Dirty Jobs Boycott Campaign Plan

by Ann Nickel

Earth Day's creation in 1970 
        marked the transition of students from verbal protestation to activists 
        for the environment. Since that time, students have provided key leadership 
        and support for environmental issues. Although this student activism won 
        major victories for environmental protection including the Clean Water 
        Act, the creation of the EPA, the Endangered Species Act, and theClean 
        Air Act, the positive steps taken since Earth Day have not kept pace with 
        the rate of environmental destruction. In the new millenium, the global 
        community faces major environmental threats like global warming, wilderness 
        destruction, water pollution, and air pollution. These destructive forces 
        are not only the result of recent years; water pollution and air pollution 
        have been years in the making. These conditions do not disappear as quickly 
        as weak excuses. The environment is at risk largely due to polluters who 
        neglect to take simple actions to protect the environment. Minor steps 
        can be made to reduce major damage done to our environment, but every 
        year environmental reforms do not make it onto the corporate balance sheets. 
        Companies with annual budgets larger than many nations often refuse to 
        make modest efforts that are clearly within their means. 
        	As students of the new millenium, it is this generation¹s 
        time to be activists. New strategies must be employed to make effective 
        reforms, and include accountability beyond the lobbyist-filled halls of 
        Congress for corporate polluters. The corporate idea of profit must change 
        to include the continuing welfare of public health and the environment. 
        Protecting the planet requires a renewed activism among youth and strategies 
        that use students¹ power in the economic arena. 
      		With the economy booming and unemployment at record lows, 
        many corporations are desperately seeking bright, creative, skilled college 
        students to join their teams. Being in high demand, we have the power 
        to influence the priorities of large companies. By prioritizing corporate 
        environmentalism as a requisite for a potential employer, the recruiter¹s 
        company will have to compete with each other on their environmental record 
        if they want to succeed in the campus career. Our generation will be the 
        first to boycott employment with polluters and say, "If you continue to 
        threaten our future, we will not work for you." Corporations can then 
        be induced into an environmentalism that will begin to solve the problems 
        many of their operations began. This campaign is beginning here on campus 
        focusing on legislative victories for the environment and our public health 
        by forcing polluters to meet specific demands for environmental protection. 
        When polluters realize that they can¹ t hire the best and the brightest 
        while destroying the environment, they will have no choice but to clean 
        up their acts.
      		Right now, we are targeting Coca-Cola, GM and BP-Amoco. 
        Coca-Cola has not kept their promise of using post-consumer recycled plastic 
        in their bottles. Coke sells 25 million plastic soda bottles in the U.S. 
        each day. Two out of three of these plastic bottles end up in the trash 
        or as litter. This also implicates the plastics industry, as they continue 
        to use up valuable natural resources, creating more toxic pollutants in 
        the process. BP-Amoco¹s continued drilling of the Arctic National Wildlife 
        Refuge has created an intolerable disturbance for the inhabitants of this 
        ecosystem. GM is the third corporation targeted because of their membership 
        with the Global Climate Coalition. This industry front group works legislatively 
        to weaken global warming environmental regulations.
      		The strategy of the student group Dirty Jobs Boycott is 
        to inundate these corporations with the pressure of hundreds of thousands 
        of students. After meeting our demands, the corporation is removed from 
        the list, and another target is added. This student-run systematic approach 
        will work towards gaining victories for the environment and forcing corporate 
        reform. On campus, there will be tables where students are invited to 
        organize a pledge signing committing Davidson students to withholding 
        employment from the Dirty Jobs Boycott targets until they meet our demands 
        for environmental protection. Other grassroots action will include resume 
        mail-ins, where we will mail or fax resumes to the hiring department of 
        GM. An example of the message included in these mailings is "I would like 
        you to keep my resume on file until you withdraw from the Global Climate 
        Coalition. Please do not contact me for an interview before doing so. 
        I am one of millions who are boycotting working for you until you withdraw 
        from the GCC."