UK government plans to introduce “smart meters” to homes nationwide as an energy saving measure must take account of safety and other concerns about rogue contractors, the union GMB has said.
The GMB call comes a week after the Australian government had to clampdown on “shonky” contractors after a series of deaths in young workers installing ceiling insulation under its “energy efficient homes” programme. Read More
HARD FACTS It's the climate, stupid. And the jobs. And the economy. And justice.
Leaders of world trade unions are calling on political leaders gathered in Copenhagen to invest in jobs and develop a green economic policy to tackle climate change.
Introducing ‘Green growth for jobs and social justice’, Anita Normark, chair of the Council of Global Unions (CGU) and general secretary of the Building and Wood Workers International, stated: “The fight to reverse climate change must be fought in communities and in workplaces. Strong action by political leaders at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is essential to set the direction, but it is not sufficient to achieve climate change goals: to respond to this challenge, we must deepen solidarity and participation by creating sustainable jobs and bolstering democracy.”
The Global Unions publication – the second in its ‘Getting the world to work’ series – combines the trade union consensus positions developed under the lead of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) with perspectives from the sector-based Global Union Federations and other key international union bodies.
Writing in the report, Guy Ryder, secretary of the CGU and general secretary of the ITUC, described how unions globally were “striving to put social justice on the climate change agenda. We have made progress, but we have a long way to go. An environmentally-engaged trade union movement is no longer a theoretical possibility. It now forms part of our collective identity. Together, we can and will make a difference.”
A union-initiated proposal to get a ‘just transition’ clause in the text of any agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit is attracting support. The measure aims to make sure sunsetting dirty industries doesn’t decimate industrial communities and replace an environment crisis with an economic crisis.
Global union confederation ITUC had already secured inclusion of the just transition clause in the draft ‘Shared Vision’ paper under discussion by delegates. And ahead of the summit, the European Union and Argentina had stated their support for a just transition clause in the agreement.
The latest backing for comes from the Norwegian government. Its submission says: “Norway is working for references to food safety and equality, and supports the inclusion of rights such as workers’ rights related to transitions (Just transition), participation in decision processes and local democracy.”
It adds: “It is important that the consideration for vulnerable groups needs are looked after in a transition process in the working life. Norway therefore supports the reference to a just transition in the text.”
ITUC is maintaining its own regularly updated Facebook group on Copenhagen negotiations. And TUC and AFL-CIO, the national union centres in the UK and USA respectively, are keeping tabs on proceedings via regularly updated blogs.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has called again on governments “to take urgent and necessary measures” to deliver a low-carbon future.
‘Trade unions and climate change – Equity, justice and solidarity in the fight against climate change’, the ITUC statement to the summit, sets out the international trade union movement’s position, emphasising the need for urgent emission reductions in developed countries, finance for developing countries’ adaptation, creation of green and decent jobs and the implementation of “just transition” policies, through investment in new low-carbon technologies to reduce the carbon footprints of existing industries. Read More
CHAIN REACTION Climate change is putting jobs at risk in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, where much of the country’s population lives at sea level on the flood-prone alluvial plains of major rivers flowing from the Himalayas, a lengthy discourse about the impact of climate change can seem a little indulgent.
On 5 December, 240 Bangladeshi workers representing the country’s national union centres formed a “workers’ chain” in front of the National Press Club in the capital, Dhaka.
The Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE), which organised the event, said the unions wanted to draw attention to their concerns about “negative impacts of climate change in employment of livelihood of the working people at different vulnerable sectors.”
Unions want the Bangladesh government’s delegation to the Copenhagen climate change summit, which kicked off this week, to support inclusion in any agreement of a “just transition” clause proposed by global unions.
The government of Bangladesh said it will ask for at least 15 per cent of any money which rich countries pledge at Copenhagen to help developing nations cope with climate change.
Environment minister Hasan Mahmud said Bangladesh was entitled to a big share of the money because it was the country most vulnerable to climate change. He said 20 million Bangladeshis will be displaced if the sea rose by a metre.
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SAFETY HEAT Union warnings on unsafe contractors proved deadly accurate.
On 24 November, a 19-year-old died from heat stress, the day after working in the suffocating heat of a ceiling cavity in a home in Sydney, Australia. It was the first day on the job for the teenager, who was installing insulation.
On 18 November, a 16-year-old worker died when he was electrocuted installing ceiling insulation in Rockhampton, Queensland. A month earlier, on 14 October, a 25-year-old man was electrocuted and a 19-year-old female working with him was seriously injured in Brisbane.
The on-the-job dangers that came with the Australian government’s high profile home insulation scheme were not unanticipated. The Energy Efficient Homes Package has been dogged by safety concerns since the rebate began in July, with accusations of inexperienced and unscrupulous operators rushing to cash in on the scheme. Unions had called for the scheme to be halted, until the shortcomings with training of workers and licensing of operators were addressed.
Australia’s federal government responded this week, announcing the introduction of new training and skill requirements and measures to name-and-shame sub-standard contractors. The move came the day after national union centre ACTU renewed its action call. Read More
The greening of industry, through the creation of new green jobs and the transformation of old grubby ones, will run a lot more smoothly and equitably if global rules are beefed up and more effectively enforced, a new report concludes.
The November 2009 discussion paper from the Global Union Research Network (GURN), looks at how the labour movement can advance its climate change goals through better application of and improvements to International Labour Standards and International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions.
A 2008 ILO report, Green jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world, had set the scene. It noted that the creation of new green jobs as a result of “environmental transition” would also result in both the disappearance and the transformation of many existing jobs. It also recognised that many of the new jobs could be “dirty, dangerous and difficult”. And it warned that many proposed “solutions”, like green taxes, needed careful consideration to ensure they didn’t cause disproportionate harm to those already most disadvantaged.
