Tag: justtransition

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TUED Bulletin 123 – South Africa: Unions and Allies form United Front, Call for “Public Pathway” Approach to Energy Transition

The fight to defend public energy in South Africa has grown more intense in recent weeks. The country  has been hit by years of power cuts (“load shedding”) that is, TUED and its allies have argued, the direct result of years of political attacks on the public utility known as Eskom. 

In a major statement on July 26th, President Ramaphosa announced that the private sector was ready to address the country’s growing energy crisis, and the government intended to remove “red tape” in order to invite more investment from so-called independent power producers (or IPPs). South African Broadcasting Corporation footage of Ramaphosa’s statement is here. It includes a response from TUED’s Sean Sweeney towards the end of the broadcast that warned against expecting private companies to come to the rescue. 

The day after Ramaphosa’s statement, unions and allies in the social movements came together in Johannesburg to form a United Front to Address Loadshedding and resolved to fight for an alternative “public pathway” approach to energy transition. The meeting was organised by the Alternative Information and Development Center and TUED.  

Endorsing the United Front are key unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM); the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the South African Trade and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU).

 See: Full statement and signatories to the United Front initiative.

A similar statement was released by NUMSA .

Click here to read more.

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) is a global, multi-sector trade union initiative to advance democratic direction and control of energy in a way that promotes solutions to the climate crisis, energy poverty, the degradation of both land and people, and responds to the attacks on workers’ rights and protections. TUED is is part of the Global Labour Institute Network. 

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International Union Rights: Trade Unions & Climate Justice

The first 2022 edition of International Union Rights (IUR) journal explores key issues around climate justice and just transition.

Georgia Montague-Nelson from GLI Manchester contributed an article to this edition of IUR. The article explores the contribution of livestock production to the climate crisis. In the article, she puts forward a set of trade union proposals for the sector – developed by the IUF and GLI – which demonstrated the potential for engagement with climate activities around shared ideas about decentralisation and redistribution, reducing the size of supply chains and the role of global corporations in the food sector.

The International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) commissioned GLI Manchester to transform IUF research on the climate crisis in intensive livestock production into a guide to equip affiliated unions in meat, dairy, and agriculture sectors to influence the conditions for a just transition.

The guide ‘Fighting for our Future – an IUF Guide on Tackling the Climate Crisis in Intensive Livestock Production’ was released in March. The article is based on that guide. Click here to read the guide.

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Fighting for our Future: An IUF Guide on Tackling the Climate Crisis in Intensive Livestock Production

The climate crisis is already destroying the livelihoods of workers across the world. It is of particular concern for workers in livestock production. Livestock production is one of the most emissions intensive sectors in the global food system. The sector is also negatively affected by the impacts of climate change.

Global transformation to a more climate-friendly food system is more urgent now than ever. But this poses huge risks to workers who face potentially negative impacts to their livelihoods.

Unions need to demand a voice to lead and shape the necessary change to ensure that any transition does not leave workers behind. This means fighting for a just transition. Unions need to take action at the local level to facilitate transformation of the global food system.

GLI Manchester was commissioned by the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) to produce a guide on tackling the climate crisis in intensive livestock production.

‘Fighting for our Future – an IUF Guide on Tackling the Climate Crisis in Intensive Livestock Production’ is now available to read and download.

This guide aims to equip unions representing workers in the meat and dairy sectors to influence the conditions for a just transition, and to propose the necessary transformative solutions to tackle the climate crisis.

This document includes a guide on the climate crisis and an activity workbook.

The guide provides information about the contribution of intensive livestock production to the climate crisis, about why the climate crisis is a union issue, and how unions can take action. The guide sets this in the wider political context. It is important for unions to understand this context to recognise the need for system transformation to address the climate crisis. Unions can use this information to formulate practical demands at the local level.

The activity workbook includes exercises that can help unions to better understand the main issues, to plan for just transition and to develop practical action.

Click here to read and download the guide in English, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The guide will also soon be made available in French and Swedish.

Click here for more information about the IUF’s work on the climate crisis.

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TUED: ‘Green Structural Adjustment’ in South Africa – A War on Workers and Climate

TUED Global Forum: February 25, 2022, 8:00-9:30am ET

On Friday, February 25th, 800 am – 930 am ET (find your local time here) Trade Unions for Energy Demoracy (TUED) is holding a Global Forum: “Green Structural Adjustment” in South Africa: A War on Workers and Climate.  Spanish and French interpretation will be available.

Register here.

At COP26 in Glasgow, the EU, the US and the UK announced it was going to “mobilize” $8.5 billion to accelerate South Africa’s transition away from coal in order to protect the climate.

A month later the IMF “advised” the South African government to downsize and break up (“unbundling”) its public utility (Eskom) in order to build a “A Green and Climate-Resilient Economy.” The “unbundling” of Eskom, “must be accompanied by a substantial downsizing and structural transformation of its operations, notably through a meaningful reduction of procurement and personnel costs. Eskom spends more than it earns, reflecting both its operational inefficiencies and unsustainable debt level. Competition from private firms is necessary. The resulting higher level of private investment should help finance the energy transition away from coal, contributing to climate change objectives.”

The IMF is pursuing the same policy in many countries in the Global South. But experience has shown that the privatization of power systems impedes the effort to move away from fossil fuels.

Unions and their allies in South Africa have put forward an alternative to this approach, one that keeps energy under public ownership, allowing a transformed and fully-resourced Eskom to drive the transition while preserving the country’s energy sovereignty.

Meanwhile, unions are leading an international effort to fight the energy privatization agenda and to reclaim energy companies to public ownership under a pro-public mandate that can address climate concerns.

A list of speakers will be circulated in the coming days.  Please register here. 

Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) is a global, multi-sector trade union initiative to advance democratic direction and control of energy in a way that promotes solutions to the climate crisis, energy poverty, the degradation of both land and people, and responds to the attacks on workers’ rights and protections. TUED is is part of the Global Labour Institute Network.