West Virginia Union Coca Cola workers preparing to go on strike

by: Zach Gilleland

Posted: Jul 19, 2021 

BLUEFIELD, WV (WOWK) — Friday Teamsters Local 175 union members in Bluefield unanimously voted to reject Coca-Cola Consolidated’s final contract offer.

Ken Hall, president of the union says the contract offered Bluefield workers 20 percent less money per hour than workers in Charleston and higher pay for health care.

“They do the same thing in Bluefield as they do in Charleston, there’s no difference,” Hall said. “To think that they would make such a radical change in positions is just mind-boggling.”

Ron Johnson, a union worker in Bluefield isn’t happy with the company’s offer. He says other union workers from West Virginia support their efforts for a better contract.

“They will honor our picket lines so distribution of Coca-Cola will not only be affected in Bluefield, it would be affected throughout the state,” he said.

Johnson says the union and the company haven’t talked since the last offer and is waiting to see if they’ll make another proposal soon.

“Someone’s already making more than us and they get a higher percentage of that raise than we do,” he said. “Then the gap of pay at one facility to another is just growing larger.”

Hall says this can happen to any of their union members from across the state.

“There may be some differential in wages and that might be justified because of the market size,” he said. “This is straight-up ‘what do we get in this year in the contract’ and it’s 31 cents per hour less than they gave Charleston.”

Hall’s concern is that union workers around the state won’t get the raises they deserve.

“They’re trying to take advantage of Bluefield in my opinion because there are less employees in Bluefield,” Hall said.

Bluefield’s current contract expires on July 28.

‘I gave these people 110%’: Fort Lee barber strike continues, no word from contractor

BY SEAN JONES• THE PROGRESS-INDEX

 • JULY 19, 2021   VIRGINIA

Barbers from Fort Lee shops picket in front of the Sisisky Gate at Fort Lee, Va., on June 16, 2021. They say they are being underpaid by the contractor that manages their operation. (Sean Jones, The Progress-Index/TNS)

FORT LEE, Va. (Tribune News Service) — Fifteen barbers got together to picket outside of the Sisisky Gate on Friday. It had been 12 days since they started an unfair labor practices strike against Sheffield Barbers, and they were yet to hear anything from the contractor about meeting their demands.

They stood outside the gate with signs that read “on U.L.P strike,” “File I.C.E Complaint Ft Lee Barbers” and urging people to honk in support.

Seemingly every minute, a large truck driving past would take them up on the offer and lay on its horn for several seconds as it rolled past.

About 20 barbers organized under LiUNA Local Union 572 are striking against Sheffield Barbers for allegedly underpaying them. The barbers have historically made 55% of the sticker price for a haircut at the base’s three barber shops — plus one at Fort Pickett.

Barbers say that once Sheffield was awarded the contract for those facilities, it started giving barbers 55% of $11.25, the price from 2017, while at the same time increasing the actual cost for a haircut to $13.

One picketer, Matt Macklin, retired from the barber shop on base after working there for 48 years. He said he heard about the wage fiasco when he was at a funeral. One of the other attendees say they would be picketing and asked if he wanted to join.

“I said, ’That’s it, I’m going to be there,’ ” Macklin said.

Throughout his decades of cutting hair, Macklin came to know his fellow barbers as family. Often times you would stand next to the same barber for 16 years. It’s a barber shop that is known for its longevity. Once a barber is there, they usually work there for life. He wanted to show support for the institution he came to love.

“I don’t like the way they’re treating these guys,” Macklin said.

Many of the barbers at the base’s shops have been civilians their entire lives, but Eugene Harris served for 21 years before becoming a barber. He was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait before ending his military career.

“I understand the importance of appearance,” Harris said. “When soldiers come in, they want to look presentable because their jobs depend on that. I know what a soldier is supposed to look like, I know what a soldier isn’t supposed to look like.”

Army Regulation 670-1 sets the standard for Army uniform and appearance, including grooming policies.

Ar670-1 says that soldiers should take pride in their appearance. While many hairstyles are allowed, they must be “neat and conservative,” per the regulation. Male haircuts cannot drop below the eyebrows or touch the collar. Longer female hairstyles must be fastened above the lower edge of the collar and also avoid dropping below the eyebrows.

One specific line addresses hair that doesn’t part naturally. The regulation says that soldier with this type of hair can style their hair with only one part and that it has to be a completely straight line.

These are standards that Harris says he is intimately familiar with, and can ensure that soldiers at the base are adhered to.

Since Sheffield Barbers first got their contract just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down shops across the country, Harris said that many of their customers have been aware that their barbers’ pay situation, which puts them in an awkward position.

“It’s kind of hard because it makes customers want to tip more, and they shouldn’t have to make up for what the contractor isn’t doing,” Harris said. “They try to compensate for that. It’s not fair to put that on soldiers, they don’t make much money in the first place.”

The barbers are arguing that the increased haircut prices, mixed with their decrease in pay means the contractor is pocketing a sum of extra cash rather than focusing the revenue on its people. One customer says that is a huge mistake.

Kevin Philips is retired Army veteran who has been working and getting his hair cut at Fort Lee for the past six years. He says he won’t go back to the shop at Fort Lee until the dispute is settled in favor of the barbers.

“I even called the contractor to express the relationship that we have,” Philips said. “I’m just not willing to go back there and start all over with someone else at this particular point.”

That relationship is what he says he will miss most of the base’s barbers don’t have their demands met, and decide to leave.

“A barber is a stylist; they know what you want. You don’t have to explain how you want your cut. But you also establish a personal relationship with them as well. I know about his family, he knows about mine,” Philips said.

