Climate Justice

Worker interviews and surveys collect and share information about workers’ environmental concerns and build ownership of climate justice work. Involving workers through one-to-one surveys and contacts can best position the union to take action on climate justice.

The survey can include questions about how the employer can implement carbon reductions, prepare for the impacts of the climate crisis, and ask for suggestions on how to prevent or mitigate job loss.

Workers are directly impacted by issues such as emissions, air quality, heat and other environmental concerns in the course of their work. In some countries and regions there are specific environmental workplace representatives or committees (sometimes known as “green union representatives” or “green champions”). In other countries, the health and safety committees and representatives address issues of climate justice. In either case, the goal is to ensure that the union at the workplace is fully involved in setting environmental agenda, policies and practices.

An audit of the workplace, the company, or the union itself, should include initial and regular benchmarks for emission reductions. According to the Trade Union Congress in the United Kingdom, “Workplaces burn energy, consume resources and generate waste and travel so they are an obvious place to tackle climate change … Over half of carbon emissions in the UK are work-related.”

An environmental audit can include a review of current emissions, existing environmental policies, energy conservation of heating and lighting, waste management, purchasing and use policies for equipment and systems, the prevention and removal of toxins and pollution, and for mitigating and adapting to negative climate change impacts.

To measure and set goals for emission reductions, you need to know or review the employer’s or union’s current emissions footprint. An emissions footprint is the total emissions which an individual or organisation is responsible for. This may include heating, energy, hot water, and electricity use, including from transport and suppliers. The emissions footprint will enable you to compare the employer to other companies, set targets, benchmarks, and best practices.

If your employer has not already calculated their footprint, you will need readings on usage from the employer’s utility bills, modes of transport and vehicle fuel usage, information on emissions from agricultural and industrial processes, and CO2 use from significant suppliers of products and materials.

Once you have the baseline audits and policy reviews completed, work through a labour-management structure to create an action plan that includes clear targets and benchmarks, dates for completion and a system for monitoring. If there are no functioning labour-management structures, plan how you can pressure the employer to take action.

Climate justice issues need to be included in collective bargaining agreements where they are regularly negotiated and enforceable by the parties.

Negotiating a collective climate crisis agreement (either as a result of written policy from a joint employer-union committee, a standalone negotiated agreement, or within an existing collective bargaining agreement) can secure employer commitment (at the sectoral, workplace or company level) to targets and actions that can be enforced and ensure that the plans include what workers want and need.

Union negotiated contract language can cover topics such as just transition, green representatives, greenhouse gas reduction, workers’ rights and responsibilities during times of climate disasters and other topics of concern to workers.

Contract language could look something like the sample below from the UK Trade Union Congress (TUC):

A union task force or workplace committee can be the key driver/ agency to transform the union to prioritise climate justice. To what extent such a transformation can be pursued depends on the mandate the task force or committee receives from the union decision-making structures. The scope of such a mandate can range from preparing internal changes by educating workers or developing new union policies, strategic action plans and negotiating agendas, to external actions such as developing organising campaigns, building alliances and preparing public policy interventions.

Once you have the authority and mandate from the union to move forward, recruit leaders and workers to the task force and decide on the process to turn your climate justice mandate into reality.

The union task force can educate workers about the climate crisis, through one-to-one conversations, group discussions and with written information and social media campaigns. Mobilising workers to attend climate justice actions organised by the union and allies can help build commitment and understanding.

In the process of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and development pathway, new sectors and companies will emerge. Unions need to organise these workplaces and industries to ensure that there will be decent work in climate and green jobs.

If you are ready to pressure an employer or decision-maker on an issue about the climate crisis or organise a group of new climate or green job workers, theTool Box section on “Campaigning and Organising” will be useful.

We need a mass movement of working people for climate justice. Unions in many countries have formed alliances with other social justice and environmental organisations to push for government and employer action on climate justice.

Sometimes actions will be led by unions and sometimes actions will be led by Indigenous Peoples, environmental groups, women, racially oppressed peoples, youth and other allies.

Youth are leading and mobilising the largest protests and strikes against climate change in history. Unions can follow the collective mobilisation structures of youth climate activists and help remove barriers to youth leadership. Young workers need to sit at the negotiating table and unions need to fully integrate young workers in all our climate justice work.

