Received from: Unite
Congress recognises that the decarbonisation agenda will have a massive impact on jobs.
The UK government is promising up to 480,000 skilled green jobs by 2030 and Congress welcomes the TUC’s involvement in the green jobs delivery group. However, there is not nearly enough detail about what those jobs are.
Congress is also concerned that some companies are using the transition into green industries to discard national agreements and remove collective bargaining.
Congress calls for a workers’ just transition, where green jobs are secure, sustainable, good jobs delivered through collective bargaining and where those workers and communities whose industries are threatened by the changes to develop a low carbon world have jobs protected and their skills fully utilised in the sustainable industries of the future.
Congress believes that a just transition must involve adequate state intervention, investment and support to protect jobs, incomes, skills and communities.
Congress calls on the TUC General Council to ensure that any just transition strategy endorsed by the trade union movement must clearly set out:
i. realistic estimates for the numbers of new green jobs, the definition of a green job, the quality of those jobs and their likely locations and timeline
ii. the skills, education and training required for those jobs and how that will be delivered
iii. guarantees for health and safety practices of the highest standards, with trade unions playing a key role
iv. measures to prevent any negative impact on trade unions in terms of existing agreements and organised workplaces.
Unite
Amendment
› In paragraph four, after “have jobs protected,” insert “through decarbonisation of existing industries in consultation with workers in those industries,”.
GMB
Amendment
› Add at end of paragraph 4: “Congress believes that the steel industry in particular is a sustainable industry which must decarbonise and is critical to our green future. Congress believes jobs in the industry must be supported throughout the transition”.
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