President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Sharan Burrow, recently said that that is “no question” that climate change will eventually become a standard clause in a union log of claims (a claim is something that a union would bargain to have included in a collective workplace agreement). Ms Burrow said “We are confident you can reduce energy and water use by enormous amounts just by looking at the nature of the work practice…we also think you can generate healthier workplaces … and the nature of the working environment’s design. “We know that we have a long way to go by way of recycling and the products that are used can be examined for their energy efficiencies.” (The Australian, March 06).
Ms Burrow’s comments show how labour rights are increasingly seen as being connected to ecological sustainability. I have mentioned previously in this blog that the old dividing lines between what was good for the environment and good for jobs is becoming blurred – and probably on the way to disappearing for good. Each shares a common struggle for justice, and a sense that ethical obligation – be it to a person’s employment conditions or conservation of the environment – should override commercial interests, which until now have reigned supreme over the rights of both the worker and the natural environment that is everyone’s birthright.
The Global Labor Strategies blog has recently published a revealing series on the Greens Job Alliance, and I highly commend it to all of you. This series highlights how the ACTU step is significant but only one of the first in an emerging trend. I would expect to see unions and environmental organisations campaigning for “green jobs” – the provision of decent jobs for the Herculean task of transforming the economy onto an ecological sustainable foundation. What we need to see next though is an historic conference between the Union movement and the Green movement in Australia. The “Good Jobs, Green Jobs: A National Green Jobs Conference” will be running next week, March 13-14 in Pittsburgh, USA. The Blue-Green Alliance, a partnership between the Sierra Club (an environmentalist organisation) and the United Steelworkers, is organising the conference. There is no reason why we cannot hold a similar sort of conference here where we could aim to build closer inter-personal links between the movements, and come to agreement on some specific policy targets.
It seems to me that after a generation of being whipped by global capital the necessary task of greening our economy is not something which can be off-shored. It has to happen right here and the sooner the better. If we are prepared this emerging sector could become the base of union power in Australia for generations to come.
