Sustainable development is appearing with increasing frequency in trade union discussions around the world, as concern mounts over the deteriorating state of our natural and man-made environment. Such threats as global climate change have caught the attention of trade union members, especially with publicity given to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001),1 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2000), the Worldwatch Institute (2001) and other high-profile reports. Trade unionists in unprecedented numbers are joining the search for solutions that go beyond environmental issues to embrace such related social and economic conditions as poverty, dysfunctional subsidies, unfair trade and price structures, corruption and unemployment, all of which reflect longstanding trade union concerns. It is significant that concern over sustainable development should be occurring just as the world’s trade unions are coming to grips with the notion of globalization. For although the nature of this phenomenon has yet to be adequately analysed and clarified, it has taken on its own meaning in trade union discussions and policy papers. What is significant for this paper, however, is the extent to which the trade union perspective on sustainable development incorporates its concerns about globalization. Trade union discussions about sustainable development invariably turn to current social and economic developments, and their implications for workers. Throughout history, workers and their communities have been amongst the first victims of unsustainable patterns of development, whether in the form of job dislocation, community upheaval, industrial disease, or death. In fact, the origins of the union movement itself can be traced to the collective action taken by workers against the atrocious working conditions we now associate with the First Industrial Revolution. Early union “wins” that provided a measure of protection, and a limited right to participate in workplace governance, have now grown into the highly developed field of occupational health and safety. These areas are now being expanded to include sustainable development issues.
Agenda 21, which came out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, June 3-14) in Rio de Janeiro prescribed a special role for workers and trade unions in the search for sustainable development (UNCED, 1992).
Trade unions have taken up this mandate, particularly with the UN Commission on
Sustainable Development (CSD, led by the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions (ICFTU) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD, which together represent over 155 million members in 148 countries and territories. They have also taken an active role in such international fora as the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the
International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP).
Unfortunately, progress towards sustainable development has been slow, and the tenyear comprehensive review and assessment of Agenda 21 (Rio-plus-10) will certainly
1 On January 22, 2001, the IPCC issued its Third Assessment Report, the strongest warning to date that human activity is influencing climate change. See http://www.unfccc.int.
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conclude that the nations of the world have failed to reverse the ecological deterioration of our planet. Agenda 21 has been stuck in a bureaucratic, intergovernmental gridlock, that trade unions propose to unlock with innovative strategies that focus on workplaces and workers. The argument for such a central role is relatively straightforward. It begins with the realisation that development cannot be sustainable without radical changes to existing patterns of production and consumption; i.e., to dominant patterns typical of globalization.
These are creating a single world market characterized by an “obscene contrast between unimaginable opulence and grinding poverty [that] is increasing as inequalities within, as well as between, nations increase” (ICFTU, 2000, p. 1).
The trade union critique of unsustainable forms of production and consumption, therefore, is closely linked to its critique of globalization; in fact, trade unions have been the only major groups at the CSD to clearly establish this connection. In “Plough to Plate”, a publication for the 8th CSD Session in April 2000, trade unions identified as a major problem the fact that “a handful of multinational corporations now control most of the world's agricultural trade, and their effect has been to “internationalize” both the production and consumption of food (ICFTU/TUAC, 2000a, p. 8)”. It went on to say:
In the process of corporate domination, the ability of local communities to grow crops for their own needs, to act as stewards of the land and its resources, and to determine their own production and consumption patterns is being undermined. The corporations are able to fuel unsustainable patterns of consumption through advertising, marketing, and introduction of products and novelty foods that have little to do with nutrition. They engage in wasteful practices; e.g., discarding usable products, and spend billions in corporate takeovers and a constant struggle for control. As well, international transport of food by these corporations has created unacceptable waste.
Finally, control by the large multinationals have promoted liberalized terms of trade that allow free, often secretive movement of hazardous technologies and products around the world, particularly to developing countries, where they replace technologies which provide employment and are in harmony with the natural environment. These changes are often thrust upon local populations with high -powered advertising, promotions, and predatory pricing practices, sanctioned by international rules that make it difficult for countries to protect the local and national interests. They are also facilitated by a
“Corporate/Government Revolving Door” through which highly paced personnel shuttle between some of the largest corporations and the regulatory agencies, which are supposed to regulate them (ICFTU/TUAC, 2000a, p. 10).
The publication closes with a strong call for a change in direction of the world’s food and agriculture system; in effect, a call to reverse trends typical of globalization. It calls for a “New World Order” of democratic forms of decision-making, popular accountability, transparency, and local control that prioritizes local needs. Essentially the same challenge was repeated in the 2001 CSD Session on Energy and Transport, in which trade unions said, “While much of the debate over energy and transport has focussed on the potential for science and technology to provide solutions, trade unions believe that the root problems lie in current patterns of decision-making. Sustainable development requires changes to the way decisions are made and implemented” (ICFTU/TUAC, 2001, p. 5). The extent to which this theme pervades trade union positions has become apparent in most discussions about sustainable development.
Since workplaces are centres of production, as well as major consumers in their own right, it follows that they must be assigned a central role in any strategy for such thoroughgoing change. This situates the debate on sustainable development directly in the historical objectives of trade unions, which can be described by the concepts of integration, engagement and transformation. That is to say, since Agenda 21 proposes nothing less than wholesale revision of patterns of production and consumption, it implies the need for the
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transformation of society and the creation of the new individual; in the words of “Plough to
Plate”, it calls for the creation of the “environmental citizen, who is able to make sound decisions and act instinctively to protect the Earth” (ICFTU/TUAC , 1999, p. 13).