Global standards could contribute to a strategy that makes this “environmental transition” a “just transition”, the new GURN paper suggests. “Including ‘just transition’ measures that respect international labour standards in these decisions will ensure policy coherence and public participation which in the long run will hopefully lead to the effective realisation of sustainable development goals,” The employment effects of climate change and climate change responses: A role for International Labour Standards? concludes.
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You are staring right now at a computer screen, one of the gaggle of can’t-live-without state-of-the-art electronic gizmos you cherish for a year or two then discard.
These electronic must-haves provide a new type of not-so-durable consumer product complete with built-in obsolescence. The perpetual technological turnover underpins the cash turnover of e-companies everywhere.
Whether the resulting tsunami of e-crap stems from fashion – you just have to have that new i-phone, it’s soooooo cool – or from the inescapable upgrades, a product that started its e-life in a cleanroom, free of even a speck of dust, is destined to end its days presenting a serious toxic hangover.
Each new gadget is e-waste in waiting, and the waste from this disposable technology is, perversely, shockingly durable. Some is dumped, but increasingly it is destined for the virtuous-sounding fate of “recycling”. Sometimes the recycling workers paying with their health, from India, to China, to Africa, have little choice but to undertake this work for a pittance. Sometimes, they have no choice at all, like the prisoners poisoned in the USA’s prison industrial complexes.
The California-based Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition says the problem extends from this use of prison labour on its own doorstep, to the developing world – it estimates up to 80 per cent of the USA’s e-waste, like that from other wealthy countries, is exported to “impoverished nations”.
The Basel Action Network, a group campaigning against toxic exports, says e-waste is the fastest growing part of the waste stream in the US. But of the e-waste that is collected by recyclers, 50 to 80 per cent of that is not actually recycled, but is exported to developing nations where it is handled in very crude and dangerous ways that expose workers and communities to toxic materials.
The situation appears similar in Europe. Despite legal controls on e-waste exports from the European Union, Out of control, an April 2009 report from the makeITfair campaign, concluded at least 60 per cent of the EU’s e-waste is not properly accounted for. It suggested the waste “might be stored or disposed of otherwise within the EU however reports from developing countries show that parts of this ‘hidden flow’ are being exported for reuse, recycling or disposal in, for example, Asia and Africa.”
And it is a problem destined to worsen, as production – and disposal and recycling – of electronics products accelerates. A recent study by consulting firm Deloitte estimated mobile phone waste is already growing by 9 per cent every year. According to the United Nations, 20-50 million tonnes of electronic waste is produced every year.
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GREEN PLAN Stephen Hughes has called for 3m new EU green jobs within 10 years.
Lifestyles in Europe will change dramatically over the next 10 years — with people enjoying greater prosperity, holding better jobs that use new skills and “going green” at work and at home — at least they will if proposals announced at the European Parliament on 25 November gain support.
A paper from the parliament’s influential Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group says 10 million new jobs will be created under the plan — three million of them in the green economy. Changing lifestyles in a decade: 2020 vision for Europe also says homelessness in the EU will be ended by 2015 and every citizen will have broadband access.
The framework document notes: “Greed and waste underpinned the recent problems of our society. We want reforms in our financial system to prevent unregulated traders from ever again bringing us to the brink of ruin. We will promote legislation that ends inequality and creates a society of solidarity and social justice.”
S&D vice-president Stephen Hughes, who led three months of talks to fine-tune the proposals, said: “Europe will lead a radically different way of life in our vision of a fairer society that tackles greed and waste. Every day, from breakfast to bedtime, we need to do things differently in order to meet serious challenges for society.
“Changing our lifestyle will make our economy more competitive, allow us to spread prosperity across society and bring us all new benefits.”
S&D says its document sets out a wide range of proposals for social and economic advances, stressing measures to prevent future financial crises. A further paper next year will put forward even more specific action, it adds.
According to UK MEP Stephen Hughes: “The primary aim of EU policy should be to improve people’s quality of life. Our proposals flesh out that objective with simple, practical policy ideas. We want now to engage with the European Commission and national governments to see how we can put these reforms in place and bring benefits to citizens in all 27 EU countries.”
Poor countries reject “suicide pact”
DEAD WRONG Di-Aping, chair of the G77 nations, said the proposed level of funding from rich nations "is not enough for us to buy coffins."
A leaked draft agreement formulated by key wealthy nations shows that rich countries aren’t being honest brokers at Copenhagen, negotiators for the world’s most vulnerable nations say.
Concrete requirements on governments are few, those that do appear are weak and the document does not mention “just transition”, a key trade union social justice demand supported by a number of governments and the European Union, despite this being included in the latest draft of the official, public negotiating text.
The leak on 8 December prompted the conference’s first flashpoint. Representatives from the world’s most impoverished nations – a bloc known as the Group of 77, or G77 – stormed into a main hall in the middle of the busy conference centre. “We will not die quietly,” they chanted.
The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries, thought to include the US and UK, to be a working framework, which would be adapted by countries over the next week. It is particularly inflammatory because it sidelines the UN negotiating process and suggests that rich countries are desperate for world leaders to have a text to work from when they arrive next week.
“We have been asked to sign a suicide pact,” declared Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the Sudanese chair of the G77. The proposed levels of warming that the draft would allow mean “certain death for Africa,” he said. The group also slammed the proposed levels of funding from rich nations to help developing countries adapt to climate change and curb their own emissions. “Ten billion dollars is not enough to buy us coffins,” charged Di-Aping, according to reports from the scene.
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