Environmental Justice, Just Transition, Toxic Chemicals, Toxic Products

“I’m on Fire”: United Domestic Workers Members Reflect on JTA’s Just Markets Training in San Diego

January 24, 2026January 24, 2026By
Three people stand before a crowd and a man in a hat points to the whiteboard.

José T. Bravo, of Just Transition Alliance, and Sandra Plascencia and Sydney O’Connor, of United Domestic Workers, host a popular education training in San Diego, Jan. 15, 2026. Photo credit: Sabina Borbon

On January 15, Just Transition Alliance (JTA) and United Domestic Workers (UDW) members joined together for a training in San Diego about chemicals of concern, dollar stores, and systems change toward just transition. UDW’s Sandra Plascencia and Sydney O’Connor, who participated in JTA’s Training of Trainers in July 2025, facilitated this event, with support from Gloria Orduña and Claudia Becerra. Participants experienced many activities and conversations, informed by the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, which JTA’s José T. Bravo (the National Coordinator) and Nona Chai actively support. UDW members in attendance also used the Clearya and Yuka apps to read labels and to learn about chemicals of concern contained in some foods and personal care products from Dollar Tree.  

The UDW shows strong commitments toward addressing environmental and climate injustices and the need for a just transition that responds to its members’ labor conditions, who work as home care and family child care providers. The UDW leadership represents over 200,000 workers in California, 87 percent of whom are women. Women of color compose about half of this percentage.

During the San Diego gathering, JTA’s Sabina Borbon spoke with Delnita Brown and Sandra Plascencia about what they learned from the training, what inspired them, and what plans they have for holding future trainings.

Delnita reflected:

“I’m on fire. I’m so excited to go back just to share with them everything [during a District 3 Civil Human Rights meeting] to inform them, because this was a lot… For the [Just Transition] Alliance to come here and tell their part about some of the things they informed us of, now I get to go back and share the Dollar Tree information, what we’re consuming, how much that is affecting our lives… Just to have a manual now to go by in order to train others, to tell them, to let them know that this is our future. We will stop this madness… So just everything I’ve learned, I want to go back and be transparent and share it with the members, and they know I always come with information. That’s what Delnita does, so I’m gonna go back, and I’m gonna spread the word, and I’m gonna get more people coming to the climate meetings and more people understanding that we are in a critical time right now.”

Sandra shared:

“I want to be a part of this training experience because I think it’s incredibly important to understand what just transition is but also to ensure that the brothers and sisters that are from UDW, right, they understand what just transition is so they can have a seat at the table when important decisions are being made on just transition. So my goal is really to empower them to lead their own workshops in their own home communities to be able to talk about just transition and lead on that… We will definitely have, if not one, multiple workshops in Kern County, Orange County, Riverside, Imperial, and San Diego County [California]… I’m in Kern County, right, so…we are very oil and gas centered and centric and to talk about just transition, specifically with workers that are like working in the refineries and in the oil fields, I think it would be incredibly inspiring to know that there’s gonna be more options for them in the future, right. And that, you know, us, as UDW, and as a union can give them the tools and guidance to, like, go through school, right, and be able to get certificates to maybe be an engineer or be a paramedic and, you know, just give them an opportunity to do more than just work really hard laborious jobs and just also be able to maintain their families and to do something they like.”

Listen to Delnita’s and Sandra’s full interviews with Sabina. Editing by Catalina de Onís.

JTA will be holding more trainings throughout 2026 in and beyond California. Trainers will be guided by two collaboratively-developed workbooks: “Tools for Systemic Change toward a Peoples’s Economy” and “Tools for Justice-Based Markets Campaigns.” Both workbooks are available in English and Spanish. This popular education curriculum enacts the understanding that we are all teachers and learners—exemplified by the most recent San Diego training.