The concept of “integration” emerged out of the 1987 Report of the World
Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Report), which defined development as sustainable only if it “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (World
Commission, p. 43). Since then, it has become clear that this requires attention to three mutually-dependent dimensions or pillars of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. Progress on environment issues will be effective only when it also addresses such areas as poverty, inequity, and human rights.
Trade unions employ this integrated approach when they argue that today’s patterns of production and consumption are rooted in the “scientific management” of F.W. Taylor, who advocated strict segregation between conception and execution, with workers being restricted to the latter function. This approach implies an unhealthy relationship of workers to their work, giving them little or no say in the terms and conditions of work and no responsibility for the product or process. An example of this fragmentation and alienation of workers was given at the 1999 CSD Dialogue Session, when unions argued that tourist behaviour reflects this unhealthy separation of life at work from life away from work
(ICFTU/TUAC, 1999).
Thus, sustainable development as a trade union priority goes beyond narrow, technical problems, and becomes part and parcel of the same struggle over work relations that has defined the history of trade unionism. As both trade unionists and human resource managers know, significant changes in the workplace cannot succeed without the consent and active participation of workers. Accordingly, trade unions have insisted that policies and strategies for sustainable development must promote decision-making that is more democratic and equitable, which carries logical implications for labour relations. It demands a place for trade unions, who have the proven capacity to organize workers and to harness their tremendous knowledge and energy to bring about improvements in the workplace. This has a potential spill-over effect on changing behaviour in homes and communities, where most consumer choices are made). Finally, union-led activity in the workplace, trade unions argue in documents produced for annual CSD sessions, is a training ground for the democratic leadership in society. As the most highly organized sector of the consuming public, unions can shape and direct public attitudes and action, influencing governmental policy and corporate practice.
In recent years, despite trade union membership shrinking as a proportion of the labour force, the trade union movement has been at the forefront in international for a in defending proposals for sustainable development. The representation that international trade union bodies have provided in meetings of the United Nations, the ILO and the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reflects the important role of
“representational security”; i.e., union provide a voice for working people, even those they do not formally represent, to ensure that their needs and interests are not ignored where decisions are being made that will impact them and their communities.
From occupational health and safety to sustainable development
Union achievements in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS) illustrate how the fight for sustainable forms of production has been central to workers’ historical struggles against unjust conditions of work and community life; indeed, they may be described as the “life and death” aspect of this struggle. Occupational health and safety is an area in which trade unions have made some of their most decisive inroads into traditional management rights, as even in the most dictatorial of workplaces, they have won a measure of democracy through joint workplace health and safety committees and
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other participatory mechanisms. In so doing, they have developed highly-effective models for democratic decision-making and action that include workplace assessment, targetsetting, implementation, evaluation, monitoring and reporting of every major interaction of the workplace with the environment.
OHS processes are typically participatory and transformative because they are based on the shop floor, incorporate dialogue between workplace parties, critically analyse organizational and system-wide causes of problems, and promote worker action and empowerment. In this manner, unions have learned and applied such participatory forms as hazard mapping, eco-auditing, and reporting, with education for workers and employers, playing a key role. Collective bargaining for health and safety is now expanding to include
“green” provisions, as well as union-management partnerships that reinforce a shared interest in the overall state of the environment. Finally, they have been an integral component of a growing range of voluntary agreements, codes of conduct, and agreements, that have contributed to new workplace cultures around the aim of sustainable development. The next two chapters give some concrete examples of their impact.
Trade unions are capable of meeting the challenge of change required for sustainable development, particularly in occupational health and safety. For instance,
§ occupational health and safety (OHS) committees are expanding to accommodate environmental concerns. Many are going further to address sustainable development issues in the workplace and community;
§ a tradition of health and safety representatives or delegates is giving way to
OHS representatives. These individuals have the advantage of advanced training as well as supportive relationships in the community;
§ a tradition of collective bargaining for occupational health and safety rights and protections is expanding to include “green” provisions that reflect the worker’s stake in healthy, sustainable workplaces and social surroundings;
§ a tradition of union-management “partnerships” for occupational health and safety is being expanded to accommodate sustainable development issues.
“Partnerships” imply a shared interest in the overall state of the work and community environment;
§ joint management systems to promote assessment, target setting, implementation, evaluation, monitoring and reporting2 of every major interaction of the workplace with the environment ensure compliance with the principles of sustainable development. The workplace eco-audit was one of the original strategies adopted by workers and employers to tackle environmental issues and to feed into national reporting processes, as contemplated by Agenda 21;
§ occupational health and safety toolkits, developed to guide worker representatives through identification, analysis, and response to health and safety problems, are now being repackaged to accommodate sustainable development concerns.
§ broad consensus has been reached among trade unions, business and NGO’s that voluntary agreements (VA’s) (including collective agreements, codes of conduct, and other accords that address sustainable development) must form
2 For environment (e.g. Cleaner Production or ISO), health and safety (e.g. ILO Guidelines or Government regulations), internal or 3rd party enterprise audits, and Government programmes (e.g. European Eco Management and Audit Scheme).
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part of a mix of solutions, including regulation and standard setting. For instance at a multistakeholder consultation in Toronto Canada in 1999, agreement was reached following the CSD 1998 Dialogue Session on
“Business and Industry”;
§ a workplace culture, which emphasizes occupational health and safety, is giving way to one that accentuates sustainable development goals, reflecting a new breed of activist, the “environmental citizen”. Unions and management agree to goals that go beyond traditional workplace concerns to integrate sustainable development goals;
§ a tradition of public advocacy is being reinvigorated as workers and their unions take advantage of their position at the point of production (or delivery of service) to engage in education and orientation of themselves and the public on sustainable development issues.