Now in management for an agency at the base, Philips added that losing these barbers would be a terrible mistak because they’ve become an institution, with a number of barbers that are longtime employees.

“People think you can just slide one thing in and slide it out. It takes a whole rebuilding process. In my mind, [Sheffield] is doing [itself] a disservice because the barbers have a known product that has been producing for years,” Philips said. “I don’t think they see that loss, it’s going to be a loss.”

Currently, temporary barbers have been hired in the place of those that are going on strike. Sheffield Barbers is also advertising for barbers on Indeed.com. The listing says it is seeking 8-10 people and offering a pay rate of “up to” $70 and hour. The barbers say that is well above the compensation they are asking for.

While striking, many barbers have been going completely without a paycheck. One barber, Mike Kates, has been cutting hair for many of his former clients while also advertising for more customers on social media to help make ends meet. Kates said it feels like a waiting game, with Sheffield just waiting to see how long the strike is going to last.

One of the base’s newer barbers, Delvon Jackon, is one of the barbers going without a paycheck. He said unless the pay is reinstated to 55% of the sticker price, he won’t go back to work at Fort Lee.

“I gave these people 110% and it only makes sense that you would treat your employees right,” Jackson said.

sjones@progress-index.com.

©2021 www.progress-index.com.

Visit progress-index.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Over 300 flights cancelled due to strike at airports in Portugal
IANS / Jul 19, 2021,

LISBON: The strike of employees of Groundforce, a ground-handling company, caused the cancellation of 327 flights on Sunday in Portugal, according to the official source from ANA, a company which manages the Portugal Airports.

Of the 511 arrivals and departures scheduled for Sunday, 301 were cancelled at Lisbon airport and 26 other flights were cancelled at the Porto airport, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"Due to the strike of the handling service," said ANA in a statement, "We appeal to passengers with cancelled flights not to go to Lisbon airport and seek information through other channels, digital and telephone."

Only low-cost airlines that use Terminal 2 at Lisbon airport maintained their regular operation because they are served by other handling companies.

Groundforce's strike began on Saturday with the cancellation of 260 flights at the two main Portuguese airports on the day. Another stoppage was scheduled between July 29 and August 2.

The strike was called by the Union of Airport Handling Technicians (STHA) as a protest against the "unsustainable instability, regarding the timely payment of wages and other pecuniary components" that Groundforce workers have faced since Feburary 2021.

Groundforce is 50.1 per cent owned by the Pasogal Group and 49.9 per cent by the TAP group, which in 2020 became controlled by the Portuguese state.

Groundforce accused TAP of a debt of 12 million euros ($14.17 million) for services already provided to the latter, but TAP said that it has no arrears to Groundforce.

• ENERGY + ENVIRONMENT

THE BULLETIN

Dominion’s new offshore wind vessel will be named after an ancient Greek sea monster 

BY: SARAH VOGELSONG - JUNE 1, 2021 2:12 PM

     

 Odysseus runs into trouble as he navigates between Scylla and Charybdis (right) in an Italian fresco by Alessandro Allori. (Public Domain)

Offshore wind energy is headed to the East Coast on the back of a monster famed for creating giant whirlpools to overturn ships.

Charybdis will be the name given to the offshore wind installation vessel Dominion Energy is building in Texas, which will be used to construct not only Virginia’s proposed 2.6 gigawatt wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach but also the Revolution and Sunrise Wind projects off the coast of New England and New York. The latter two projects are being developed by offshore wind companies Ørsted and Eversource. 

Most well-known for the havoc she wreaked on Odysseus’s fleet in Homer’s Odyssey, Charybdis was originally a nymph who was transformed into a monster either for flooding too much land or stealing sheep. Another monster, Scylla, also attacked ships across the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria on the Italian mainland. 

 A rendering of Dominion Energy’s planned offshore wind installation vessel, expected to be finished in 2023. (Dominion Energy)

Dominion spokesperson Rayhan Daudani said in an email that the name for the company’s new vessel had been chosen by ship designer Seajacks. 

The United Kingdom-based Seajacks has shown a decided preference for the monstrous in its christening of five other jack-up vessels used to install offshore wind turbines. Charybdis will join not only Scylla but Kraken, Leviathan, Hydra and Zaratan, the latter referring to a giant sea turtle that also appears in the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. 

Seajacks sales and marketing coordinator Robyn Youngs said in an email that company CEO Blair Ainslie “decided not to go down the traditional route of simply numbering the vessels Seajacks 1, 2, 3 etc as he thought mythical sea monsters were much more interesting! It was an idea to give the vessels more character.”

Dominion’s Charybdis will eventually be stationed in Hampton Roads and is expected to be the first Jones Act-compliant offshore wind vessel in the U.S. 

Offshore wind turbine components must be transported by ship miles off the coast to be constructed in place, but the federal Jones Act requires that all vessels carrying goods between two points in the U.S. must be built and registered in the U.S. Because the American offshore wind industry is so young, however, no such vessels currently exist. 

Dominion expects Charybdis to be complete by late 2023. In a news release, the company said its “regulated customers, including in Virginia, will not experience any bill impact associated with use of the vessel in support of the Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects.” 

This story has been updated with comments from Seajacks.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.

SARAH VOGELSONG

Sarah is the Mercury's environment and energy reporter, covering everything from utility regulation to sea level rise. Originally from McLean, she has spent over a decade in journalism and academic publishing. She previously worked as a staff reporter for Chesapeake Bay Journal, the Progress-Index and the Caroline Progress, and her work has been twice honored by the Virginia Press Association as "Best in Show" for online writing. She was chosen for the 2020 cohort of the Columbia Energy Journalism Institute and is a graduate of the College of William and Mary. Contact her at svogelsong@virginiamercury.com

Could Building-Integrated Photovoltaics Solve "Energy Poverty" While Greening Cities?