During the 2019 global climate strike, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and unions around the world stood with students. “The solidarity of the trade union movement globally is behind you,” Sharon Burrows, the president of the ITUC explained that “[t]he ITUC, with over 200 million members around the world, is totally in support of your leadership.”

Women are disproportionally impacted by the climate crisis and are underrepresented in decision-making in connection with the climate crisis. Climate change is increasing gender inequality.

For centuries and longer, Indigenous Peoples and communities have been leading resistance movements locally and internationally to protect the earth and ecological resources. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People recognises that Indigenous People have specific knowledge, traditional practices, and cultural customs that contribute to the proper and sustainable management of earth’s resources.

An estimated 370 million Indigenous Peoples hold stewardship of 20% of the earth’s land mass. In 2019, the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum (ILLPF) outlined the need for commitments on climate change – to secure Indigenous Peoples’ rights to lands, territories, self-determination, sovereignty and resources, the protection of the earth and biocultural diversity, and the development of renewable resources around the world.

Education about the climate crisis can be challenging. Average working people have been blamed for not doing more about the climate crisis and left with the impression that the only way to stop climate change is through a massive worsening of conditions. Or that the climate crisis is too complicated and scientific of an issue to understand. There are both hidden and blatant messages about how only privileged wealthy people in rich countries should care about the climate crisis. These messages can lead to hopelessness and apathy.

To educate and organise workers, we need to start with where people are, address assumptions, engage people with discussions about solutions that they can be involved in, and move people to action. There are a number of resources for educating and involving union members in climate justice work that you can adapt to your own needs.

The Global Labour University has a free online course called “Just and Green: Labour’s Ecological Question.” The course includes materials on why the environment is a labour issues, as well as information on labour struggles from various sectors, labour debates and policy proposals. https://global-labour-university.org/index.php?id=472

The ITF (International Transport Workers Federation) has produced a series of fact sheets that are designed to be used as a workshop or a series of 1.5 hour educational sessions. The topics begin with Factsheet #1 The Basics – Carbon Dioxide and include topics such as “Controversies – Carbon Taxes” and “Controversies – Global North and South”. The notes for trainers can be found in Factsheet #24 Notes for Trainers. (link) https://www.itfglobal.org/en/training-education/climate-justice-factsheets

The Greener Jobs Alliance has an online course titled “A Trade Union Guide to Just Transition”. The course is divided into four modules, explaining the climate crisis, depicting how trade unions are working on international agreements to tackle the climate crisis, looking at union demands for a fair and just transition and proposing how to get involved in your union, your workplace, and your community. (link) https://www.greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/

PSI (Public Services International) has a workbook called “Confronting the Climate Crisis: Time to Act”, which contains an overview of climate justice issues and a series of workshop activities on the climate crisis. (link) https://publicservices.international/resources/page/climate-change?id=9556&lang=en

A strategic plan will identify in a participatory process the key objectives and action that the union will undertake to fight for climate justice. Ensure a mandate from the union organisational structures and leadership, form a core committee or task force to drive the process, and move forward to create a strategic plan.

The Tool Box materials on “Strategic Planning” can assist you.

You may want a process that involves the employer in climate justice and ensuring a just transition, such as a joint labour-management task force, a labour-management negotiating body or the expansion of an existing structure such as a health and safety committee to include climate justice.

A strategic plan on confronting the climate crisis is an opportunity for the union to build alliances with key stakeholders in the movements of young workers, women and Indigenous Peoples on the climate crisis, and to increase the participation of workers from these groups and others that are concerned about the climate crisis.

The climate crisis is present, and the impacts are already severe, particularly for workers in low and middle-income countries. Global inequalities are increasing due to neoliberalism, centuries of colonialist histories and the climate crisis itself. Workers and unions in countries that are highly vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis and are among the least resourced to respond to its impacts.

Funding and the expansion of the public sphere are critical to confronting the climate crisis and the global community has done too little to address these needs. Unions must fight for increased public resource allocations to cope with the impacts of the climate crisis, locally, nationally, and globally.

Climate migration and conflict situations will increase massively as the climate crisis continues to impact the world. Unions have a strong role to play in assisting arriving climate refugees and ensuring we are prepared, and that public globally resourced emergency response plans exist.

Agricultural sectors are heavily impacted globally by the climate crisis. Small-holder farms need protection along with the storage and protection of fresh water supplies, expanded irrigation systems, forestation, drought-tolerant seeds, improved weather forecasting, early warning and evacuation preparation.

