'No ban without a plan?

A year of trade union climate change action was called for recognising workers are already suffering from extreme weather, flooding, and a rapid, just global transition from fossil fuels is essential to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown among other issues.

Action points for year of action included promotion of green bargaining in all union training, campaign for facility time for green reps, build national and regional green reps? networks; mobilisation for a workplace day of action and global day of solidarity in November; and support from the TUC Just Transition team.

Unite moved an amendment to a point on support global solidarity initiatives including the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and climate justice finance such as Brazil?s proposed two per cent tax on billionaires.

Unite wanted to add after ?billionaires?, ?while understanding that future fossil fuel production can only be ended when and where a fully funded workers? plan for jobs has been agreed and delivered in full.?

And it was Unite delegate Cliff Bowen that moved the amendment, as he said, ?to achieve a just transition for the North Sea oil and gas workers I represent for Unite.?

Addressing Congress he said, ?A year ago I stood here and warned that we cannot let oil and gas workers become the miners of this generation. Hundreds of thousands of workers and their communities were left on the scrap heap.

?The consequences haunt villages and towns across the country to this day. Stain on our movement. We agreed that warm words and vague promises would not be enough to prevent this happening again. And Congress they weren?t.

?After 100 years Grangemouth refinery has ended production, taking over 2,000 jobs down with it. Keir Starmer came to Scotland. He promised us ?200m for the workers of Grangemouth. We?re still waiting.

?Grangemouth was a test for the transition away from fossil fuels. There is no doubt it failed. Now over 35,000 North Sea workers are watching, but they?re not prepared to wait.

?Our members at Lindsey Oil Refinery are watching, and they refuse a repeat of the unjust transition which devastated Grangemouth. Congress, the climate crisis is urgent, and the emergency is real.

?The motion is absolutely right to recognise that and demand action. But, exporting jobs and skills and destroying working class kids? futures while moving production abroad has never been the answer we need.

?We must make it clear that the type of transition we are seeing is not one on our terms. It is the transition of the profiteer and the industrial gangster. Their transition is the worst of both worlds.

?Global temperatures are rising and so is the body count. Net zero targets are too important to be left to the market to deliver. We must show what the transition looks like on our terms.

?That?s a just transition with workers, not one which is done to us. If we cannot make that distinction ? and fight to demonstrate the difference ? then the entire idea of ?net zero? will be discredited.

?It will be reduced to ?greenwashing? attacks on jobs and pay. It will be seen as the cause, rather than the solution to, de-industrialisation. More than that, it?s failure will be seized upon by the political predators who are poisoning and dividing our communities. Global temperatures will rise. And so will the body count.

?This is why we must prove that there is an alternative. That is why workers ? and this amendment ? demand that any transition is based on a fully funded workers? plan for jobs which are agreed and delivered in full.?

Cliff outlined Unite?s policy. ?Our demand is simple: No ban without a plan. Five clear words – but they form the basis for the most important industrial transformation of this generation.

?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. There can be no more closures like Grangemouth.

?We demand a new industrial future ? that builds on our past rather than destroying it. This amendment strengthens an important motion and with it you will have the support of our members.?

The amendment and the amended motion were carried.

By Amanda Campbell

Photo by Mark Thomas