEC by calling 851-7200. The more people that call, the stronger our case. Enough is enough!

The Clean Air Coalition is growing every day in influence and numbers. We need your help to spread the word about the good work we’re doing!

We’ve signed up to participate in a number of community fairs. Can you help us by spending a few hours at the booth talking to people about our community’s challenges and victories? We need help:

April 10th from 10:00 – 2:00 PM
April 17th from 11 – 6:00 PM
May 31st at the Ken-Ton Memorial Day Parade
The first week of July at Kenmore Days.

We ask that our volunteers commit to two-hour chunks of time. If you can help, please fill out our volunteer form. Be sure to include the dates and times you are available to help.

Volunteering with the Clean Air Coalition is an easy way to help us grow. The more people we engage, the more powerful we become. Please sign up today!

The past few weeks we’ve noticed the smoke has been darker and the odors have been stronger at Tonawanda Coke. Whatever is going on in there isn’t good for us to breathe.

And it looks like there is also trouble at Erie Coke, our “sister plant”, in Erie, PA that is also owned by Don Crane.

Our friends in Erie sent along a few articles explaining the incident. According to reports, the plant lost power and when employees tried to turn on the boilers the system overloaded. That’s when the “coke-smell” was released into the air. The Erie Times covered the story and a blogger put up pictures of the smoke. The emissions covered downtown Erie the entire day.

Crane now had two companies under investigation and has been ordered to clean up at both sites. What’s it going to take to get this guy to clean up his act?

Incidents like these demonstrate why the state must continue to monitor the air in Tonawanda. Relying on companies like Tonawanda Coke to honestly self-report their emissions is foolish. Unfortunately, the funding for the air monitors in Tonawanda runs out April 1. We’ve started a petition here to let DEC Commissioner know we need air monitoring. Funding the monitors will allow us to track our progress and sends an important message to polluters that we are watching. Help us out by signing the petition and letting your friends know.