Hoping for a "Greener" future
November 29, 2010 is the opening day of the two-week long negotiations of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16) building towards the hope for a sustainable "Greener" future.
The international trade union movement wants to play a role in this process to support a "fair, ambitious and binding" international agreement that will provide a framework for combating global warming, while at the same time safeguarding industrial development, employment and workers' rights.
In order to put forward a common industrial workers' position, the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) will hold a joint event "Cutting Emissions - Transforming Jobs" on December 7 at the COP16 World of Work (WoW) Pavilion, which is organized by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The joint event will focus on:
- Environmental Protection - the urgent reality of climate change, the cost of action versus the cost of inaction
- Sectoral Concerns - domestic activities/policies on sustainable jobs from respective unions, "greening" of existing jobs and creating decent, sustainable, new jobs
- Sustainable Jobs - good industrial policy is public policy in the public interest, sustainable jobs are decent, organized jobs
- Just Transition - the Copenhagen Accord Climate Fund and Just Transition, and the case for union access in the metal, chemical, energy and mining sectors
We hope that all of you who are attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16) will join us at the event in support of our common union position!
IMF-ICEM film on climate change.
For further information, please contact Kan Matsuzaki, Director of Shipbuilding, Non-Manual Workers and climate change at the IMF at kmatsuzaki@imfmetal.org
Booklet: Cutting emissions transforming jobs - working in green jobs for a secure future
Joint booklet from ICEM, IMF, EMCEF and EMF
Industrial trade union federations representing workers in the metal, chemical, energy and mining sectors in Europe and globally.