In Toronto, mass power outages like the 2003 blackout and the 2013 ice storm have exposed our reliance on energy to maintain our ways of life. Electricity drives the developed world, but not all have reliable access. Despite an abundant supply of energy in many parts of the globe, "energy poverty" can be found not just in developing nations but also close to home. In fact, nearly 800 million people (roughly 9.6% of the global population) live without any access to electricity, though untapped renewable energy sources are offering solutions to energy poverty as well as benefiting developed urban centres.

Despite a United Nations-led effort towards universal energy access by 2030, targets are not being met, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis and changing priorities. With less than a decade to meet the UN's goals, creative solutions will be necessary to close the gap. One solution we've covered in previous months is building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology, which incorporates solar cells into exterior building materials like cladding, windows, balcony railing glass, roofs, and siding. This technological advancement—and an unprecedented drop in cost—is combining to make renewable energy much more accessible.

Solar railings, image courtesy of Mitrex

Canadian manufacturer Mitrex is one company with products that make use of every imaginable building surface for power generation, replicating almost any building finish with a solar energy-producing match. This has tremendous applications in urban centres, in many cases reliant on a mix of fossil fuels and power generated far from its end users. This is the case with Toronto drawing hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls and nuclear power from Pickering and Darlington.

Solar cladding, image courtesy of Mitrex

In addition to the company's lofty pursuit of creating green cities by converting buildings into renewable energy collection, Mitrex is working towards the elimination of energy poverty and inequity. With the cost of energy-producing materials now on par with the natural finishes they replicate, Mitrex is campaigning for the mass adoption of this low-cost BIPV technology, aiming to give affordable access to electricity for all and make energy poverty obsolete.

Solar cladding and railings, image courtesy of Mitrex

Applications in developed urban centres like Toronto are limitless, home to the third-most skyscrapers on the continent and many more on the way with the most active cranes in all of North America. Much more than just buildings, BIPV materials could be used on every urban surface imaginable, from highway noise barriers to sidewalks.

Compounding the environmental and equity advantages offered by this technology, the economic benefits are just as promising for urban areas, having the potential to use surplus energy production for the grid as a revenue stream. Along with property owners, this could be especially beneficial for governments and municipalities that have suffered from the financial setbacks of COVID-19.

Recognizing this potential for expansion in a booming region and other nearby US markets, Mitrex opened a new factory in Toronto earlier this month. This over 100,000 ft² facility will allow Mitrex to locally manufacture solar cladding, windows, producing 25,000 ft² of solar integrated building materials per day. In addition to just producing BIPV, Mitrex offers property owners turnkey solutions for the manufacture and installation of solar energy-generating, and non-solar energy-generating portions of the building. For instance, a portion of an existing or new building could be upgraded for solar energy production very easily, with Mitrex producing and installing BIPV, and the rest of the structure's facade can be manufactured and installed by Mitrex with regular building materials. This allows for simple adoption of solar generation, reducing our reliance on the high-carbon grid.

CANADA WANTS NUCLEAR TO POWER THE FUTURE. BUT HOW?

SIERRA BEIN

GLOBE & MAIL

 JULY 19, 2021

A deeper dive

Matthew McClearn is an investigative reporter and data journalist with The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about Canada’s nuclear ambitions.

Senior government officials, notably federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan, say small modular reactors (SMRs) will help Canada achieve net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century. There’s just one problem: it’s not clear yet whether any will be built.

To be sure, many promises made by SMR vendors seem compelling. By taking advantage of factory-style mass production, they’re supposed to be far cheaper than previous generations of reactors, which tended to be massive and prone to cost overruns. They’d also be easier to deploy. Yet they’d retain the best feature of traditional reactors: negligible greenhouse gas emissions.

A mad scramble to deliver on these promises is now underway. Ontario Power Generation—by far Canada’s most experienced nuclear station operator—plans to select a vendor to build a SMR at its Darlington Station by 2028. Further out, Saskatchewan is considering whether to order its own SMRs to replace coal-fired plants.

Accomplishing all that would silence numerous critics and naysayers. But as I explain in my most recent story, history is littered with reactors that failed to live up to their promises. Many SMR vendors are very early-stage companies which face years of grueling, expensive R&D work to advance their designs to the point they could actually be built. And they’re competing against renewable technologies including wind and solar, which utilities can purchase and deploy today. It may be premature to count on SMRs to help meet Canada’s emissions targets.

Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo among hundreds urging Ireland to call for global fracking ban

Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo are among more than 700 signatories calling upon Ireland to introduce a UN proposal to end global fracking.

Shane O'Brien
@shamob96
Jul 20, 2021

Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo has been part of the anti-fracking movement in the US for more than a decade. GETTY IMAGES

Hollywood stars Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo have joined an international coalition of scientists and activists calling on Ireland to endorse a UN resolution that would ban fracking around the world.

Ruffalo and Fonda joined more than 730 international environmental campaign groups, frontline community organizations, and climate activists who signed a letter urging the Irish Government to propose a United Nations resolution
calling for a global ban on fracking.

More than 100 Irish groups are among the signatories of the letter which calls for "a global ban on fracking being proposed by Ireland at the United Nations General Assembly on climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection, and human-rights grounds."

READ MORE
Cher tells fan Leo Varadkar to dump fracking after Dublin concert

Edward Ketyer, a US pediatrician who signed the letter, said that an international ban on fracking would improve public health around the world.

"A global ban on fracking will improve public health and safety everywhere, not just in communities that have been damaged and scarred by unconventional oil and gas operations," said Ketyer, who is president-elect of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.