Although based in the workplace, unions have the capacity to work with national governments and international agencies to bring down longstanding barriers, as well as to communicate with affiliates in every region of the world, to ensure an airing for their issues. Finally, trade union structures draw no distinction on grounds of wealth or geography: such goals as poverty eradication are pursued in all regions of the world, with the understanding that the livelihood and vulnerability of the poor are integrally linked to the state of the environment. In a recent briefing paper to the Assistant UN General
Secretary, the ICFTU referred to the importance of trade union involvement:
One development, in particular, gives us reason for hope. Trade unions were part of a major cultural shift since 1992 with respect to sustainable development that has affected attitudes, habits and planning priorities at the local and regional level where workers, community groups and business began to address environmental issues. It is particularly apparent at the global level, where criteria for sustainable development are now appearing as priorities for a wide range of international bodies … most of the credit must go to the inspiration provided by UNCED and Agenda 21 (ICFTU/TUAC, 2000b).
3. Decision-making in energy and transport
The close link between globalization and unsustainable patterns of development was made particularly clear in the position taken by trade unions at the Ninth Annual Session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in April 2001. The theme of this session was the global transition to sustainable transport and energy, and the primary opportunity for trade union input came during the Special Multistakeholder
Dialogue Sessions. In these, the ICFTU and TUAC were joined by the International
Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions, the International
Metal Workers Federation, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and
Public Services International (PSI).
It so happened that these sessions coincided with massive anti-globalization protests a few hundred miles to the north, where meetings were taking pace in Quebec City, Canada to plan a hemispheric trade agreement, Free Trade for the Americas. If nothing else, the
Quebec event illustrated the trade union position on current patterns of decision-making, as political leaders and selected delegates met behind huge frost-fences, while those on the outside were subjected to a show of police force and crowd dispersion measures never before seen in that country (Independent Media Centre at http://www.indymedia.org/ftaa/).
Trade union representatives in New York reminded CSD country delegates that unsustainable forms of energy and transport pose some of the most demanding issues for globalization today. Both are basic requirements for economic activity upon which working people and their communities rely. However, current patterns of distribution and
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decision-making are placing these necessities beyond the reach of more than a billion of the world’s people today, while on the other side of a “global divide”, waste and overuse are responsible for serious damage to the environment. In this sense, energy and transport clearly display the interdependence amongst the three pillars of sustainable development
(ICFTU/TUAC et al., 2001), making it impossible to separate environmental concerns from social issues that were being excluded from formal discussions in Quebec City.
Workers who are trade union members may be amongst, in that collective action results in their having the means to purchase the energy and transport they need. However, they are becoming increasingly concerned about the contribution these sectors are making to environmental deterioration, and are beginning to question the lack of action by government leaders and others in positions of responsibility. Global climate change, in particular, has caught their attention; however, it is only one of several features of unsustainable development, which include also land use patterns, pollution, community upheaval, resource depletion, inequitable access to vital services and resources, habitat destruction, etc. These are integrally related to labour standards, employment, social inequity, workers’ rights and democracy.
This explains why trade unions chose to focus on patterns of decision-making in the debate at CSD9, instead of such questions as the ability of science and technology to provide solutions. They agreed that governments must ultimately be responsible for developments that affect their citizens, but pointed out that the locus of decision-making in the energy/transport nexus really resides with a few powerful multinational corporations and business interests that control marketing, pricing, political influence and rule-making in an increasingly globalized economy, excluding the majority of people, and even host countries, from the process. These patterns of decision-making, moreover, are often reinforced by public policies that respond to corporate interests, rather than to the needs and long-term interest of the majority of people. The results are decisions that
(ICFTU/TUAC, 2001, p.5-6):
§ Fail to address downward trends, as apparent in the failure to make substantial progress on the threat of climate change. Most OECD member countries, for example, have yet to identify quantitative measures for their transport sectors, even though such information is crucial to emissions reduction targets.
§ Lack transparency and accountability, as the true costs of energy and transport continue to be camouflaged as external costs, to borne by the whole community, not just consumers and producers (IPS, 2001).
§ Increasingly concentrate control. At the end of 1999, 15 of the largest 25 corporations3 in the world were in the energy or transport sectors, with close connections to other world leaders in other sectors.
3 Fortune Global 500 list for 2000; ranked by Revenue
In Eritrea, leaders of the newly formed National Confederation of Eritrean Workers
(NCEW) used ILO Worker Education materials to support discussions on sustainable development at all levels in their country. Health, Safety and Environment committees are being established, members are being trained and agreements are being negotiated throughout the new country.
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§ Perpetuate anti-democratic patterns , which reduce people, and even nations, to the status of mere “consumers”, and increasingly bypass the public sector through cutbacks, privatization and deregulation.
§ Encourage discredited patterns of financial support, especially when generous subsidies have been granted.
§ Consistently gives precedence to trade and investment over the environment.
The globalization and liberalization of transport
The effect of increasing globalized decision-making patterns on the world’s transport industry was clearly illustrated to CSD9 delegates by numerous examples which showed how the dramatic decline of unit costs was giving rise to new patterns of production and distribution that had negative impacts on workers, communities and even host countries.
At stake, said trade unions (Howard, 2001), are patterns of social ownership in transportation that recognize social and national needs, rather than market or competitive forces. Gener al agreement was evident amongst stakeholders that problems emerging in the global transport industry required a “command” approach by member countries; e.g. laws banning foreign ownership of such services as ports, airports and airlines, even in decidedly market economies.