Health-care systems need improvement and public rather than private profit-driven control of healthcare is needed. According to the World Health Organisation, “Climate change may indirectly affect the COVID-19 response, as it undermines environmental determinants of health, and places additional stress on health systems. More generally, most emerging infectious diseases, and almost all recent pandemics, originate in wildlife, and there is evidence that increasing human pressure on the natural environment may drive disease emergence. Strengthening health systems, improved surveillance of infectious disease in wildlife, livestock and humans, and greater protection of biodiversity and the natural environment, should reduce the risks of future outbreaks of other new diseases.”

The global union federation for public sector unions, PSI, issued the following statement in 2017: “More and more, unions recognise that the solutions to better climate disaster response are to be found in the political sphere, requiring that unions develop political strategies to develop public policies to improve disaster prevention, response and reconstruction. These public policies and programmes are required not only to protect emergency workers, but ultimately to protect families and entire communities.”

When a flood, a famine, or a storm destroys a city or location, unions can assist with emergency support and communications and a message connecting the disaster to the experiences of other communities around the world which are also being impacted by the climate crisis. Unions need to help ensure that disaster prevention, pandemic responses and rebuild plans are driven by workers in decent and secure union jobs.

When climate disasters strike, the authorities and the news media will move quickly to set an agenda and a message. During disaster relief, capital and goods and wealthy communities are often prioritised over the lives of working people. Unions representing emergency workers on the ground can act as a microphone for communities facing disasters, demanding increased resources, and helping shame governments into acting.

As we move to a more sustainable economy, the impacts on workers is tremendous and leadership from unions is critical. The 2015 Paris Agreement defines a just transition as one that “[t]akes into account the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities.”

The ITUC defines Just Transition as requiring “an economy-wide process that produces the plans, policies and investments that lead to a sustainable future with full employment, decent work and social protection. An effective Just Transition process requires social dialogue between governments, employers, and unions to develop the measures that build trust and guarantee secure income support for affected workers, skills training and redeployment services.”

Trade unions around the world have various positions regarding the way in which to achieve climate goals. And how much the way our economies are run need to be to transformed, for example, by the level of state intervention and control and by the level of democratising (energy production). Sectoral transitions play a key role, and the energy sector is at the forefront of the debate.

Over 80% of the world’s energy is produced by burning coal, oil, and gas. Fossil fuels release billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and are the biggest driver of the climate crisis. In a just transition, anyone who loses their job because we stop burning oil, coal or gas must be guaranteed re-employment or a grant ensuring that they are no worse off than before. Where there is a dependence on carbon-intensive jobs, a just transition requires public investments in publicly owned localised energy production and the requalification and redeployment of workers from declining sectors to growing sectors. In the process, workers need to be guaranteed social protection and access to find new decent work opportunities.

Other sectors’ transformation such as transport or agriculture are likewise challenged when it comes to being guided by a just transition perspective.

It is important to be clear about what is meant by ‘just transition’. A 2019 report from the Transnational Institute states that “[s]ome governments and corporations are now advancing visions of just transition that pay lip service to the concept, while allowing them to continue to profit from initiatives that social movements around the world have branded as ‘false solutions. From cap-and-trade systems to carbon capture and geoengineering, to the promotion of massive, monocultural agrofuel plantations, a number of deeply problematic ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis are on the table.”

“These false solutions are often informed by a narrow vision of ‘net-zero’ (achieved through carbon trading) or marginally reduced emissions, with little regard for broader environmental, social, and economic problems, or for human rights. Many of these proposals will deepen inequality; dispossess marginalised people of land and resources; diminish democratic control over resources; privatise commons, public goods and services; further the exploitation of workers; and preserve the most damaging aspects of our current economic system. This is in sharp contrast to understandings of just transition driven by peoples’ movements, which see environmental harms as just one critical manifestation of a broader crisis.”

Unions are campaigning for large-scale government investment in new climate jobs that will cut emissions. Climate jobs are jobs that reduce the amount of greenhouse gases. This is different from ‘green jobs’, which can include a variety of jobs that may or may not reduce emissions.             

The climate jobs campaigns want new jobs now. They are not asking governments to promise to ‘create’ jobs by 2030 or encourage industry to do so. They want the government to start hiring people immediately for decent secure climate jobs. In countries where carbon-intensive industries are not well established, the issue is not conversion to climate neutral jobs, but rather the creation of climate-neutral jobs.