Sandra Steingraber, of the Science and Environmental Health Network, said that fracking leads to several health problems, including complications of pregnancy, cancer, mental health impacts, and damage to the heart and lungs.

Meanwhile, the Irish Centre for Human Rights said that the practice was "incompatible with human rights". The group additionally said that "the dangers posed by fracking cannot be mitigated through regulation".

Irish magician Keith Barry also signed the letter and said that this was an "incredible opportunity" to ban fracking around the world.

"I was proud when Ireland took its part and banned fracking. This is an incredible opportunity, and I want us to lead again. Poorer countries depend on us. We've been there. This would be an incredible achievement if Ireland were to lead the way on a global ban. Let's do this," Barry said.

READ MORE
WATCH: Mark Ruffalo urges Ireland to “do the right thing” in Green Party webinar

The campaign comes one month after US company New Fortress Energy confirmed that it would reapply for planning permission to develop the Shannon Liquefied National Gas (LNG) terminal in Tarbert, County Kerry.

However, the Irish Government has taken steps to ban the import of fracked gas and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said that "it would not be appropriate to permit or proceed with development of any LNG terminals in Ireland, including the Shannon LNG project".

Ryan said that the government's position was pending a review of the security of energy supply for Ireland’s electricity and natural gas systems.

The €650 million plans call for a 600 megawatt (MW) power plant with an integrated 120 MW battery storage facility at a 600-acre site in Tarbert. The project also includes plans for an offshore LNG terminal capable of receiving and storing natural gas that would be moored at a jetty in the Shannon Estuary.

Previous plans for the site were shelved in 2019 following widespread criticism from international activists and celebrities over the import of fracked gas from the US to Ireland.

READ MORE
Mark Ruffalo implores Ireland to oppose fracked gas terminal

Mark Ruffalo, who has been involved in the US anti-fracking movement for more than a decade, spoke out about plans to build the terminal in 2019.

The actor said that the import of fracked gas to Ireland from America would have a devastating impact on American communities.

"You are creating what the oil and gas industry themselves call sacrificial zones where there are sacrificial human beings to bring you the gas that you believe you need for a quick fix that isn’t going to fix the long-term problems of energy," Ruffalo told the Irish Independent in October 2019.

"I implore you to think for the future, think for the children, think for the people who are immediately being harmed here in the United States and do the right thing here."

Eamon Ryan said recently that he sees no realistic prospect of an LNG terminal being built in Kerry because it is contrary to government policy.

Ireland became the fourth EU member state to ban fracking when it outlawed the practice in 2017, while the government announced a ban on the import of fracked gas into Ireland for use on the national grid in May 2021.

700+ Global Groups Urge Ireland to Introduce UN Resolution for Fracking Ban

"No amount of regulation can adequately address all the problems that flow from fracked drilling operations and our continued reliance on fossil fuels."


Thousands of youth strikers take part in a protest march against the governments' lack of action on the climate emergency and destruction of the environment on April 12, 2019 in London. (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)


JESSICA CORBETT

COMMON DREANS

July 15, 2021

Hundreds of global groups on Thursday urged Ireland to introduce a United Nations resolution for a ban on hydraulic fracturing, arguing that the country is particularly well-positioned for the move, given its previous efforts to outlaw fracking and divest from fossil fuels.

"We, the undersigned, support a call for a global ban on fracking being proposed by Ireland at the United Nations General Assembly on climate-mitigation, public-health, environmental-protection, and human-rights grounds," says a statement now signed by more than 700 organizations, including over 100 from Ireland, and two dozen individuals.

As a press release about the call for a resolution explained:

Once the resolution is introduced to the U.N. General Assembly, it would need a simple majority vote to pass. The coalition believes there will be support for the resolution given the large number of U.N. member states that are highly vulnerable to climate change and sea level rise, as well as recent calls by the U.N. to address climate change and implement the Sustainable Development Goals, the spirit of which runs contrary to fracking. A U.N. resolution in favor of a global ban on fracking would set a high bar for ambitious existential results at the COP26 in Glasgow.

The new call echoes an April letter (pdf) that Irish activists, groups, and legal experts sent to key government leaders.

"We are asking you to urgently direct the Department of Foreign Affairs to initiate the process which would see Ireland, as a Global North country, jointly introduce and lead co-sponsorship of this proposed resolution with another Global South U.N. member state partner," the letter says, noting a confirmed commitment from the Maldives.

"Ireland's tireless efforts to ban fracking and stop the importation of fracked gas from other countries," the letter adds, "was done in recognition of the very principles which underpin the draft resolution; that is, that fracking is an inherently harmful extraction process that has global impacts no matter where it is conducted and that no amount of regulation can adequately address all the problems that flow from fracked drilling operations and our continued reliance on fossil fuels."

Signatories of Thursday's call reiterated the letter's warning about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, a process that involves injecting water, sand, and secret chemicals into a rock formation to extract oil or gas

"Negative health effects from fracking—complications of pregnancy and poor birth outcomes, damage to the heart and lungs, mental health impacts, cancer—will all be reduced as a result of a global fracking ban," said Sandra Steingraber, an initiator of the new call for a resolution.

Co-founder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York and senior scientist at the Science and Environmental Health Network, Steingraber also co-authored the most recent edition of The Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking.

Fellow initiator Dr. Edward Ketyer, a pediatrician and president-elect of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, said that "a global ban on fracking will improve public health and safety everywhere, not just in communities that have been damaged and scarred by unconventional oil and gas operations."

