Workers’ just transition

In a wide-ranging debate on a just transition and the climate emergency, Unite delegate Cliff Bowen moved a statement on behalf of the Executive Council (EC).

He denounced the recent job losses at major manufacturers – at Port Talbot and Llanwern in steel; at Vauxhall Luton; and at Grangemouth Refinery – all numbering in the thousands.

“We have warned that our members face the misery imposed on the miners only a generation ago,” he said. “There are real people behind these numbers and place names. Our people.”

He quoted Cass who worked at Vauxhall Luton, where her father Paul also worked, as well as four generations of her family.

“This has been a home for me,” Cass said on the protest to save her plant. “I often walk around thinking, ‘Did my grandad walk down this same corridor?’ It’s a way of still being with them. If I think about it too much I start crying.”

Cliff added, “No one walks down those corridors now. They have been silenced for the first time in 120 years.”

He warned that many other manufacturing businesses threaten to follow suit.

Calling a just transition the “single most important” topic, he said there was both an environmental and industrial crisis facing workers.

“Our slogans will ring hollow. Our rhetoric will be empty. Our promises will be platitudes – if they offer no defence to the onslaught facing Cass, Paul, and thousands of our members just like them,” he said.

“This is why a ‘just transition’ – a workers’ just transition – must be more than a slogan to get us through another difficult debate.”

Cliff went on to say that “net zero targets are too important” to be left to the market, and that a just transition – “on our terms” – must have workers at its heart.

While he said the Executive Statement offered no ‘easy solutions’ he emphasised the importance of negotiation, of workers’ expertise being used and the potential for low carbon technology to provide job security and prosperity.

“Promises of new jobs must be a reality, not a mirage. Like-for-like replacements for those lost as a minimum – with a realistic transition between them, including support for reskilling,” he said.

A composite and a series of motions were heard on a just transition, with Unite delegate Gill Slater highlighting the urgency of the climate crisis.

Unite delegate Tyrone Falls meanwhile spoke out against a third runway at Heathrow, saying it was incompatible with other union policies – for example, on reducing air pollution.

Unite delegate Binzo Vindamina spoke on the potential of renewable energy, noting that the race to net zero is not only an “environmental imperative” but also an “economic opportunity”.

Unite delegate Dereck Roberts of Wales spoke of the potential of tidal energy schemes, noting that tidal energy was much more reliable than wind. He highlighted in particular the potential of a Swansea tidal power scheme.

Unite delegate Russell Cartwright of London & Eastern intervened to correct what he believed was an inaccuracy in the Executive Statement, noting that job losses at Vauxhall weren’t prompted by net zero policies but rather company mismanagement.

Unite delegate James Mitchell, also of London & Eastern, praised the work of reps at Vauxhall Luton, who helped secure significant redundancy packages for workers who lost their jobs.

Following on, Unite delegate Taranjit Shukra echoed Russell’s comments on Vauxhall. He said his father worked at Vauxhall, so he knows personally that it was not net zero policies which caused the job losses.

Unite delegate Clara Paillard spoke in favour of the EC statement, saying that it brought unity to what was a divisive policy agreed at the last conference.

Exercising a right of reply, Unite EC member Eddie Cassidy called for “honest debate”, as he addressed concerns from those speaking out against the statement.

The EC statement was overwhelmingly carried.

By Hajera Blagg

Photos by Mark Thomas