Global climate change promises to be the issue of the 21st century. It will impact all people and every institution – working people and the labor movement not least of all.
The Cornell Global Labor Institute in New York has been playing a significant role in helping labor address environmental issues. A conference on Labor and the Environment in New York last year brought together labor activists concerned with the environment from all over the world to compare notes and plot strategy.
This spring the Global Labor Institute is planning an even more ambitious event specifically on climate change called A North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis: Building a Global Movement for Clean Energy.
According to Sean Sweeney, director of the Institute,
“The climate crisis is a huge issue for the trade union movement both here and all over the world. Climate change must become a core union issue, because jobs, communities and the world we leave our children are at stake.”
Conference organizers hope that this will be not just one more conference, but one that contributes to a “global call to arms.”
“Today the fight for the environment and the fight to rebuild trade union power go hand in hand. Union density is falling in the U.S. and all over the world. By taking on this challenge, unions will not only be making a huge contribution to the effort to stave off disaster for ourselves and future generations, but we will also be reaching out to new supporters and members who will then join us in the fight for adequate pensions, universal health care, and decent wages.”
The conference will bring together trade unionists from the U.S., Canada, Europe and numerous countries of the global South where climate change is already having a severe impact on workers and communities as the result of drought, disrupted harvests, and extreme weather events. And according to Sweeney, it will have a local as well as a global dimension. “We are inviting unions in New York and the tri-state area to be represented at the conference, and to sponsor and support the effort.”
The conference has already secured partnerships from a number of important labor groups and allies, including the United Steelworkers, UNITE HERE, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal workers, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, along with the Apollo Alliance and the Sierra Club. Other unions and organizations are expected to support the initiative in the weeks ahead.
Confirmed speakers include Steelworkers president Leo Gerard, Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, New York transport workers leader Roger Toussaint, teachers’ leader Randi Weingarten, and Dr. Robert Socolow who heads Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative.
Global warming poses many questions for the labor movement. What is labor’s role in responding to such a huge global issue that affects labor but also everyone else? What are the resources to draw on and the limitations to be overcome in labor’s traditional approaches to the environment? What are the elements of a “just transition” to an environmentally sustainable world, and how can labor ensure both that there is such a transition and that follows basic principles of social justice? How should labor approach issues of climate change policy, such as the debate between advocates of a carbon tax and those of “cap-and-trade”? What are the job-creating potentials of energy conservation and a switch to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power? What should be labor’s stand on global warming legislation soon to be considered in Congress? What kind of organizing and alliances will be necessary to promote that stand? These and other critical questions will be addressed at the North American Labor Assembly on the Climate Crisis.
The conference will by held May 7-8. The United Federation of Teachers is hosting the event at its headquarters on 52 Broadway.
For more information about the conference contact:
Jill Kubit
Cornell Global Labor Institute
212 340 2840
[email protected]
Program (Draft)
Speakers Include:
Sharon Clair, Vice President, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Joel Decaillon, General Secretary, European Trade Union Confered.
Leo Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers
Carl Pope, Executive Director, Sierra Club
Joe Radisich, Vice President, Int. Longshore and Warehouse Union
Lucien Royer - Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC)
Verner Schneider, DGB- Germany
Tim Secord, United Transportation Union- Canada
Dr. Robert Socolow, Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University
Roger Toussaint, President, Transport Workers Union Local 100
Randi Weingarten, President, United Federation of Teachers
Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Daphne Wysham, Co-director, Institute for Policy Studies
May 7, 2007
Session One: The Challenge
What is global warming and why will it lead to severe climate change? What are the specific implications of global warming for unions, union members, their families and communities? What needs to be done to control CO2 emissions and how quickly? How can unions affect those decisions in a way that both addresses the concerns of workers and builds labor’s power?
Session Two: Energy Alternatives, Conservation, and Union Growth
What is labor’s role in creating an energy-efficient and low-carbon society? Will workers have stronger unions and better jobs – or less power, lower wages and fewer benefits?
What solutions for global warming already exist? What would a new, largely non-carbon energy economy look like? What new jobs will be created by the use of renewable sources of energy (solar, wind, biofuels, etc), by expanded public transportation systems, and through conservation (such as retrofitting buildings)? How can unions organize or ensure representation in the renewable energy sector?
May 8, 2007
Session Three: The Blue-Green Alliance: Advancing an Effective Political and Legislative Agenda.
What are the goals of the Blue-Green Alliance in the U.S.? How can international, national, and local unions build alliances around global warming and climate change? What are unions doing in other countries doing to engage and mobilize members? What are the top political and legislative priorities in the U.S. and elsewhere? How can unions make global warming an election issue?
Session Four: Organizing and Movement Building Around Global Warming & the Environment
What examples exist of union organizing on global warming and the environment here and overseas? What kind of alliances are unions making around global warming? How will unions organize the renewable energy sector? How can environmental issues contribute to union resurgence?
What about a labor conference on "peak oil". Oil depletion will also have far reaching affects on workers.
Posted by: Doug | February 04, 2007 at 08:01 PM