Other initiators of the call for a resolution include Sister Majella McCarron OLA; Michele Fetting of the Breathe Project; Andy Gheorghiu of Climate Protection and Energy Policy; New York-based environmental attorney Scott Edwards; Mexican environmental justice activist Claudia Campero; Lois Bower-Bjornson, a Pennsylvania resident impacted by fracking; and Eddie Mitchell of Love Leitrim.

A statement announcing the call highlighted that in addition to other concerns about fracking, researchers from the Irish Center for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway School of Law have also found the practice "to be incompatible with human rights."

"The process of fracking involves widespread human rights violations, a point repeatedly highlighted by U.N. legal experts," said Maeve O'Rourke, director of the center's Human Rights Law Clinic, which was a signatory to the April letter.

"Ireland made the right decision to ban fracking in 2017," O'Rourke said, "and now we have the opportunity to lead the world in ensuring that all communities and our global ecosystem are protected from this toxic and dangerous process."

High-profile supporters of climate action and environmental justice have also signed on to the resolution demand, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, magician Keith Barry, and actors Jane Fonda and Mark Ruffalo.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Tobago-born M NourbeSe Philip wins Can$50,000 arts prize

Philip won the $50,000 Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in the arts category

JULIEN NEAVES 

JULY 20,2021

M NourbeSe Philip performing at Alice Yard, Woodbrook, Trinidad. Poet M NourbeSe Philip performs at Alice Yard, Woodbrook, Trinidad. Philip won a prestigious Can$50,000 cultural prize, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize for arts, and her 2008 book Zong! tops the World Literature Today poll. - courtesy Maria Nunes

In a week and a half, Tobago-born Toronto-based poet, essayist, novelist, and playwright M NourbeSe Philip was awarded a prestigious Canadian cultural prize and saw her 2008 book Zong! win a literature magazine poll.

On July 7 the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize winners were announced: Philip in the arts category and psychologist and mental health researcher Gordon J G Asmundson in the social sciences and humanity category. The council awards two Molson prizes of Can$50,000 to distinguished Canadians in these fields annually.

The prize is funded by a $1 million endowment given to the council by the Molson Family Foundation and encourages recipients to continue contributing to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada.

On June 28 literature magazine World Literature Today (WLT) announced Philip's book Zong!, a book-length poem about the murder of Africans on board a slave ship in 1781 for financial gain, won the 21 Books for the 21st Century Readers' Poll. Earlier this year WLT editors invited 21 writers to nominate a single book, published since the year 2000, that has had a major influence on their own work, along with a brief statement explaining their choice. WLT published the longlist and then invited readers to vote on their favourites and Zong! was the winner.

Newsday interviewed Philip about Zong! recently.

The Zong Massacre

Philip learned about the case that inspired it years ago when she read Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery by English historian James Walvin. It mentioned an incident with a slave ship in 1781 coming across the Atlantic: the journey took longer than normal because the captain had never captained before.

Poet M NourbeSe Philip performs at Alice Yard, Woodbrook, Trinidad. Philip won a prestigious Can$50,000 cultural prize, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize for arts, and her 2008 book Zong! tops the World Literature Today poll. - courtesy Maria Nunes

"It got lost and essentially came close to Tobago, but its destination was Jamaica, so it was really off-course."

During the voyage, water ran low and some of the people on board, both crew and enslaved Africans, became ill and died. The captain decided to throw overboard around 150 enslaved Africans.

"The number tends to be slippery, but about 130 to 150 (were) killed so he could ensure there was more water left for those who remained on board."

Philip said her research indicated the ship left the coast of Ghana with 470 enslaved Africans. She noted at that time an enslaved person was insured as "cargo," just as property is insured today, and at that time insurance law said if an enslaved person died during the normal course of events, the owner could not collect insurance money for them. However, if there was a rebellion or a revolt and the enslaved person was killed, the owner could make an insurance claim.

Philip said from the documents she read it appeared the captain and his associates feared there would be a revolt on the ship because there was not enough water,and came to the conclusion to throw some 130-150 people overboard in three separate groups.

The vessel ended up on the south coast of Jamaica, the slaves presumably sold to slave owners there, and returned to Liverpool. Then the owners of the ship, two relatives named Gregson, made a claim against the insurance company for "destruction of property."

"The very people they murdered, they now make a claim against the insurance company for that."

The company, owned by the Gilbert brothers, refused, not because the slaves were human beings, but because they disputed whether the Gregsons had the right to destroy "property."

  

Poet M NourbeSe Philip performs at Alice Yard in Trinidad.
Philip won the $50,000 Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in the arts category which was announced on July 7. - courtesy Maria Nunes

In the first hearing of Gregson vs Gilbert the court ruled in favour of the shipowners against the company. During the case, the idea of murder was raised by one of the lawyers, but the judges ruled it was not murder but a case of "destruction of property."

The company appealed, and at that hearing, the fact that it rained during the voyage and the crew would have been able to collect water to give to the enslaved people came up. The appeal was heard by Chief Justice Lord Mansfield, who made a lot of rulings related to slavery. Mansfield ruled in favour of the insurance company and ordered a new trial.

"After that, the trail goes cold. There does not appear to be a new trial. And the shipowner died."

Philip noted, however, the case became very significant to abolitionists organising against the slave trade and slavery.

She explained the name of the ship was originally Zorg, a Dutch word meaning "care," which would become "morbidly and macabrely ironic," given what happened. When the ship was repurposed on the African island of São Tomé and when it was repainted the "r" became an "n," changing the name to Zong. The event would become known as the Zong massacre.

'Unauthoring' Zong!

American writer Philip Metres who nominated Zong! for the WLT poll, described it as "at once a brilliant documentary long poem and a sort of ritual exorcism of the demons of the slave trade.