Research was presented by the ITF to show that control in the last 20 years has shifted dramatically from the public to the private sector, with direct implications for foreign ownership and control. In the process of globalization, transport and telecommunications have detached from local and national economies to become a global service industry. Consolidated transnational corporations, operating in a increasingly liberalized trading regime, have begun to direct transport planning, removing it from local or democratic participation (ICFTU/TUAC, 2001, p. 23). Decision-making in this sector is increasingly dominated by global manufacturing corporations, whose complex logistical requirements, huge inter-company transfers of goods, and demand for time and costeffective delivery are beginning to dominate transport infrastructure investment and shape route networks. They use their enormous lobbying power to promote deregulation and ever lower transport costs.
National transport infrastructure decisions are increasingly being driven by the need to gain a place in this global supply chain. This is most clearly illustrated by the rail liberalisation demanded by new intermodal transport logistics companies who are promoting development of ports, with huge container stacking areas, deep water berths, and dredging operations. In the process, rail networks are reorienting themselves away from national priorities to regional imperatives to connect to continental markets. In this way, both port and rail liberalisation are driven by international and regional competition for the business of container shipping, corresponding to the needs of the transnational corporations. At the same time, “space-time compression” in the form of “Just-In-Time” (JIT) delivery is producing a sharp downward trend in terms and conditions of employment, violating fundamental principles of sustainable development. “Small package road delivery”, the fastest growing transport sector, depends on deregulation. Today, thousands of trucks drivers who call at major marine terminals in the United States and elsewhere in any single day will spend as much as 25 per cent of their time waiting for loads to be loaded. They are not paid for these lost hours, which set them back on tight delivery schedules, often made up only by running illegally. While their schedules force them to speed, their pay packets force them to work long hours, with the average non-union driver in the United States working about 70 hours per week, well over the legal limit. “Just-In-
Time” delivery, which means increased profits for owners, means long frustrating hours of unpaid time and sub-standard labour conditions for drivers. As Robert Rothstein, general counsel of the United States Truckload Carriers Association, recently said in the trade
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journal Traffic World : “Some drivers are away from home 15 to 18 days. That’s just part of trucking’s essence of serving the nation that has become accustomed to a 24 hour just in time economy” (ICFTU/TUAC, 2001, p.27).
Cheap transport has provided new benefits and freedoms for consumers, but these have come at a heavy price in terms of pollution, energy consumption, impact on urban life, and conditions of work. Cheap transport is one of the keys to globalization; it is also one of the biggest threats to sustainable workplaces and to the future of our planet.
4. Trade Union prescriptions for sustainable energy and transport
Work, workers and workplaces are at the centre of trade union prescriptions for sustainable development in the areas of energy and transport. Workers have a unique capacity to contribute to decision-making, but are only likely to do so when they are only represented by a trade union, as too many workplaces illustrate the most negative aspects of current patterns of decision-making that exclude worker and community, especially under the New Economy. While they are aware of the threats arising out of current patterns of energy provision and consumption, workers are unlikely to endorse solutions if they are not directly involved. They are more likely to resist change, to defend unsustainable forms of production. This represents a major challenge that policy-makers must address, if they are to have any chance of winning public support for the drastic changes in policy, and the huge financial expenditures, that will be required to make sustainable development a reality. An effective approach must begin by taking industrial relations out of the Stone
Age and making worker participation a fact of workplace life, thereby including not only the heart and backbone of energy and transport systems, but a major segment of the consumer population, as well. Some of the changes required are presented in the following paragraphs. 4.1 Worker involvement
Top-down, centralized decision-making not only excludes workers from the process of change; it turns potential cooperation into resistance, as workers have their fill of action plans and policies initiated without any apparent concern for them. What is required, trade unions say, is a shift to participatory management of change, that values worker innovation, empowerment and responsibility, and an acceptance of fundamental rights and freedoms, as defined in the ILO’s Fundamental Rights and Freedoms at Work (1998), including the Freedom of Association. Numerous cases have been brought forward to show that sustainable development objectives are more likely to be achieved when workers as well as their unions are involved in designing and implementing programmes.
4.2 A “just transition”
Workers and communities should not be expected to support massive changes, or the huge commitments of public funds these will requires, unless they are assured that costs will be spread equitably amongst sectors of society as well as nations, and unless they take part in designing and implementing the means to ensure this. Unfortunately, most countries
In the Czech Republic, the Czech Mine, Geology and Oil Industry Workers’ Union
(OS PHGN), assisted by Cornell University, launched a project that employed ecoaudits and a “train the trainers” programme to build environmental awareness, beginning with its 120,000 members, and through them, some 400,000 family and community members.
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have yet to pay attention to potential social and employment aspects of change, continuing a tradition that provides little reason for workers or their communities to trust their futures to industry or government.
Insecurity is a major fact of life for most workers, and as long as it remains unaddressed, it will present a major barrier to change. Workers will only be assured when they see clear proof that “just transition” programmes are in place to ensure, amongst other things, core labour standards, freedom of association and security needs, as identified by the ILO (1999). As a minimum, programmes must include protection of livelihood and orderly job conversion to ensure that workers and affected communities are provided with adequate income protection, access to new jobs and educational assistance. They must also ensure uninterrupted access to basic needs and services. Finally, these programmes cannot stand alone, but must be part of an integrated approach to sustainable development, in which local, regional and national economies provide a secure base for workforce and community. Models for employment-friendly transition to sustainable energy use have been promoted by unions to demonstrate that it is possible and economically feasible to make the necessary changes. The Washington-based Centre for a Sustainable Economy, for example, has produced a model for managing the transition to sustainable energy and transport in a “labour-friendly” way. Hoerner (2000) provides a detailed description of policies that would counteract global warming at the same time as they prevent job loss, preclude the shifting of jobs abroad, and “make whole” workers and communities adversely affected by such policies.
