Unite is rolling out a multi-stranded education programme to equip its reps with the skills to negotiate with their employers on all aspects of the climate emergency.

The programme includes a new five-day environmental reps course; tailor-made training for Unite’s industrial sectors; and a one-day seminar the union will be delivering in its regions.

Managing a just transition to a zero-carbon economy is of particularly pressing interest to Unite, given the union’s significant membership in many of the industries that are most carbon-intensive, including agriculture, chemicals, energy, food, paper and transport.

The new five-day environmental reps course aims to give reps an up-to-date understanding of climate change through coverage of the Trade Union Clear Air Network (TUCAN) Charter and TUCAN’s guidance for union reps; the work of the Just Transition Centre, which was set up by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2016; and the approach of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, the global multi-sector initiative launched in 2013.

But as well as bringing reps up to speed with the latest trade union thinking on climate emergency, the course gives them the chance to hone their organising and negotiating skills, explains Unite’s national tutor for the environment, Carl Jerromes.

Carl said:

We show them how to do a workplace check to identify where the environmental hazards are and a travel survey to see what policies are in place in that area, as well as exercises to help them negotiate on climate change issues.”

What we try to do is make sure that reps have got the tools to go back into the workplace and deal with the issues there and also know where the links are in the wider community.”

The one-day seminar for the regions covers some of the same ground as the five-day course, with Unite-specific material on environmental issues that the education department has gathered together with the help of the union’s national officers.

Unite is also developing the green skills of its shop stewards by spotlighting the climate emergency at some of the week-long residential courses the education department runs for each of its industrial sectors every year.

Dave Spooner, the national tutor responsible for the union’s courses in the food, chemicals, construction and voluntary sectors, has recently designed a five day course for the food, drink and agriculture sector with a major emphasis on climate change.

Dave said:

The whole issue has gone flying up the agenda and the growing awareness of the contribution of the food sector to climate change in the past year or so has upped the ante as well.”

Worldwide food production currently emits 22 per cent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gasses (GHGs), with another 10 to 15 per cent contributed by the switch in land use from forests and peatlands to agriculture.

It’s statistics like these that have led to the prioritising of climate issues by the International Union of Food Workers (IUF), which helped Dave with the development of the course.

While tackling the climate emergency can seem impossibly huge, and many workplace reps already having their hands full with disciplinaries, harassment or redundancies, the key for Dave is showing stewards and convenors how to set achievable goals.

Dave points out

If you ask, ‘How are we going to make the entire world food production system sustainable?’ some stewards are going to feel overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.”

That’s why we concentrate on the real here-and-now issues that can be placed on the negotiating table, like demanding from the company what their transition policy is within the industry and looking at their investment strategy, not just turning off the lights and saving paper.”

Like Carl, Dave aims to focus on climate change as a collective bargaining issue.

Dave explained:

Our starting point is climate change is happening; employers are going to have to change; so how do we address the agenda from the workers’ position.”

That means asking very simple questions such as, ‘Do you know what the emissions are from your company? Do you know what investment policies your company has to address those carbon emissions? What are their proposals for transition? And how is the union involved through collective bargaining in discussing how that can happen in a way that protects workers’ interests?’”

Helping stewards and convenors improve their negotiating skills is the key, he says.

Being able to take part in policymaking in the union and joining union campaigns around climate change is important. But the crucial question is how they approach such questions industrially through collective bargaining.”

This case study first appeared in the unionlearn publication “Cutting Carbon, Growing Skills: green skills for a just transition”