M NourbeSe Philip's triumph with Zong! happened on the 240th anniversary of the Zorg Dutch slave-trip massacre in which 130-150 people, who were sick, were thrown overboard. The book-length poem addresses the murder of Africans on board the ship in 1781. - courtesy Alex Woodward


"Philip’s visionary use of the burying language of law to recover the shreds of the voices of the lost is stark, elemental, and electrifying. It is poetry raised to the level of a truth commission. This work has launched a thousand poetic justice projects in the mode of documentary recovery."

Asked about her approach to Zong! Philip explained she used to practise law and visited the law library where the case was reported.

"I opened the book and it was a two-page case report. And I remember I was really stunned. Two pages? How do you condense the horrific murder of 150 people into two pages?"

She explained in her study of law she had to read a lot of cases and as cases "move up the ladder" it is an extractive process and the "messy human factors" are squeezed out.

"The issue of law is often very narrow."

Philip recalled thinking that in this two-page document were locked away all the stories aboard the Zong and she set about looking at various ways of using the legal document to try and find those stories.

"In the first stage, I was locked in the document as the slaves were locked in the hold of the slave ship."

She explained in the first section the only words she used to make her poems were the ones found in the document, which was a little over 500 words long.

World Literature Today magazine announced M NourbeSe Philip's book Zong! topped the 21 Books for the 21st Century Readers' Poll. Zong! is a book-length poem about the murder of Africans on board a slave ship in 1781 for financial gain. -

Then two years later she had the idea of breaking the words up and "find words inside words", a process she compared to the word game Boggle. She made dictionaries in which she listed all the words in the documents and found words from them. For example, from "Lord Mansfield" she could extract "man", "field", "fled", and "name."

"And then using only those words then the poem began to create itself."

The sections have Latin names for bone, salt, wind, reason, iron, and then "Ebora," the West African word for underwater spirits. The book ends with the Latin "notanda" or "that which must be noted," which is a prose section in which she talked about the process of the book.

Philip pointed out the cover of the book features her name and the phrase "as told to the author by Setaey Adamu Boateng."

Who is Setaey Adamu Boateng?

She explained that each name has a personal meaning to her, but it is no one person or being.

"There is a sense in which I 'unauthored' the book. A sense the story was given to me by the ancestors (and) the name stands in for that idea of my stepping aside to let the voices come through."

She recalled it was very important for her as part of the process at some point to "seek permission to bring these voices forward." She visited Ghana and consulted with a priest.

She stated in the notanda that it "is a story that can't be told yet it must be told."

"We can never know what happened onboard the ship or know the whole story.

"Also the horror of it. How do you tell horror? Atrocity?

"But then we must tell it. The only way it can be told is through untelling it or not telling it – putting the ego out of commission. The story is telling itself."

She pointed out the words are all over the page, almost as if floating on the water.

"You could read from beginning to end, or from top to bottom. Like water moving on the ocean, bobbing and moving around. I am kind of giving over to the reader. Let the reader make sense or nonsense of what is going on."

The true prize

On the Molson Prize, Philip said someone approached her who knew her work and wanted to nominate her. She learned about the win a couple of weeks ago.

For Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize and WLT winner, "the prize" is about more people hearing about the work and understanding history. - courtesy Rothko Chapel


"I am pleased. Very, very pleased. There is a financial aspect, which is always nice (and) as a poet and writer who is unimbedded (not in the university system), artists often aren't phenomenally wealthy."

On the WLT win, Philip said there was no money attached but she was "very joyful" people chose Zong! as it was about people knowing about the events. She said she was deeply humbled and heartened that people would want to learn about them.

"It helps us to move on and become better people. Being human is hard. We are trying to live up to the best we are capable of.

"The thing that makes me happiest is if more people will hear about the work and read about it and more of our people, all people. Everyone needs to know this."

She pointed out 1781 was a time of agitation and upheaval (the slave trade drawing to an end, the American, French and Haitian revolutions) and was similar to what was happening today with the George Floyd uprising.

She added that it was lovely that it happened on the 240th anniversary of the event.

"We are trying to break through still. We still have not. We have not broken (through) to a place of ideals where many of us hold the view that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect. Have adequate housing, jobs and healthcare. It is so important and still far away for many people. And it is getting worse with climate change and people fleeing lands."

Philip said she always bears in mind that in today's societies racism is still very much present.

"We have to keep our eyes on that.

"I very much want for us as humankind and as African-descended people (to) understand that 'I am' must be sufficient. The fact that we exist must be sufficient. It cannot be contingent on whether we are black, white, pale, gay, straight, this class or that class, Hindu, Muslim, or Christian. We are human. 'I am.'"

She said she had worked hard for several years and her work spans poetry, fiction and drama.

"I took from the Caribbean the idea of being engaged as a member of society."

She has written about racism, sexism and homophobia.

"If the prize helps to expose more people to the work and they go on to read other black writers, then it is worth it.

"Prizes are wonderful. But I have never written because of prizes. They help pay a few bills, but it's not the driving force in my life."

Tobago-born, Toronto-based poet, essayist, novelist, and playwright M NourbeSe Philip. - courtesy Gail Nyoka

Asked about her Tobago roots, Philip said she was born in Tobago and then came to Trinidad at eight, attending Bishop Anstey High School.

"Both of my parents' families are from Tobago (but) both islands reside in me. I have a particular love for the island of Tobago and it is my rock and refuge. It is the place I write from even if I am not writing about it."

She returns home to TT every year except last year and she has been trying to make her way back.

"Tobago is my home, and Trinidad."

Philip said she also sees herself as a "Caribbean person."

