• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Moms Clean Air Force

Fighting for Our Kids' Health

  • Take Action
    • Right Now
      • Sign a Petition
      • Register to Vote
      • Volunteer for Clean Air
      • Clean Air Action Guide
    • Attend an Event
      • Event Calendar
    • En Español
      • EcoMadres
    • Support Moms
      • Donate
  • What We Work On
    • Moms Priorities
      • Holding EPA Accountable
      • Legislation We Support
      • Justice in Every Breath
      • Moms & Mayors
      • EcoMadres
    • Air Pollution
      • Cars and Trucks
      • Electric School Buses
      • Maternal Health
      • Mercury
      • Ozone Pollution
      • Soot Pollution
    • Climate Change
      • Carbon Pollution
      • Clean Energy
      • Extreme Weather
      • Mental Health
      • Methane
    • Plastics and Petrochemicals
      • “Advanced Recycling”
      • Petrochemical Pollution
      • Waste Incineration
    • Toxic Chemicals
      • Chemical Safety
      • Schools and Playgrounds
      • Vinyl Chloride
  • Where We Work
    • State Chapters
      • Arizona
      • California
      • Colorado
      • Florida
      • Georgia
      • Illinois
      • Iowa
      • Louisiana
      • Maryland
      • Michigan
      • Montana
      • Nevada
      • New Hampshire
      • New Jersey
      • New Mexico
      • New York
      • North Carolina
      • Ohio
      • Pennsylvania
      • Tennessee
      • Texas
      • Virginia
      • Washington
      • Washington, DC
      • West Virginia
      • Wisconsin
  • Who We Are
    • Mission

      We are a community of over 1.5 million parents united against air and climate pollution to protect our children’s health.

      • Learn More
    • Our Team
      • National Team
      • Field Organizers
      • Job Openings
    • Learn More
      • Our Mission
      • Legislation We Support
      • Notable Achievements
      • 2024 Annual Report
      • Newsletter Archive
    • Programs
      • EcoMadres
      • Community Health Justice
      • Indigenous Communities
    • Get in Touch
      • Contact Us
      • Media Inquiries
  • Articles
    • All Articles
      • Topics
        • Plastics and Petrochemicals
        • Mom Detective
        • Air Pollution
        • Climate Change
        • Toxic Chemicals
    • EPA Wants to Roll Back Critical Mercury Protections?! Moms Speak Out for Children’s Health
      Heat Takes on a New Meaning This Summer: Moms Make News
      #MomsSummerofAction: Moms Say No to Repealing EPA’s Carbon Pollution Rule for Power Plants
      What’s in the Air: Tears, Nightmares, Thoughts, and Prayers
  • Resources
  • Press
    • Media Contact

      For all urgent press inquiries, please contact DKC News

      • MomsCleanAirForce@dkcnews.com
    • Moms in the Media
      • Press Releases
      • News Stories
      • Moms Make News Archives
  • Donate

FacebookTwitterinstagram

  • Take Action
  • Join the Force
  • Donate
Resource Library / Air Pollution / Cars and Trucks

Letter to Lion Electric About Community Benefits Agreement Ahead of New Facility Opening, March 10, 2022

Letter

email Email Linkfacebook Share on Facebooktwitter Share on X

Date: March 10, 2022

To: Marc Bedard, CEO-Founder
Lion Electric-Canada
921 Chem. de la Rivière du Nord
Saint-Jérôme, QC J7Y 5H1, Canada

Dear Mr. Bedard,

We, the undersigned members of the Alliance for Electric School Buses (AESB) and allied organizations, have played a leading role in advocating for electric school buses because we believe that every child deserves a safe, healthy, clean ride to and from school. We know that this transition is crucial to improving the health of students and communities and combating climate change. The AESB’s advocacy has secured billions of dollars of investment in electric school buses (ESBs) at the local, state, and federal levels. We are united by a commitment to promote racial, environmental, and economic justice through the transition of the nation’s school bus fleet to clean electric models, with members from major organizations across the U.S. representing the environmental, equity, and labor movements.

Fundamental to our work is ensuring that the transition to electric school buses is centered on equity and justice. Core to that is knowing that families need access to stable careers with good wages, quality health care, adequate paid time off, and respect in the workplace.

As staunch advocates for clean buses for kids, we want to recognize and commend Lion Electric for devoting its operations entirely to the production of electric buses and trucks. We believe this decision has helped the company take a leading position in the development and deployment of ESBs. We are also highly encouraged by your additional commitment to the U.S. school bus market by investing in a new production facility in Joliet, Illinois.

It is our hope that you will also demonstrate industry leadership and social responsibility by working collaboratively with community stakeholders in Illinois including the United Auto Workers to negotiate a community benefits agreement (CBA). The content of such agreements is determined through discussions between the company and a labor-community coalition, and at minimum includes a fair process for employees to decide on union representation, commitments to diverse hiring, and a jobs pipeline with skills training, and can include other community priorities such as environmental mitigation. Other heavy-duty manufacturing companies that have signed CBAs have benefitted immensely from the broad expertise of community, workforce,

education, labor, and environmental partners to successfully recruit, hire, train, and promote workers from the local community who are underrepresented in the manufacturing sector.

By negotiating a community benefits agreement, you will show a real commitment to your community and your employees, to the people of Illinois, and to the U.S. government—which is investing heavily in ESBs in order to reduce emissions, clean our air, and create good new jobs in the medium and heavy duty electric vehicle (EV) sector. A CBA will also help Lion to thrive as it recruits and develops the talent it needs to enjoy growing success as the nation begins the needed transition towards all-electric buses and trucks.

We would like to request a meeting to discuss these matters and see how we can advance our shared objectives. Together we can ensure a rapid transition to electric school buses that centers the needs of communities and workers. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,

Chispa*
Dream Corps Green for All*
Earthjustice*
Electric School Bus Newsletter*
Jobs to Move America*
League of Conservation Voters*
Moms Clean Air Force*
Mothers Out Front*
Save the Sound*
Sierra Club*
350.org
BlueGreen Alliance
Center for American Progress
Center for Biological Diversity
Elders Climate Action
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace USA
Labor Network for Sustainability
Natural Resources Defense Council
Sunrise Movement

*Members, Alliance for Electric School Buses

Take Action on this Issue

Join the force and stay updated on opportunities to take action:

Donate

Footer

Moms Clean Air Force ®

We are a community of more than 1.6 million moms, dads, and caregivers united against air pollution – including the urgent crisis of our changing climate – to protect our children’s health.

Areas of Focus

  • Air Pollution
  • Climate Change
  • Toxic Chemicals

FacebookTwitterinstagram

© 2025 Moms Clean Air Force
All rights reserved

Privacy Policy