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and
Allied Workers’ Association has negotiated Codes of Conduct with two of the largest corporations in the tourism industry to operate as “framework agreements” for negotiations at national and local levels to guarantee a role of workers and their trade unions in the companies’ world-wide operations. The giant BSN Group (now the Groupe Danone) has agreed to include in all its world-wide operations: (i) a policy for skills training to meet the challenge of technological and restructuring, (ii) information-sharing, (iii) equality between men and women at the workplace, and (iv) implementation of trade union rights, as defined in ILO Conventions 87, 98, and 135. As well, the parties agreed to work together to identify where progress can be made in improving trade union rights and access to trade union education. This Agreement was reinforced in 1997 with a Protocol to deal with shutdowns, technological innovations or any significant change, which could have an impact on employment and working conditions. As well, an Agreement on Trade Union
Rights was struck with the Accor Group, a global hotel, catering and tourism company, to promote democratic values and respect for human rights, as well as peace and consensus in the workplace. It verifies the recognition by all Accor establishments of ILO Conventions
87, 98 and 135, based on a belief that respect for union rights contributes to a good reputation for its brand names (ICFTU/TUAC, 2001, p.15).
“Green jobs” must form part of a two-pronged response to job dislocation that will occur in a transition to a sustainable economy. Investment in sustainable jobs can provide alternative employment, but usually in the long-term; hence the need for a short-term strategy to ensure a “just transition”. The European Trade Union Confederation, has provided a blueprint to integrate labour market issues into government support for alternative production measures. The Conference on Green Jobs (General Workers’ Union,
Denmark, 1998) is typical of efforts unions are making to counter the “jobs versus environment” illusion, and fix in the public mind the connection between environmental solutions and secure employment. Green jobs must also be integrated into national plans for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution, which must proceed even though countries failed to reach agreement at the Sixth Session of United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (COP6). Trade unions applaud the countries that have
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responded with programmes for the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives by trade unions to support these illustrate what is possible once barriers to worker participation are brought down.
4.3 Partnerships between public sector institutions, industry, trade unions and NGOs
A sustainable transport system is one which takes into account the whole impact of a transport system on trade, social mobility, public safety, the environment and on the terms and conditions of labour. Not only do these all provide for strength and synergy; just as importantly, they promote cooperation where parties may otherwise be at cross-purposes.
Partnerships beyond the workplace can re-orient development planning, protect land and ensure accessibility to all groups and also direct attention to working conditions in core industries and their environmental impacts on surrounding communities. As an example, environmental groups, local government councillors, community organizations and trade unions from the port cities of Antwerp, Bremen, Hamburg and Rotterdam formed the
Green Port Campaign to influence political decision-makers on port development and its impact on the local environment, communities and employment.
With the recent experience in the British livestock industry and rail services, and in the electrical industry in California, trade unions believe that this is an auspicious time to press for a relationship between regulatory control and globalization.
German trade unions are collaborating in a programme of building renovation to contribute to climate protection and sustainable. The Alliance for Labour and Ecology for the Energetic Renovation of Buildings, created in response to the targets contained in the Kyoto Protocol, aims to renovate 300,000 flats, thus creating 200,000 jobs, reducing both CO2 emissions and the oil bill of tenants and landlords, and saving the state about US$4 billion by reducing unemployment benefit and increasing taxable incomes. The immediate objective is to improve the heat insulation of buildings, to install advanced heating technologies and to use renewable energies like photovoltaic or solar thermal systems. This is leading to the creation of thousands of jobs in the construct ion, heating, sanitary and air-conditioning sectors, as well as in building services. There is a high labour demand in changing of windows, installing photovoltaic or solar thermal systems and fossil based heating systems, and in retrofitting industry etc., as well as for advising and consulting activities, which are both labour-intensive and cost-effective. Financing for the programme is provided by the German Government, which will spend just less than US$1 billion within the next 5 years. As well, a total of US$5 billion will be available through credits at a favourable rate of interest jobs (ICFTU/TUAC, 2001, p.17).
Social and environmental dimensions of transport must be reflected in instruments of control adapted to a globalized environment, including global partnerships that serve to mobilize and coordinate efforts, exploit capacities, and harness resulting synergies. They can function properly, however, only under conditions of full transparency, constant information and communication, decentralization of decision-making and integration of sustainability issues into public education and communications.
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In Spain, the Union General de Trabajadores (UGT) and the Confederacion Sindical de
Comisiones Obreras (CC OO) cooperate with local Environment Councils and local governments to raise awareness of the problems of urban transport, and to generate worker and workplace-centred solutions. The two unions have combined in a Dia europeo sin coches, to promote 22 September as a day to find ways to carry on daily life without the private automobile. The initiative, which has spread across the European Union, designates certain zones of the city, in which automobiles are banned (with exceptions for emergency, supply, handicapped, etc.), and in which arrangements are made with local businesses and residents to avoid unnecessary disruptions. Not only does it raise public consciousness of the problems; it also allows partners to experiment with alternate designs for urban affairs;
e.g., planning of stations for proper intermodal connections. The two unions have also cooperated to produce a practical guide and educational support through which union members can examine the problems of urban transport, particularly as they relate to workers travelling to work (CC OO and UGT, 1998). The guide proposes solutions and practical alternatives applicable to collective bargaining, etc. The unions are collaborating on the energy initiatives and superior forms of transport to and from work with the Insititute for Energy Alternatives (Instituto para la Diversificacion y Ahorro de la Energia, IDEA).
