Taking a Trade Union Message to Climate Change Conference

More than 10,000 delegates and observers from around the world are gathered in Bali, Indonesia, for the 10-day United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC). Of the 90 union delegates, more than 20 are from North America, including Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and chair of the Energy Task Force. Baugh sends us the second in a series of posts by members of the North American delegation.

It is now late on a hazy, muggy Sunday afternoon in this beautiful country. We have had a busy two days meeting as a delegation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), helping set the stage for the coming week’s many formal workshop and task force meetings. The Saturday and Sunday meetings provided delegates with an orientation to the U.N. process and the opportunities we would have for intervention. The ITUC represents 168 million working men and women in 153 countries and territories.

The Bali conference also is the first step in a two-year international negotiating process, and this is the first time unions have achieved delegate status for the U.N. climate change meetings. We want to make sure the UNCCC has a trade union perspective built into future deliberations.

It has been interesting to learn that like a number of our delegates, many of the international delegates also are relative newcomers to this issue. Yet all of us share a common vision that the climate crisis presents every trade union a unique opportunity to shape the social, economic development and employment strategy for their nation and the world.

To help prepare the delegates, ITUC staff provided detailed overviews on the major issues surrounding climate change: Consequences of Climate Change, Adaptation and Mitigation, International Governance and Union Views of Climate Change. The overviews were coupled with the ITUC strategy on how we would use the “Trade Union Statement to COP 13” to influence the process. In short, we want the UNCCC to recognize the employment aspects of the climate change policy.

We and other delegates from around the globe had open and frank discussions during the orientation and pre-meeting sessions. Union brothers and sisters are here from developing nations such as South Africa, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mexico and Brazil. Trade unionists from across Western Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada and the United States round out the delegation of 85. Bhekie Ntshalintshali, the secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, is the highest-ranking elected union official in attendance. It has been an honor to meet him and all the other dedicated trade unionists in attendance.

In the coming days, we will attend workshops and task force events to raise our issues. Each delegate will be assigned six countries, whose representatives they will approach and provide with ITUC information packets. Formal meetings are being arranged with governments in attendance to raise our issues. We are seeking a meeting with the U.S. delegation in the coming week, although a meeting with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will have to take place back home because of impending Senate votes.

Each day, the conference publishes a schedule of events that is the size of a small paperback. Beyond the formal business meetings at the conference, there is an astonishing array of side events and exhibits: a technical meeting on science, industry sponsored technology events, environmental organization events and even demonstrations. The ITUC will hold its own event, “Green Jobs & Skills: Drivers for Climate Transition,” on Wednesday afternoon. I have been asked to join brother Bhekie Ntshalintshali in making  opening statements to kick off the public discussion portion of the event. 

In addition to the ITUC meetings, the North American delegates held a caucus meeting that helped our group get to know one another. For many, it was the first time they had met. At our invitation, Philip Pierson, a senior analyst from the British Trade Union Congress and chairman of the working group, and Sophie Dupressoir, from the European Trade Union Confederation, provided our delegates with an overview of the European “cap and trade” system. We found many common concerns about price volatility, the creation of carbon billionaires and the future impact of this market system on carbon intensive industries like steel, aluminum, paper and chemicals.

United Steelworkers (USW) delegates, who represent many wood products and paper workers in Canada and the United States, arranged a meeting with their Indonesian counterparts to discuss deforestation and other critical industry issues. Look for USW delegate Dave Fosters’s blog about the meeting. And, look for other blogs from our delegates in the coming week.

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