Upcoming Events
Clean Air Day 20 June, 2024
What can we do about air pollution at work?
For Clean Air Day 2024 TUCAN and the Greener Jobs Alliance are premiering a new film.
Join us on Thursday evening to see this short film and to discuss the new Workers Guide to action on indoor workplace air pollution, produced by TUCAN (Trade Union Clean Air Network) and Greener Jobs Alliance.
Thursday 20 June, 6.30-8.00pm
Sign up to Eventbrite link below to receive your zoom link for the Clean Air Day eventhttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/
e/hazards-campaign-thursday- talk-clean-air-day-tickets- 919462445927?
The climate crisis is making work unsafe and unhealthy and putting lives and livelihoods in jeopardy. A climate crisis that is doubly impacting on workers lives by creating suffocating and deadly air.
In the UK more than 40,000 people a year will die as a result of air pollution. And it’s not just about traffic fumes but workers are exposed to toxic indoor air as well.
The new guide provides workers with concrete actions they can take to work with their employers to reduce the air pollution they are exposed to.(2)
The Hazards Campaign calls for more urgent action to ensure that workers are not exposed to unsafe and polluted air inside and outside the workplace. (3)
1. https://www.hazardscampaign.
3. https://www.hazards.org/
For more information and to let us know what you are doing, please contact Janet Newsham – coordinator janet@gmhazards.org.uk
Building Climate Literacy into Skills Training – the Canadian experience
Tuesday 14 May 1- 2 pm
in person at UCU HQ ,Carlow Street London NW1
Nearest tube Mornington Crescent
Email Tahirlatif51@icloud.com
One of the strategic problems with making a green transition in the UK is the chronic skills shortages in key trades. But, making that transition depends not only on training up a new generation of engineers, plumbers, fitters, carpenters, retrofitters, heating specialists, designers across the whole range of occupations, it is embedding climate literacy into each and every course, so that apprentices and reskilling workers understand not only the technicalities involved in the jobs they will be doing, but the overall social imperative of doing them, and doing them well. This is a necessary part of re-educating and retooling our society at all levels so that the people doing the work to make the transition are also driving it throughout society.
Dr John Calvert and Professor Linda Clarke have been working with the Canadian trade unions to get climate literacy embedded into the new set of standards for training courses in the Canadian construction trade. In this meeting they will explain how that was done, and Linda will touch on current developments in the EU too.
See also
- pps 6&7 of our last Newsletter.
- The Canadian Building Trades (CBTU) web site where the Building it Green initiative can be found, including the webinar hosted by CBTU’s leadership on the importance of understanding the impact of climate change on the construction industry and its workers. Look here https://buildingtrades.ca/workforce-dev/building-it-green/
- The statement on climate literacy from the organization that oversees Canada’s apprenticeship programs, underscoring
- the importance for construction workers of understanding the significance of climate change. https://www.red-seal.ca/eng/resources/roles.shtml
For a Just Transition for Steel Workers
Sign up here for this urgent Lunch and Learn at 12 noon on Tuesday 19th March, where we’ll hear from Anna Markova from the TUC about the risks to jobs at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe, and what steps climate activists and organisations can take to support workers whose jobs are under threat and push for a just transition in industry in the UK.
While unions are balloting for strike action over the planned closure of blast furnaces in Port Talbot and fighting to protect over 2,000 jobs, there is only one more blast furnace site remaining in the UK, with four and a half thousand jobs: British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe.
- Can a similar plan of mass job losses there still be prevented?
- What can we do now?
- And what should our future strategies look like to support rapid and just transitions in steel and across UK manufacturing industries?
Anna Markova works on the NEON and TUC worker-led transition project which is supporting unionised workers in high carbon industries – including steel – to achieve a Just Transition in their workplaces.
Now We Rise / 9 December COP 28 Day of Action
With COP28 taking place in the United Arab Emirates, climate activists the world over are taking part in a Global Day of Action on 9 December to demand more than the tepid efforts we’ve come to associate with COPs. Find details of the many demonstrations, rallies and marches taking place across the U.K. on the day HERE.
With the creation of climate jobs being a crucial element of the transformation we need to bring about, it’s vital that trade unions are a strong and visible force at these events. GJA, together with our colleagues at Campaign Against Climate Change and Climate Justice Coalition, have produced a placard that makes clear the link between trade unions and climate change. Download the artwork HERE and you can insert your own unions logo if you wish.