4.4 A role for the public sector
The generation and distribution of electricity and fuel for heating is one of the most basic functions required by industry and the community alike. This, together with the high level of capitalization and vast amounts of natural resources that are required, create the conditions for a natural monopoly, and hence, the notion of a “public utility” as the basis for an equitable, sustainable response to energy needs. The ability of responsible, elected and accountable authorities to ensure such outcomes and of public utilities to provide quality services on a continuing basis has been severely compromised in a number of countries, as decision-makers decrease investment, privatize services, or engage in myopic practices. Just as public investment was used to establish initial energy grids and distribution systems, public funding must now be used to revamp existing structures and encourage alternative energy systems. The time has come, unions argue, to re-examine the effects of liberalization experiments, as there is now a growing demand for governments to assert leadership in the provision and regulation of energy, and to steer it in the direction of cleaner production and secure access. In fact, a number of trade unions have already initiated innovative programmes that could be linked with local government to reduce energy use and emissions. Such programmes are especially needed to ensure that a reported $9-15 trillion, which will be invested in new power projects around the world in the next two decades, are directed towards energy technologies that are secure, robust and clean. The European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT) has been increasing its focus on unsustainable rates of road traffic growth, arguing that these are being artificially sustained by a regime of dysfunctional subsidies amounting to $100’s of billions in both direct subsidies and “external costs”, and calling for a combination of regulatory, fiscal and positive policy measures to radically alter the direction of future investments in this area
(EMCT, 1998 and 2000). A combination of public and private investment is key, as only investment, which is controlled by and accountable to the public, will serve the public’s interest in a sustainable system.
4.5 Government responsibility
Trade unions see a lack of commitment from those trusted to protect and serve the public’s interest in sustainable development as the true “tragedy of the commons”.
Governments have a key role to play in sustainable development, whether by providing basic utilities, such as mass public transit systems, or by promoting education, discussion
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and democratic decision-making. There is little doubt that full support will be needed by a public sector that will be severely taxed by problems created by global climate change, for example. Only government, furthermore, can provide a strong and reliable regulatory regime, complemented by voluntary agreements and backed by an effective, adequately staffed inspectorate. It also has a responsibility to ensure independent research and monitoring, vested in a science policy independent of commercial interests.
Local and regional governments are often in the best position to provide energy and transport services, as well as access to the new information technology, which is being employed in the interests of globalization. These must either remain within the public sector, or if devolved to the private sector, under public regulation, control and accountability. These levels of government have furthermore proven ability to involve the public in discussion, design and implementation. They can also provide leadership in best practices for instance, by using purchasing power for fuel-efficient alternatives, and by downsizing the number of vehicles, minimizing use and employing alternative vehicle and transport options.
In Romania, the National Free Trade Union Confederation of Romania-Brotherhood joined forces with local authorities, NGOs, some local businesses and educational institutions in a broad public education campaign to reduce sulphur dioxide, lead, zinc cadmium and fluoride emissions from local industries, which had polluted the air, ground and water.
4.6 Standard setting and regulation in the public interest Standards for sustainable development must be backed by enforcement, including an adequately resourced and effective inspections system through which governments can monitor and enforce standards. Enforcement is most effective, however, when workers and employers jointly sponsor it; unfortunately, in many cases, management denies any meaningful participation, keeping workers and communities on the outside. What is required, trade unions say, is a shift to democratic decision-making that values effective innovation, empowerment and personal responsibility in both the workplace and the community. Innovative approaches to regulation are especially needed in the globalized transport sector, which does not resemble a usual workplace but encounters problems with OHS, especially where vehicles cross national boundaries. The task cannot be simply left to operational safety bodies like national aviation authorities and motor vehicle inspectors, who often lack the necessary knowledge. In this respect, central trade union bodies have developed considerable capacity for participating in international bodies, such as the work of the ITF in both the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International
Maritime Organization (IMO): current recommended international training standards for cabin crew were drawn up in consultation with the ITF. The ITF is now working with
ICAO on international law to compel countries to accept legal jurisdiction for all incidents of in-flight violence against crews of aircraft. Generally, the Worldwide Air Transport
Conferences of ICAO has supported reciprocity in trade relations, as opposed to open markets, and defended the rights of developing countries to maintain their full public partic ipation in air transport, whatever the market conditions.
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A joint employer-union safety conference in London this year announced plans to double the number of health and safety partnership agreements in the U.K. every year.
The partners are the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Confederation of British
Industry. A TUC report, Joining up health and safety: Creating partners in prevention
(2001), says that if more companies and unions adopted a partnership approach to health and safety, 20,000 workplace injuries a year could be prevented, and a third of a million days sickness absence avoided. Safety partnerships began last year with the first ten agreements, covering organizations such as Legal and General and white-collar union MSF, TESCO and shop workers union USDAW, and refuse collectors SITA GB and the GMB. The TUC’s new consultancy, the Partnership Institute, is staffed by 26 consultants, who are all experts with human resources, trade union or management backgrounds. Global cooperation can turn the tide on a race to a “competitive bottom” associated with global restructuring, deregulation, privatization and contracting-out. International air transport, for example, has operated for more than 50 years under a system of international standards set by the ICAO, and enforced through national government agencies as, for instance, intergovernmental air treaties, which determine the countries to which airlines can fly. By comparison, the maritime industry is in a much worse situation, perhaps best illustrated by shipping companies who opt out of regulation through Flags of Convenience.
In the absence of an international IMO inspectorate, trade unions have developed their own, and more than 140 full-time ITF ships inspectors regularly arrest sub-standard ships in port. In 1999, the ITF inspected more than 7,000 ships and took industrial action against ships in ports of 30 countries, recovering more than $30 million in unpaid wages to crews.
