For Immediate Release: August 31, 2021
Contact: media@colorofchange.org
COLOR OF CHANGE JOINED DETROIT PEOPLE’S PLATFORM IN DEMANDING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTS FOR RESIDENTS HARMED BY CHRYSLER PLANT EXPANSION
NATIONAL- Today, Color Of Change joined Detroit People’s Platform, Justice for Beniteau Residents, and Representative Rashida Tlaib to deliver a signed petition of nearly 4,000 advocates calling on Chrysler’s CEO, Micheal Manley, to demand Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and parent company, Stellantis investigate the damages of their plants on the residents of Detroit, ensure environmental protections immediately, and are held accountable to the Black Detroiters whose communities they’ve impacted.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), and parent company, Stellantis, have only agreed to pay $8 million in “community benefits” while receiving $420 million in public tax abatements to expand their own operations. As part of the community benefits agreement Chrysler signed in April 2019, they agreed to renovate nearly 60 homes on Beniteau, the street closest to the project, but Chrysler has given the residents insufficient funds to do so. Most of these homes are owned by Black, elderly, long-time residents.
“FCA/Stellantis is a global player worth billions of dollars. They are receiving $400 Million in public funds and only put $8.8 Million of their own money back into the community. This is unacceptable.” said Linda Campbell of Detroit People’s Platform. “The community next to the plant is majority Black, less than half of the residents live above the poverty line and the area already has nearly double the asthma hospitalization rates as the rest of the state. This is textbook environmental racism.”
“CEO Micheal Manley, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Stellanis continue to ignore Black people and the harmful impacts caused by their plant expansion. Nearly 4,000 Color Of Change members in Detroit signed an OrganizeFor petition contesting the inhumane environmental conditions Chrysler has imposed on the residents of Beniteau Street.” said Shannon Talbert, Senior Organizing Director. “In order for Chrysler to benefit from Detroit’s public tax dollars, they must work in cooperation with residents by developing adequate environmental protections for their community. Corporations, like Chrysler, can not claim to stand with Black lives while destroying our communities in the same breath.”
The Justice for Beniteau Residents campaign has been organizing for greater environmental health protections for those living in the first impact zone of Stellantis and Fiat-Chrysler’s North Jefferson plant expansion for over two years. In addition to staging direct actions to push Chrysler on their demands, the group launched a petition on Color Of Change’s member-run platform, Organize For, in September 2020. Since then, Color Of Change has shared the petition using a variety of methods including, email, SMS, and social media ads, has amplified the residents’ demands to Chrysler representatives in internal meetings, supported the release of an Op-Ed penned by Robert Shobe, and most recently, led a state-wide Detriot Textathon that mobilized over 2,000 supporters to demand that Michael Manley be held accountable for the harms he has committed against the residents along Beniteau Street.
For more information, visit the petition page linked here.
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