by J. J. Johnson/ 1199SEIU Our Life & Times
April 22, 2010
Though an official number has not been released, reports suggest that there are at least 20,000 delegates to the World’s People Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. The overwhelming majority are from here, Cochabamba, and other areas of Bolivia. Huge numbers are from throughout Latin America. Among the 100 or so from North America, there don’t appear to be many trade unionists. From the U.S., 1199SEIU Executive VP Estela Vazquez and I are the only delegates representing unions.
“Where are the unions?” asked a veteran Argentine trade unionist during the discussion at the “Trade Unionists and Green Jobs” workshop. Her sentiments were echoed by other speakers. The workshop represented one of the few opportunities within the conference for unionists to exchange ideas about how to get unions throughout the world to take their place on the frontlines of the climate justice movement.
“If the planet was a bank, they would save it,” said Jonathon Teale of Great Britain’s University and College Union (UCU) and the Campaign Against Climate Change (CACC). Teale, the principal speaker in the workshop, was referring to the bailout of U.S. banks. “There are now 2.5 million unemployed workers in Britain,” he said. “We want the government to employ one million of them to stop climate change.”
In addition to UCU, the CACC has support of major British trade unions. Much of the workshop discussion centered on how the movement to save the climate was married to the fight for jobs and economic justice. Workshop participants identified some of the fault lines in their countries. For example, for many in the global north, the environmental movement is seen as an attempt by middle-class elitists to pressure workers to lower their standard of living. That is changing in the U.S. with organizations like the Apollo Alliance and the Blue Green Alliance led by the United Steelworkers of America and the Sierra Club.
In the past, labor’s position on climate and energy policies was shaped primarily by industrial unions. These unions generally fought policies that they deemed threatened jobs. Miners, for example, resisted efforts to curb production of coal. Today, most organized workers are in service and public sector unions. For these unions, the greening of the U.S. economy could mean millions of decent union jobs. Towards this end, the annual Green Jobs Conference will take place in Washington, D.C. in early May.
The term “green jobs” also was debated in the workshop. A speaker from South Korea spoke of how the current administration uses the need for green jobs as a subterfuge to frighten and exploit industrial workers. “Your jobs are less important and will be replaced,” workers are told.
“The environmental movement is akin to a ghetto,” Teale said. An alliance with labor, he and others noted, is the way out of the ghetto. But labor must take the lead. We also have to live on this earth, said a speaker. She added that workers, especially the poorest, have to bear the heaviest burden.
“We don’t want the hands of the corporations on the world thermostat,” said Janet Redmond of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. D.C during a panel earlier in the day on “The Rights of Mother Earth.”
1199SEIU’s Estela Vazquez continued that theme in the labor panel. “Stopping climate change is a labor issue,” Estela said. “The corporations and multinationals that violate workers’ rights at home and abroad are the same ones that are responsible for climate change. Our enemies are the same. We in labor and our allies are planning a people’s march in October to bring millions to Washington, D.C. We will link the demands for jobs with demands to save our Mother Earth.”