This has prompted some governments to set up port state control systems, with which ITF inspectors cooperate.
In May 2000, the Governments of Spain, Japan and of Singapore, the United States coast guard and the European Commission set up the Equasis database to promote quality shipping, in cooperation with responsible ship owners and seafarers’ unions within the ITF. This international database directs those who contract shipping service to vessels that adhere to minimum safety and environmental standards. It provides a web site on the standards used in individual ships, including whether there is a collective agreement on board.
4.7 Recognizing a global divide
While trade unions have endorsed CSD proposals for secure, equitable access to affordable and secure energy, they insist that “equity” must mean more than simple access.
New approaches must flow out of the recognition that “developed countries” are primarily responsible for the current global climate crisis (IPCC, 2001), as well as other problems of unsustainable patterns. More fundamentally, a “Global Divide” between wealthy and poor nations has widened since Rio, and is reflected in growing internal disparities in the countries themselves (ICFTU, 2001). Today, the wealthy are not only disproportionately responsible for environmental crises; they possess a major share of the resources needed for change (OECD, 2000a).
Equally important is the recognition that the two sides of this divide approach sustainable development differently. To date, industrialized countries, eclipsing the distinctive issues brought forward by developing countries, have monopolized most of the debate over energy use and emissions. Rich nations tend to focus primarily on its sustainability issues, while the others tend to focus primarily on development. For this reason, trade unions have urged a focus on poverty elimination and employment as core issues for energy and transport, especially as case studies show that as the ecology deteriorates, livelihoods and vulnerability worsen for the poor. When workers’ concerns
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are addressed, resistance is turned into cooperation, or better yet, into positive support for change (Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, 1998).
In Zimbabwe, teams of union health and safety representatives identified sustainable development issues, conducted in-depth investigations of housing, community, and work environments in local authorities, as well as on the impact of retrenchment on the community environment, and began to formulate policies and programmes on environmental issues in local authority areas.
4.8 Incorporating market-based approaches
Governments can work with major groups and international agencies to influence the market to “rule” in the direction of sustainable development. Trade unions are willing to cooperate in strategies to change market conditions; indeed, it has been their raison d’etre to make these works for the benefit of their members. An immediate target is public policy that allows producers and consumers to escape responsibility for the damage they inflict on the environment and society. Accordingly, trade unions joined calls at CSD9 to
§ eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies;
§ reduce sectoral discrepancies in domestic support;
§ deepen research into subsidies and their effects;
§ help those affected with transition programmes;
§ address social dimensions of resulting changes.
Trade unions have shown they can work with multinational corporations, which are often in the best position to influence change in a globalized economy, through voluntary approaches, codes of conduct, and other agreements that encourage best practices in environmental and social protection, labour standards, child labour, etc. Governments are furthermore encouraged to make wider use of corporate codes of conduct, such as the
OECD’s new Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
The TCO 6E is a working model for the development of the sustainable workplace, which has been designed, produced and marketed by the Development Unit of the Swedish Confederation of
Professional Employees (TCO). The 6 E’s (Ergonomics, Economy, Ecology, Emissions, Efficiency and Energy) are implemented through a step-by-step approach whereby everyone in the enterprise participates in establishing and reaching the environmental goals of the company, and receives some form of environmental education, depending on their specific role in the programme. Each project begins with a vision of a better workplace and a better environment built on an analysis of the working situation, and goes on to develop an overview of how operations-inflow, resource usage and outflow patterns impact on nature. A study circle of Environmental Coordinators from each company engages in a series of training seminars, and reports regularly on their company's progress to a Project Manager. Participating enterprises are provided with extensive materials to guide them at each stage of a systematic adaptation of the organization's operations towards the vision. As many as 32 Swedish enterprises have worked with the TCO 6E-model, and all have noticed a growing interest from competitors, customers and governments. The TCO works with the European
Continuous Improvement Circle and is also one of the partners in a European Union project to improve the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises and small and medium organization in Europe. The 6E logo, a symbol of “Responsible Practice” signifies total environmental integration of the external and internal workplace environment (TCO, 1997).
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4.9 Education and communication for informed choice Awareness of the issues concerning energy consumption and emissions is a prerequisite to action, and the facts concerning current patterns are startling in themselves.
With their well-developed capacity for education and communication, unions can work with other social partners to raise awareness: they are the foremost providers of adult education in many countries. Comparative information concerning fuel consumption and emissions by certain modes of transport can be provided (OECD, 2000b), for instance, through workplace-centred programmes led by unions.
Workplace education can change attitudes and habits, especially when accompanied by participatory approaches to management involving workers and their unions. The fact that workplaces play such a dominant role in the lives of workers means that participatory programmes which improve workplace performance will have a predictable impact on personal consumption patterns of workers and the community (Crocker and Linden, 1998).
Several unions have already revamped workplace health and safety programmes to serve
‘sustainable development’ agenda that focus on the community and region. Health and safety committees and other union structures based on rank-and-file action can be adapted to educating and mobilizing trade union members, beginning with their concrete experiences. In Spain, the UGT demonstrates how workplace health and safety programmes can be revamped to serve the sustainable development agenda, with a focus on the community and region. Rank-and-file research into environmental problems is used to introduce a sustainable development strategy and to discuss its impact on specific industrial areas and effective ways to bring about change in both community and workplace. A new guide, Guía Sindical: en material de Medio Ambiente, adapts health and safety act ivities to include all three pillars of the sustainable development agenda. An introduction to the principal problems of the environment of the region is supplemented with an overview of their impact on specific communities and industrial areas and upon employment. Finally, it examines the various ways in which trade unionists can employ legal and trade union instruments to bring about change, both in the state of the environment, and in workplace culture.
