Trade unions and climate change

Trade unions and climate change Asbjørn Wahl Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees

Some starting points • Climate change is here and can be catastrophic • The main reason is the burning of fossil fuel • The way we live and work will change radically the coming years as a result of action or inaction • To delay action is to make consequences worse • Some will put the costs on workers, consumers and taxpayers, protecting corporate interests

Reduced transport emissions • Technological improvements, energy efficiency, cleaner energy sources • Shift from less to more environmental friendly transport modes • Reduce the need for transport, which means much more than transport policy

Trade unions on the defensive • Workers and trade unions put under pressure • Car driving, fuel prices, holidays abroad etc. • We have to pay for the emissions we cause • Individualisation of responsibilities • Tend to respond reactively – not proactively • Denial, fear of job losses, «not our business»

Challenges to trade unions • The contradiction between specific workers immediate, sectoral interests and broader interests of workers as a whole. • Are we transport workers who face a change in work patterns, or are we human beings confronting a potentially catastrophic event?

Broaden the perspective • Trade unions have to prioritise cc policies • Integrate our environmental / climate change policies in a broader political perspective • We have to build a strategic alliance with the environmental movement (and others) • The unregulated market economy will never be able to solve the climate change problems

Climate & financial crisis • ‘Climate change represents the biggest market failure in history’ (Stern Review) • The on-going financial crisis represents the other huge market failure in history • We cannot rely on those same failed market mechanisms to solve these crises • The crises = new opportunities for us

From defensive to offensive • Climate change policies not only a question of sacrifices, but of creating a better society for all • The costs of reducing carbon emissions has to be combined with a social redistribution of wealth • Climate change policies will require increased democratic control of the economy • Exactly what we need for many other reasons

’Improved life for workers’ «Going green is not just about job creation, it is about an improved life for working people.» Roger Toussaint, President, US TWU Local 100

What are the benefits? • Millions of green jobs – public transport & energy • Reduced pollution in workplaces and communities • Gives an opportunity for progressive social change • Transfer of technologies to developing countries • A more democratically managed economy • The survival of human beings and the planet ?

Changes beyond climate • We need to damp market competition • We need to shorten working hours • We need to create millions of new jobs • We need to lift 2 billion out of poverty • We need to regulate financial markets • We need to democratise the economy

’Much more social control’ «The transition to a low-carbon economy will require a new level of social coordination. It will require much more social control of investments. And, if it is to be conducted in a just and equitable way with support around the world, it will require social allocation of costs and benefits.» Global Labour Strategies: Labour and global warming

Social mobilisation Just as little as social equality, jobs for all, decent working conditions, eradication of poverty, gender equality, etc. will be achieved through global summits will the climate crisis be solved in this way. What is needed is a social and political mobilisation for alternative solutions built on solidarity, equality and peoples’ needs.

A question of democracy One way the US public can help fight global warming is by helping to «address threats to American democracy.» James Hanson, NASA climate scientist

Movement building The Blue-Green Alliance «is focused on restoring an additional element to the relationship between public policy and electoral politics ... that of movement building. ... Without strong, well-organised social movements mobilising along a society’s basic fault lines, meaningful change is unlikely.»

Build red-green alliances • Increase the understanding of the social conflict in the environmental movement • Increase the understanding of environmental problems in the trade unions • Stress the need for a democratic economy • Redistribution, tax policy, public services

Social or climate change? Social change is a precondition if we want to stop climate change.

So what has to be done ? • Develop our own cc policies / strategies • Embed it in a broader social context • Raise awareness of our own members • Strategic alliance with environmentalists • Long-term: To build the social alliances necessary to change society, not the climate

Trade unions and climate change