Our hope is to have unions showing a united front on this important day, and coming together with fellow activists worldwide to demand the jobs required to avoid climate catastrophe.
Our Power: A Just Transition for Offshore workers, online meeting, 19 April at 13.00
TUC Job Advert
Project Officer – Just Transition – Trades Union Congress TUC (current-vacancies.com)
We’re looking for two new staff to support trade union reps to lead Worker-Led Transitions to a green economy in steel, automotive, and other manufacturing industries. To future-proof these jobs against climate change and offshoring.
- Are you keen to help tackle climate change while protecting manufacturing jobs?
- Do you have experience supporting workers as a trade union rep or activist?
- And are you good at establishing constructive working relationships?
Then we’d like to hear from you.
The role can be based in Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool or Newcastle with occasional travel within the UK. There’s one full-time and one part-time role available, both on a fixed-term contract for 36 months.
Salary: £40,448 (per annum pro rata)
Deadline to apply: 6 March 2023.
Full details and application procedure.
Project Officer – Just Transition – National UK
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) exists to make the working world a better place for everyone. We bring together 5.5 million working people who make up our 50 member unions. We support unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living. Join us. Project Officer, Wo
If you have any questions or if you’re unsure about applying, please reach out to amarkova@tuc.org.uk or text 07717 531168. There’s also a briefing specifically for Black / BME candidates – see the job app pages.
No degree qualification expected; we’d rather hire someone who understands trade unions and/or manufacturing industries.
Thursday 16 February 2023 at 15:00-17:00 GMT / 16:00-18:00 CET
The aviation industry is currently facing big challenges to reduce its environmental impact. Aviation workers are speaking up and developing their own vision of the future for air travel and the prospects for a worker-driven transformation of the sector.
We invite aviation workers to a conversation about their future and job security in a world of climate crisis. The event, hosted by Safe Landing and Transport & Environment (T&E) will include various speakers and an opportunity to connect, discuss and strategise with like-minded aviation workers across various countries.
Register below, and see you on the 16th of Feb!
BOLD SOLUTIONS: The economic, climate and energy crises and how we fix them
Date: Thursday 1 December 2022, 9.30 – 5.45pm. Register here.
Location: TUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
Speakers invited include: TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady, Ed Miliband, London Deputy Mayor Shirley Rodrigues, Make UK Head of Campaigns Bhavina Bharkada, We Own It Director Cat Hobbs
Both our economy and our planet are in crisis.
Bills and sea levels are rising at an unprecedented rate. Nationally, the cost-of-living scandal is driving absolute poverty and forcing millions into increasingly desperate conditions. Globally, climate change is threatening the lives and livelihoods of billions of workers. These crises are parallel and inter-linked.
We urgently need a politics that builds a safe climate for future generations, a rapid and just transition with quality jobs, and an economy that rewards work, not wealth. The TUC is convening a conference to bring trade unions, economic justice movements and climate activists together to gather solutions.
Programme of Sessions:
How do we communicate an ambitious vision for climate action that is socially just? With: Rachel Wolf (Founding Partner, Public First), Antonia Bance (Head of Campaigns and Communications, TUC), Funmibi Ogunlesi (NEON, TBC), and Roger Harding
Future-proofing high carbon jobs. With: Kate Dearden (Head of Policy, Community), Bhavina Barkada (Director of Communications, Make UK), Anna Markova (TUC), and Tony Devlin (National Officer for Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Process & Textiles, Unite).
Climate, Energy & Inequality Crises: How we future-proof our society. With: Shirley Rodrigues (Deputy Mayor of London), Chris Morris (Deputy Head of Research and Policy, USDAW), Fatima Ibrahim (Co Executive Director, Green New Deal Rising, TBC), Michelle Singleton (UNISON).
How do we ensure Green Jobs are Quality Jobs. With: Jonathan Reynolds (Shadow BEIS Secretary, TBC), Sue Ferns (Assistant General Secretary, Prospect), Melanie Onn (Deputy Chief Executive, Renewables UK, TBC), Andy Prendergast (National Secretary, Commercial Services)
Public ownership of energy – for a safe climate. With: Ed Miliband (Shadow Secretary for Climate Change & Net Zero, TBC), Frances O’Grady (General Secretary, TUC), Simon Coop (National Officer for Energy, Unite), Mika Minio-Paluello (TUC), Cat Hobbs (We Own It).