Received from: Unison
Congress reaffirms that the climate emergency is real and that time is running out to achieve the necessary changes required to get to net-zero by 2050.
June 2023 may be remembered as the start of a big change in the climate system, amid signs that some systems are tipping toward a new state from which they may not recover.
Congress 2022 supported funding our public services to tackle climate change but the challenge is broader. Governments need to do more and workers need to be at the table.
Congress recognises that climate change affects all workers as citizens but it is also having an increasing adverse effect in our workplaces. The impacts are being felt everywhere and go way beyond the increased health impacts of extreme weather events such as heat and floods.
Congress welcomes the work the TUC has done and calls on the General Council to:
i. coordinate and support unions furthering this work both nationally and globally, working alongside the ETUC, ITUC and civil society organisations
ii. lobby UK government to recommit to their climate commitments and to introduce a Just Transition Commission with dedicated ministerial oversight and representatives from all stakeholders including unions
iii. work with STUC, WTUC and other union partners to adapt their existing bargaining guides for reps to become UK-wide resources
iv. continue lobbying employers and governments for facility time for green reps
v. hold a green reps seminar in 2024
vi. support mobilisations in Big Green Week and at COP28.
UNISON
AMENDMENT
› Insert new paragraph 5:
“Yet our climate and environmental workforce is under paid and over-worked. Essential expertise is being lost from under-funded public services”.
› Insert new bullet point 3 and renumber subsequent bullet points:
“Press for increased investment in the climate and environmental workforce.”
Prospect
AMENDMENT
› In paragraph 1, sentence 1, after “2050”, insert:
“Climate justice cannot be separated from social justice. It is the most marginalised communities whose health suffers most from climate change, pollution and loss of nature”.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
AMENDMENT
› After paragraph 2, insert:
“Congress notes the Met Office’s State of the UK Climate report, which confirms that 2022 was a record-breaking year for weather and a sign of the UK’s changing climate. Congress commends workers’ emergency responses to climate and extreme weather events such as wildfires, floods, droughts and heat waves.”
Fire Brigades Union