Governments can afford climate jobs. Investments in climate jobs create a far greater number of jobs than equal investments in the natural gas and coal industries. Money spent on jobs get the economy moving again, as workers spend money on food, housing and other goods. Money is returned to governments when workers start paying taxes and stop claiming social benefits. Money is also returned when people pay for the things that are produced by climate job workers, whether it be bus tickets or electricity. Many governments have access to reserve funds and can also raise money through taxes on the wealthy and financial transactions. For example, in 2008, the US government found $ 400 billion within a week when they bailed out US banks.

Trade union action on climate justice can be particularly important at the sectoral level. Workers and unions have a profound knowledge of their industrial sectors. They are thus well-placed to devise plans or are involved in a social dialogue on how to transform production and products to be more climate-friendly and produce better outcomes for workers and communities.

Sectoral transformation plans can set emission targets for a particular sector in a country or region. These should specify the way to achieve goals and targets, including industrial policy measures, public and private investments, pathways for adapting new technologies, re-skilling and social protection policies for workers and affected communities.

The ILO recommends the consultation and the involvement of trade unions in the planning and implementation of low-carbon policies at “all possible levels and stages”. In reality, unions are often not included and have to push for a social dialogue.

The 2015 Paris Agreement created a system where countries have to periodically submit national reports known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that are reviewed at the global level every five years. NDCs for each country that has submitted them can be found at NDC registry. Updates to NDCs are performed regularly, with a review process slated for after 2023. Unions need to prepare ahead, examine implementation pathways and push for improved NDC commitments including regarding labour rights, poverty reduction, equality, and a just transition. To date, most NDCs mention just transition only marginally, if at all.

Unions may have work to do to engage more fully in lobbying and policy work on climate justice. An ETUC survey found that 61% of their member unions do not have “sufficient ability to properly participate in discussions linked to decarbonisation strategies. When asked about the main barriers to the union’s involvement in the discussions, the lack of priority given to green transition issues was the most frequent answer given.” https://www.etuc.org/en/publication/involving-trade-unions-climate-action-build-just-transition-guide-video#.WvqRZ4iFM2w

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) serves as the global voice of workers and unions and has prioritised global action on climate justice and just transition.

The ITUC coordinates the work of the trade union movement’s input to major environmental intergovernmental processes, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). https://www.ituc-csi.org/just-transition-centre

The UNFCC hosts conferences on the climate crisis that set out global commitments, including the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, which was signed by 195 countries in 1995. Unions and allies have worked hard to make their voices heard at the global level and to force their governments to move more forcefully on climate justice issues. Thanks to this mobilisation, the Paris Agreement recognised the need to create decent jobs and guarantee a just transition for workers as we shift to a low carbon society.

COP stands for the conference of the parties under the UNFCCC. COPs are held annually and are an opportunity for trade unions and civil society organisations to engage at the global level in UN processes as well as build relationships, encourage mobilisation, and coordinate campaign strategies. At COP24, the Silesia Declaration was launched, encouraging countries to incorporate just transition into their national plans under the Paris Agreement.

The global federation of public service unions (PSI) warns that “[a]fter a quarter of a century, there has been little in the way of ambitious and binding targets at the global level. While there have been gains made, it is clear that without mobilization and action from trade unions and civil society, governments will continue to be heavily influenced by corporate interests, including the fossil fuel giants. The role of trade unions in ensuring a just green transition and ambitious carbon reductions is vital.”

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy is a global organisation of trade unions committed specifically to democratic control of energy and solutions on the climate crisis and energy poverty. http://unionsforenergydemocracy.org/about/about-the-initiative/

The global union federations (GUFs) provide a platform for sectoral and industrial climate justice issues to be heard at a global level as the federations are organised globally by sector. Each of the GUFs will have global climate justice resources available for their sector and industries.

For example, IndustriALL, the global umbrella union of mining, energy and manufacturing unions, organised an international meeting of coal mining unions in 2018 to work towards just transitions and defend coal miners’ interests in the face of the climate crisis. The meeting was held in Delhi, with participation of unions from Australia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

Unions are involved in coalitions and alliances at the national and local levels which are organising globally. National and local governments need to be leaned on to create stronger global action to deal with the climate crisis and unions are key to this process.