ITF delegates from Latin America, Europe and Africa attend the trade union workshop at Rio+20 yesterday. Delegates emphasised:
- the need for climate change to be approached as a class issue which requires confronting vested economic interests.
- the need to struggle for public ownership and control of energy as most investment is still in fossil fuels.
- the need to build alliances in order to build a strong working class movement capable of addressing the economic, social and environmental crisis.
A resolution from the workshop will be submitted to the official summit that includes a specific section on climate change and energy. Click here for more details on the Rio+20 trade union assembly.
The ITUC and SustainLabour have produced an excellent short document on climate change and energy, which succinctly explains the trade union perspective, analysing the current world economic model and the inequalities between countries. They look back on the developments over the last 20 yeas since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and the gap between the scientific reality and the international negotiations. The document then outlines the trade union demands to our governments at an international and national level, as well as the new commitments the trade union movement has made to address climate change at all levels; in our workplaces, at sectoral, regional, national and international level.
The ITUC and SustainLabour climate change and energy document is available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
June 13, 2012 at 1:55 pm
Hi everyone! I’m at the sustain labour conference from an ITF affiliate representing latin american young workers. Yesterday we worked on green jobs, just transition, opportunities and challenges for women and young people. One of the main issues was to define “green jobs” not only as the ones that reduce the enviroment impact of enteprises and economic sectors to sustainable levels protecting biodiversity, but also as decent jobs. If there are no decent working conditions, then there is not a green job.
Unemployment is another big issue, it has increased by 80% in develped economies and by two thirds in develping economies. Almost 40% of unemployed people are between 14 and 24 years of age. So the creation of green jobs is a necessity and we cannot continue to degrade the natural enviroment and endanger the quality of the sources. A change in the model is inevitable.
The policies must be aimed at training young people for green jobs and providing us with decent employmñent. Temporary and precarious jobs does not provide us with professional skills for the future. Also social policies are needed, education and health must be public and free to provide the youth with the tools for proper growth. Social dialogue must be included to make young workers a focal point and guarantee our participation in the decision making process.
June 18, 2012 at 11:25 am
The Trade Union Assembly was very good in some respects, and the organizers (Sustainabour and ITUC) should be congratulated in that they allowed space for genuine debate and contributions from the floor. Clearly, new ideas and perspectives are being brought into the trade union discussions on sustainable development, and these ideas and perspectives appear to be quite well developed in the case of unions from Latin America. The protection of ‘the commons,’ the fight against commodification of nature, and the need for public and democratic control over key economic sectors were ideas that drew wide support among the representatives. ITF’s presence in these debates made a big contribution.
It is up to everyone involved in the trade union movement to ensure that there is more open and honest debate at international union gatherings. I am looking forward to hearing reports about the People’s Assembly and the “climate jobs” meetings that are being organized in that space.
June 18, 2012 at 12:38 pm
The 2 TU Assembly was a great event with good insights into topical workers issues such as social protection. However it also provides a learning that such critical issues should be given ample time for discourse, because this was in a rush to catch up with the Rio+20 Convention. From the African perspective, we needed to explore the issue of the health of workers as paramount to SD let alone good governance.