A conference held in Sydney on Sunday has called for unionists and environmentalists to join forces in order to combat climate change writes Dave Drayton.

Greens MP John Kaye was one of the speakers at the conference on Sunday. Image: John Kaye website

The conference, which was part of the Global Crisis to Green Future event, encouraged those attending to present a newly united front between those working in the power and electricity industries and environmentalists.

“It is this strategy that will probably save the planet, if we can get it right,” said NSW Greens MP John Kaye.

The conference was also attended by member for the South Coast Labour Council Arthur Rorris, national secretary for the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union Louise Tarrant, Construction Mining Forestry and Energy Union member Dave Kerrin, and longstanding Ecological Union activist Jack Mundey.

The unlikely collaboration was presented with a call to arms from Kaye eagerly pointed out their common interests: “Where we perceive there are conflicts between social justice objectives and environmental objectives, it just means we haven’t looked carefully enough.”

Supporting this view, and solidifying the new partnership Ms Tarrant stated “Don’t make a false dichotomy between unionists and environmentalists.”

“I think there is a large community concern and what we have to do is turn that into a very well educated, well organised, articulate, mobilised group of workers,” she continued.

Central to these common interests was ensuring that these industries remain in the public sector, with agreement from both unionists and environmentalists that privatisation would have detrimental effects both environmentally, and economically.

“We need to have government regulation and large scale public investment in a new energy economy,” said Kaye.

They key plan of action is to incorporate environmental ideologies into mining and energy industries so that Unions can side with environmentalists without fear of losing their jobs.

“That’s what a green job is, nothing magical, or mystical or what ever,” said Mr Rorris, citing the Green Jobs Illawarra Action Plan as an example.

The consensus is that action needs to be taken by the industries to consciously improve their environmental standards of practice in order to prevent workers and the general public having to pay for it through taxes or increased electrical costs.

According to Mr Rorris placing the burden of an improved environment, and a stronger solution to climate change on the income of workers is unrealistic, the problem should be tackled at its source.

The unionists are bringing a grassroots approach to climate change, educating members on the threat, encouraging participation in the attempt to overcome it and hoping that their employers take note.

Ms Tarrant asked: “How do we engage members genuinely in this issue? How do we understand their perception of where they think the issue impacts them, their families and their community?”

“It is about trying to engage our members to genuinely lead the issue.”

Image: SEARCH Foundation