U.S. Unions Join Climate Change Talks in Copenhagen

Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, is in Copenhagen, Denmark, to ensure that labor’s input helps shape a global climate change treaty. This is his first report on the meeting.

More than 25,000 delegates and observers are expected to attend the historic United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen today through Dec. 18. Some 40 union members from the United States are attending as part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by the  International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The union delegation is more than twice the size of our delegations to the 2007 and 2008 climate change meetings. The size of delegation reflects the global union movement’s growing interest and engagement in climate change. Our work here as members of the ITUC delegation reflects our own efforts to shape U.S. climate change legislation. 

Our goal as an international union movement is to ensure that social and economic concerns are included in what had been an environmental discussion. In simple terms, we want a cleaner planet and good jobs. Over the past year, we have promoted “a just transition” in a climate agreement.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has said a long-term investment in creating green jobs is part of a “just transition” that protects workers in the shift toward a green economy. In his statement, Trumka said:

Together, global unions are united and committed to an international climate agreement that addresses greenhouse gas reductions as well as the social and economic impact of climate change. We will work to assure that any climate agreement supports the concept of a just transition.

The AFL-CIO supported the Waxman-Markey bill last summer because it embodied the principles of a just transition.  Trumka says “we will continue to fight for these principles as climate legislation moves forward.”

 A just transition to a greener economy requires an aggressive sustained commitment of national resources to create and retain good jobs, increase per capita income, modernize industry, develop and deploy technology and educate and train current and future workers.  It requires assistance for any workers, families or communities that may be adversely affected by the transition and a democratic voice for workers in their workplaces and in their communities.

The Copenhagen meeting is the 15th conference of the parties (COP-15) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change as they work to implement the treaty negotiated in 1992.

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