"So the prize is not just for me; it is a prize for Tobago, and Trinidad, and the Caribbean.

"We Caribbean people always punch above our weight, no matter where we are. And the prize is also for the ancestors who allowed us to be here.

"And we come from societies with the Caribbean as a beginning. It is something we can be proud of, and we have produced wonderful people. And we are from Africa, the cradle of humanity. It is a marvellous continent in spite of all of the ills. It is important to pay the prize forward. Really important."

And what is Philip currently working on? She replied that it was "several things" including a lot of work she started years ago. She is writing a couple of plays, some poetry, and immediately working on some writing during the pandemic which she is hoping comes out next year.

NourbeSe Philip at a glance

Although primarily a poet, NourbeSe Philip also writes both fiction and non-fiction. She has published three books of poetry, Thorns – l980, Salmon Courage – 1983 and She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks – 1988.

She has received Canada Council awards, numerous Ontario Arts Council grants and a Toronto Arts Council award in l989.

In l988 Philip won the prestigious Casa de las Americas prize for the manuscript version of her book She Tries Her Tongue… She is also the l988 first prize winner of the Tradewinds Collective prize (TT) in both the poetry and the short story categories.

Her first novel, Harriet’s Daughter, was published in l988.

Her second novel, Looking For Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence, was published in l991. In l994, her short story, Stop Frame was awarded the Lawrence Foundation Award by the journal, Prairie Schooner.

(Source: https://www.nourbese.com/)

Fossils and the petroleum industry of Trinidad and Tobago

NEWSDAY THURSDAY 15 JULY 2021

Figure 5: Home of Biostratigraphy; Geological Services Laboratory, Pointe-a-Pierre (Trinidad) under the tenure of Petrotrin. Photo taken in April 2017. (Bolli, Beckmann, &; Saunders, 2005) -

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

When people hear fossils, they immediately think dinosaurs. Unbeknownst to most Trinidadians, fossils have played a leading role in the discovery and development of oil and gas fields onshore and offshore Trinidad and Tobago for over 100 years.

When wells are drilled, geologists examine cuttings (bits of rock fragments) that are circulated to the top of the drill string as the drillbit grinds through rock. These cuttings often have micro-fossils in them, that geoscientists called biostratigraphers use high powered microscopes to see.

Key tool in foraminifera analysis. Photo courtesy Geological Society -

Biostratigraphy is a branch of geology that uses fossils to establish the relative ages of sedimentary rocks. In the oil and gas industry there are three main disciplines of fossils: foraminifera (fondly known as forams), nano-palaeontology and palynology.

Palynology is the study of fossilised pollen, historically used in Trinidad. Nano-palaeontology is the study of fossils even smaller than foraminifera used intermittently in the hydrocarbon industry in Trinidad.

Figure 2: Planktonic Foraminifera: Globorotalia mayeri. (Analysed from drill cuttings of Touchstone’s exploration well Cascadura Deep, onshore Trinidad) Photo courtesy Geological Society -

Foraminifera are widely abundant single-cell animals which are used to interpret ancient marine environments and determine rock ages from Palaeozoic to recent. They have shells (called tests) made of calcium carbonate. They are divided into two groups: benthic and planktonic (figures 1 and 2). Simply put, planktonic forams float in the ocean, while benthic forams are found on the seafloor. Critically for oil and gas, due to their small size, they are not destroyed by the drill bit, and thus can be examined from drill cuttings.

How does it work?

Say we know a particular bug (call it Fred) lived in a particular environment (say water 500 to 1000 ft deep) and existed during a particular period (say Upper Miocene, roughly between five and 23 million years ago). If that bug is found (in large quantities) in the cuttings from an oil-bearing reservoir, then we have a reasonably good indication that the rock was deposited between five and 23 million years ago in water 500 to 1000 ft deep. Therefore, if we are looking for the same reservoir elsewhere, we now know we should be looking for rock of that same age deposited in the same type of environment. Using geological models and data from other wells, we can figure out where we should drill, how deep and also what fossils to look out for.

Figure 4: Drill Cuttings from the Forest Reserve Field (Courtesy Touchstone Exploration) -
This is a very simplified example but illustrates the point. Experienced biostratigraphers have examined thousands of forams and know their names, shapes and features extensively.

A fact that many do not know, is that Trinidad was the global centre for work in micropaleontology (studying microscopic fossils) from the 1940s to 1960s. Unfortunately, as much of the industry became nationalised in the 1970s, research in micropaleontology came to a halt in TT. Over the last 100 years more than 100,000 foraminiferal samples have been analysed in TT.

In Trinidad, studies of fossil foraminifera were first published in 1863 by Robert J Lechmere Guppy. Early studies focused on benthic foraminifera which were easily identifiable. Applications of foraminifera in the petroleum industry was initiated by Dr August Tobler in 1913. His young field scientist, Hans Kugler (known to some as the father of Trinidad geology for his compilation of our geological map in 1961), articulated the relationship of foraminifera analyses with worldwide geological correlations. This encouraged the industry’s first palaeontological laboratory at Pointe a Pierre, Trinidad in 1929 (figure 5). The lab functioned until 2018 when Petrotrin was closed.

From the 1940s emphasis was placed on planktonic foraminifera, high in abundance and greater accuracy in correlation. This group was used to establish geological ranges in Cretaceous and Palaeocene to Middle Miocene formations. Planktonic foraminifera work was done extensively between 1948 and 1957 by Paul Bronnimann, Hans M Bolli, Jean Pierre Beckmann, John B Saunders, R M Stainforth and Hans H Renz. They remarkably established the globally used planktonic biozonation for middle to low latitude regions which are utilised to this day. Joseph A Cushman and Percy W Jarvis also contributed to the commercial applications of foraminifera and published Cretaceous and Cenozoic foraminifera of Trinidad.