4.10 Research
Research must be conducted into the major implications of transition to sustainable energy and transport. Nine years after Rio, the employment implications of climate change measures, and of sustainable development generally, have yet to be seriously studied, even though they are critical in the energy/transport nexus. The concern of trade unionists was aroused by highly-publicized developments in two other sectors; the EU’s plan to halt the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathies and a proposed international ban on asbestos. In neither case were employment impacts considered, much less addressed in an integrated adjustment plan. Trade unionists know that the effect of inattention to social impacts of transition has always meant a totally inequitable allocation of costs to them and their communities, and they expect these costs to be especially high wherever industries in the energy/transport nexus respond to the challenge of climate change. An agreement reached at COP6 in the Netherlands, committing representatives of trade unions and business to work together for more research into the employment and social implications of climate change marks one of the first concrete attempts to address this serious problem.
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In the Netherlands, partnerships beyond the workplace re-orient development planning, protect land and ensure accessibility to all groups and can also direct attention to working conditions in core industries involved in energy and transport and their environmental impacts in surrounding communities. Environmental campaigners, local government councillors, community organizations and trade unions from the port cities of Antwerp, Bremen, Hamburg and
Rotterdam founded the Green Port Campaign to influence political decision-makers on the planning of port development and its impact on the local environment, communities and employment. Full and open access to and exchange of scientific and technological data and information is crucial to sustainable development in transport, where the fault lies not in science and technology, but in the quality of decision-making. Public policy decisions must address increasing barriers to the exchange of data and information, including rising costs of access, public sector cutbacks and growing corporate takeover of research and information management systems, all of which threaten the full and open exchange of knowledge. In particular, intellectual property rights affect the availability and integrity of data and information, research and education, particularly in developing countries.
4.11 A place for voluntary agreements
Unions and multinational corporations have signed agreements in the energy field that display the potential for VA in an increasingly globalized economy. Broad consensus has been reached among trade unions, business and NGO’s that these must form part of a mix, including regulation and standard setting A multistakeholder consultation in Toronto
Canada in 1999 reached agreement following the CSD 1998 Dialogue Session on
“Business and Industry”. In fact, several good examples of VA’s exist, in which trade unions were prime motivators, including international “Framework Agreements” negotiated with multinational corporations (applicable to all their subsidiaries) which recognize union rights, workplace equality, health, safety and the responsibility for the environment, a ban on child and forced labour, full cooperation and consultation with workers and unions. An example is the agreement signed between HOCHTIEF, one of the world’s largest construction groups, has signed an agreement with the General Works
Council, the German Construction Workers’ Union, IG BAU, and the Int. Federation of
Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW) committing it to observe anywhere in the world the standards contained in ILO Conventions and Standards.
International Agreement reached over Labour Standards and Environment
The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
(ICEM), representing 20 million workers, has signed an agreement with German-based
Freudenberg that recognizes union rights, workplace equality, health, safety, protection of the environment, a ban on child and forced labour, full cooperation and consultation with workers and unions as the best way to further the interests of the company and its shareholders.
Freudenberg and its subsidiaries worldwide employ about 30,000 people in 41 countries in production of auto and engineering components, lubricants, etc. with worldwide sales of DM 7
079 million in 1999. All are covered by the agreement negotiated in cooperation with the
ICEM-affiliated German union IG BCE, and gives ICEM regular meetings with the company and rights to monitor and verify the Code. The emphasis on global cooperation specifically cites relevant ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining;
135 on non-discrimination against union representatives; 100 and 111 on equal opportunities and treatment; 29 and 105 on forced labour; and 138 on child labour. The agreement also acknowledges the right of the employees in the Freudenberg Group to freely join trade unions of their choice, to elect workers' representatives and to represent their interests in negotiations concerning collective agreements.
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The new OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD, 1999), (which include implementation procedures, as well as disclosure and performance rules on employment and industrial relations, core labour standards, the environment and bribery) combined with the planned OECD review of Export Credits, show that it is possible to balance the increasing power and influence of multinational corporations with broadened participation for stakeholders.
4.12 Base public policy on the health and safety at work link to public concerns
A lack of attention to worker health and safety concerns in the energy and transportation fields may be contrasted to well-publicized issues of public safety and the measures taken to address them. Some 250,000 fatalities occur annually in transportrelated activities alone, in addition to the severe fatigue and stress, violence, musculoskeletal disorders, and repetitive work injuries that are increasing dramatically with the intensification of work and JIT management policies, the adverse effects of which are exacerbated by a general lack of worker involvement in work organization and process/design (Rosskam, 2002). Joint workplace decision-making structures have proven to be effective in identifying hazards, proposing and implementing programmes for prevention; trade unions now say that they these programmes must now be linked to public safety. In this regard, the ITF has worked with its national affiliates and with the ICAO and the IMO to draw attention to the link between public (operational) safety and the importance of “human factors”. Fragmentation of the industry, they say, breaks the “safety chain” as direct responsibility of operators is replaced by a web of legal/contractual relationships. Emphasis must be placed on professional standards for employees, with state-regulated training standards through professional licensing, especially for those in the safety chain.
4.13 Promote choices and models for human settlement Changes to transport patterns go hand-in-hand with land use planning, urban development, public transport and quality of life. They require replacing subsidies and other economic instruments that currently favour private transport, which is choking the world’s cities and imposing massive social and economic costs, with instruments that promote transition to efficient, comfortable and cheap public transport - the only equitable way to the internalize external costs. Community-minded innovation will naturally occur, say trade unions, with public participation in decisions over access to transport services, environmental impact assessments, and development of integrated systems that maximize