Unions and Climate Change No. 462.

North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis: Building a Global Movement for Clean Energy

Unions all over the world, including the United States, are responding to the challenges posed by global warming and other environmental problems. Several national union federations are applying pressure on their governments and getting results. Other unions are operating locally or are engaging individual employers. Unions are beginning to connect organizing with global warming and other environmental issues, and are everywhere linking up with environmental groups.

Unions are also collaborating across borders. This Assembly will be the latest of a series of important historic international gatherings that began with the First Global Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment in Nairobi, Kenya, in January 2006. In April 2006 Sao Paulo hosted the first ever Trade Union Regional Conference on Labour and the Environment for unions in Latin America, and in July 2006 another Regional Conference took place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The North American Assembly will be attended by many trade unionists from outside the U.S. and Canada and will coincide with the annual meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at the United Nations. At the CSD, union representatives will be pushing for action on a range of environmental issues.