Trinidad’s geological history and hence oil and gas discoveries were predicated heavily on lithology (rock type) and foraminifera. Biostratigraphy has contributed to the production of 1.5 billion barrels of oil to date from 13,000 oil wells drilled onshore in the Southern Basin of Trinidad. This was accomplished without the use of seismic data, which is now a staple in exploration worldwide.

Figure1: Benthic Foraminifera: Haplophragmoides carinatum (left) & Jarvisella karamatensis (right). (Analysed from drill cuttings of Touchstone’s exploration well Cascadura Deep, onshore Trinidad). Photo courtesy Geological Society

Fortunately, TT has a few experts in biostratigraphy, many of which were trained right here at UWI as well as at Petrotrin. In fact, former UWI Professor Brent Wilson has been one of the university’s most published authors over the last 15 years and has had several MSc, MPhil and PhD students specialising in micro-fossils.

Trinidad is known in the oil and gas community as a graveyard for geologists due to our extremely complex geology. Biostratigraphy has been one of the low cost yet relatively accurate tools in the geologist’s arsenal since the early days of the industry. Most recently, Touchstone Exploration has had massive success onshore in their Ortoire Block, finding oil, gas and condensate, giving new life to Trinidad’s onshore. Biostratigraphers have been employed while drilling these wells, and some of the fossils found are shown below.

The Geological Society of TT is a professional and technical organisation for geologists, other scientists, managers and individuals engaged in the fields of hydrocarbon exploration, academia, vulcanology, seismology, earthquake engineering, environmental geology, geological engineering and the exploration and development of non-petroleum mineral resources.

BIG OIL'S UNICORN

Shell Canada president says carbon capture facility an integral part of company’s emissions reduction plan

EMMA GRANEY

GLOBE & MAIL

ENERGY REPORTER
PUBLISHED JULY 13, 2021

Susannah Pierce, who took the reins as Shell Canada president in April, says the proposed Polaris carbon capture and storage facility will play a key role in the company’s goal to hit net-zero emissions by 2050. AMBER BRACKEN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Shell Canada plans to capture more pollution at its Scotford refinery complex near Edmonton, the company’s latest move to convince the public and shareholders it is serious about reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposed Polaris carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility is part of a suite of projects the company is eyeing at the site to help lower emissions, including a new solar installation coming online later this year and, down the road, potentially producing hydrogen with renewable power.

Shell’s Quest CCS project, also at Scotford, has already captured and stored more than six million tonnes of carbon dioxide during its six years in operation. Susannah Pierce, who took the reins as Shell Canada president in April, says Polaris will play a key role in the company’s goal to hit net-zero emissions by 2050.

Shell has “a pretty aggressive goal with respect to carbon capture sequestration, which clearly is something that we need for projects or investments or assets that really can’t eliminate emissions on their own,” Ms. Pierce said in an interview Monday.

The initial phase of the new CCS project is expected to start operations around the middle of the decade, subject to a final investment decision by Shell in 2023. That first phase will capture and store about 750,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, reducing direct and indirect emissions by up to 40 per cent from the refinery and 30 per cent from the chemicals plant.

The second phase of the project would create a CO2 storage hub to store emissions from other companies, further lowering discharges in the oil and gas sector.

Ms. Pierce succeeded Michael Crothers as president when he retired, and she is still getting up to speed on the company’s priorities and how to apply its net-zero strategy.

Donning her other hat as general manager of renewables and energy solutions, she’s also focused on how to fold greener options – including hydrogen and renewables – into the mix to help lower emissions from the start of the energy supply chain through to end use by customers.

As a woman leading one of Canada’s largest integrated energy companies, Ms. Pierce said promoting equity, diversity and inclusion will also be core to her new role. That means inside Shell, but also “How are we acting as a positive force of change in this space? How are we promoting diverse industries? How are we promoting a relationship with Indigenous communities?” she said.

Ms. Pierce acknowledged there is some public cynicism about Shell’s commitment to lowering emissions and addressing climate change.

“There’s always going to be those who will never believe what you say, and that’s fair. We’re an old company that has had a history of energy production – of oil and gas,” she said.

But Ms. Pierce rejects the charge that Shell is greenwashing. She points to the company’s public clean energy transition strategy on which its shareholders voted, Shell’s commitment to update them every two years on progress toward those goals, and tying top executive compensation to the targets.

“We’re holding ourselves accountable to our shareholders and the board. If we fail to deliver, well, then we have to come to terms with that when we meet every year at our AGM,” she said.

While the International Energy Agency says all options for lowering emissions must be on the table for the world to reach net zero, environmental groups are often leery of carbon capture.

The federal government is in the midst of consultations to develop a CCS tax credit, due to start next year. But in March, a group of 47 environmental, health and human-rights organizations penned a letter to Ottawa opposing subsidies or any such tax credits, arguing the technology actually increases oil production, thus increasing the total output of CO2.

Carbon capture is one of several opportunities Shell is eyeing for Scotford to reduce emissions and meet what the company believes will be strong future market demand for differentiated, low-carbon fuels.

Along with use of more renewables onsite, it’s also in the early stages of figuring out if it could produce green hydrogen at the complex, which is made through electrolysis powered by renewable energy. Earlier this month, Shell started up Europe’s largest hydrogen electrolyzer of its kind at an energy and chemicals park in Germany.

“Shell actually sees that the hydrogen market could grow close to 50 per cent of today’s oil demand by 2050, so we see a huge opportunity to grow it, primarily looking at the harder-to-abate sectors,” Ms. Pierce said.