Reflections on U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poznan

Jon Forster, first vice president of AFSCME Local 375/DC37 in New York, was in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which concluded Dec. 12. Forster, who was among 100 union delegates, offers his observations on the 12-day event held to build upon the framework negotiated last year in Bali, Indonesia.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC) in Poznan, Poland, provided an important opportunity for trade unions to be present and weigh in on critical climate change issues. As a public service union, AFSCME was able to bring some different perspectives, and a different set of experiences to the table. Working within the meetings convened by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the AFL-CIO, it was exciting to hear the different viewpoints brought by other trade unions from around the world, including Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, Poland, India, Egypt, Russia, Kenya, Germany, France, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Canada, among others.

One of the important things that we could add to the discussion was our concrete experience in working on New York City’s 2030 Plan; our experience of job growth as a result of green initiatives; and our ongoing fight to ensure that new, emerging jobs such as “auditors” and “energy professionals” are union jobs and public service jobs wherever possible. While several unions expressed a fear of job loss in the face of green, energy efficient initiatives, our experience reinforced the idea that union job growth through going green also is possible.

Attending some of the non-labor meetings provided the chance to learn about other climate initiatives and share our trade union experiences. After the meeting on energy efficiency in building construction, we exchanged ideas regarding current U.N. building projects and our ongoing efforts in New York City on this issue. In the Pew Center-sponsored event with representatives from the United States and the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), I spoke about the presence of a strong international and U.S. labor contingent at Poznan that was committed to climate change issues with a particular emphasis on the development of good union jobs in green industries not only as a positive outgrowth of such efforts, but also as part of the economic engine that can pull our nation and the world out of its current fiscal crisis. At the conclusion of the event, the representatives of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) stated how much they appreciated the comments and the fact that labor is active on this issue. In retrospect, I believe there is an additional role for labor in these U.N. conferences by encouraging member participation in numerous meetings where labor’s presence and perspective can be raised.

The U.S. labor meeting with the U.S. congressional delegation on Thursday was important in letting the delegation know that there was a large and diverse labor contingent at the conference that is very much engaged on climate change issues. We expressed our commitment to the growth of good green jobs and our anticipation of their support on this issue. We spent the majority of the session discussing the details of pending U.S. legislation, its potential impact on the use of fossil fuels and the potential for the development of clean coal technology. Unfortunately, this focus did not provide a full opportunity to communicate to the delegation the broader array of issues of concern to the unions present. 

In the final day of the conference, there was an opportunity to speak to members of the Israeli, Russian and Indian environmental delegations and tell them of our work with the Apollo Alliance and environmental organizations in New York City.  In each case, they expressed great interest in reaching out to their own trade union counterparts and trying to engage them on the issue of global warming. There seems to be a real potential here for active environmental groups to bring more trade unions into this struggle and I referred them to both the ITUC and the Blue Green Alliance. 

Overall, the Local 375 and AFSCME presence at the UNCCC was positive. It was an eye-opening experience for me and put me on a very steep learning curve regarding the latest science on global warming, the multitude of efforts to combat it and the workings of the conference itself. Our presence also added the voice of a public-sector representative of the United States and international labor contingents, regarding our current involvements and where we should be going as a movement. Finally, it provided the opportunity to interact with others engaged in climate change to understand what they are doing and share what we have done. I believe the next year will be terribly important in strengthening the participation of unions such as DC37 and AFSCME, as well as other private- and public-sector unions in this process, as the labor movement, and the world, prepare for the critical U.N. climate change negotiations next year in Copenhagen.

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