ATUC joins climate activists and trade unionists at Westminster

ATUC delegate and Exec member, Steve Gray joined climate activists and trade unions as they rallied outside Parliament on 14 May to demand the Government deliver an emergency support package for oil and gas workers at the Spending Review next month.

The event was organised by Platform and supported by Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group as part of a year of trade union climate action. Click here for their website and resources.

Click HERE for more details of the event.

Speaking on behalf of ATUC Steve gave the following speech:

"I am here today to offer solidarity from the Aberdeen Trades Union Council which since 1868 has drawn together the workplace reps across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire north east Scotland to fight for workers' rights and social justice both at home and internationally.   

"The Just Transition Campaign for North Sea workers and their communities is story of greed, power and corruption set against community solidarity, determination, love and hope.

Risk assessments must take account of climate change

Kate Ramsden

#STUC24 Congress backed Aberdeen Trades Union Council’s call for mandatory workplace based climate hazards risk assessments to deal with the changing risks that climate change has brought.

It will also campaign for a specific maximum working temperature law now that high temperatures are a growing feature of our climate.

Moving the motion, Kate Ramsden reminded delegates that Scotland’s climate is changing and last June was the hottest on record.

“All this affects our members at their work - sweltering under temperatures above 40 degrees C in work vehicles and buildings - well in excess of what we are normally used to.

“As a country we need employers to adapt to climate change and to severe weather events to keep the public and our members safe at their work.

“Unions and trades councils are in a great position to engage with our members and public and private sector employers to negotiate and campaign for workplace based climate hazard risk assessments.

She called on the General Council to build on the excellent Adaption Scotland Climate Hazards and Resilience in the Workplace resource to keep it fit for purpose and to ensure activists are trained on it.

Join us for "Everything Must Change" - film and discussion about what we can all do

 

Join us on 9 November at 7.30pm at the ATUC office at 2A Adelphi for a screening of the film "Everything Must Change".

The cost of living, climate change, food, housing, land: the multiple crises we face are deeply interlinked, which means the solutions are too. 

"Everything Must Change" explains how all these crises - and the accompanying spiralling price rises - have come about, and shows how a just transition away from a free market extractive system based on exploitation to a renewable energy system based on people's needs can solve all of them. 

Drawing on the experience of numerous inspiring social movements, the film shows how climate change, driven by profiteering by our global systems has destroyed our planet and increased inequality.

We need to transform global infrastructure and services to be people oriented, by building a mass workers' and peasants' movement to enact a just transition. For the people, by the people, and never for profit. Because government and big business aren't going to do it for us.

Stay after the film to take part in a practical discussion about concrete steps to work together as one movement in making that just transition.

March calls for halt to fossil fuels and just transition

 ATUC Exec member and Aberdeenshire UNISON Green Champion, Steve Gray joined climate campaigners who marched through Edinburgh on Saturday 16 Sept to demand the UK and Scottish Governments develop a plan for a fair and fast transition away from fossil fuels. 

The march was one of 650 actions taking place around the world with millions of people involved this weekend ahead of a UN Climate Ambition Summit of world leaders in New York next week. 

Steve said, "It was very encouraging to hear and see so many campaigners speaking out with empathy and energy in support of the workers in the fossil fuel industries who need the Government support for a just transition now. Also to see the Save Saint Fitticks Park Campaign at the front of the march."

The protestors demanded action to phase out oil and gas in the UK including a halt to controversial projects like the Rosebank oil field and a new gas-fired power station in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. 

They called for a fair and fast transition for the workers and the communities most affected by the move away from fossil fuels and these people should be at the heart of planning this transition to ensure it meets their needs.  

Steve Gray addresses climate rally in Edinburgh and calls for action on climate change

Photo by Neil Hanna, Friends of the Earth

ATUC Exec member and Aberdeenshire UNISON Green Champion, Steve Gray joined climate campaigners who marched through Edinburgh on Saturday 16 Sept to demand the UK and Scottish Governments develop a plan for a fair and fast transition away from fossil fuels. 

Here is the text of the speech he made at the event:

"Thank you for the opportunity to march with you in solidarity for a Just Transition for the Fossil Workers and their communities.

Since its founding in 1868 the ATUC has organised and participated in many social justice and workplace campaigns at local, national and international levels.

The Scottish Government are conducting another consultation and its on the North East Scotland Transition Fund. The people of the North East Scotland need in person visits and meetings from the Scottish and UK Governments not online consultations which most people are not even aware. These meetings need be with a range of communities from Elgin to Fraserburgh to Aberdeen to Dundee.

The people of Scotland need deeds not words. The cost of living crisis cuts deeply here and failing to fairly fund Local Government is making the crisis worse.

When Local Government workers go on strike in the coming weeks they are fighting not just to pay their bills and feed their families but to save the services we all rely on. Please support these workers!

Urgent action needed on climate crisis

Congress overwhelmingly backed an emergency motion from ATUC which highlighted the need for urgent action on the climate crisis.

It heard that UN climate scientists have delivered a final warning on the climate crisis to act now before it’s too late, after a flurry of recent reports showed the urgency of taking action to reach real zero by 2035 not 2050, the UK Government target.

Moving the motion, ATUC’s Morag Lawrence told delegates that the recent information brought to us by the United Nations Climate Scientists warn us that the urgency to reach a true net zero is far more imminent than first thought.

“This means that the government and others with target dates of 2050 now clearly need to be aiming for 2035,” warned Morag.

She pointed to a report by the Uk governments own Climate Agency, which states ‘There has been a lost decade failing to deliver any progress towards a climate resilient infrastructure'.

“This is due to their own inaction,” slammed Morag.

COP26 - Bus to Glasgow rally, Sat 6th Nov

 On Saturday November 6^th ATUC and UNISON Aberdeenshire will be providing bus transport for trade unionists and other local activists to join the COP 26 rally in Glasgow from 11am to 4.30 pm. 

The bus will leave from  Inverurie market place at 7am and will pick up along the way, including Albyn Place Aberdeen at 7.30am. Buses will return the same day, aiming to be back for 9pm.

For more information and to book a place on the bus please email secretary@atuc.org.uk by 5pm on Friday 22nd October

Find out more about the demo and the bloc participating here.

Pre COP 26 Protest Rally in Aberdeen

On Saturday 23rd October, a coalition of local groups and organisations are planning a pre-COP 26 protest rally from 11.45 am to 2.30pm pm in Marischal Square with a host of speakers, musical entertainment and food by Food not Bombs. Read more HERE

ATUC supports urgent action on climate change as Rainbow Warrior visits Aberdeen

Steve Gray joined politicians and climate campaigners when he spoke on behalf of Aberdeen Trade Union Council at the Greenpeace Just Transition event at Aberdeen Harbour.

The event took place on Saturday 24th July. The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior had docked in Aberdeen as part of its journey to engage workers and citizens in discussion around a just transition, in advance of the COP26 Climate Conference coming to Scotland.

Steve spoke of the impact of climate change on the communities in the North East of Scotland and the role of trade unions in supporting just transition and climate justice. He called for urgent action to tackle the climate crisis.

 

The Scottish Government must put its money where its mouth is on Just Transition

Aberdeen Trade Union Council (ATUC) at its monthly virtual meeting on Wednesday 4th November, unanimously condemned the Scottish Government's decision to outsource the manufacturing work of offshore windfarm contracts that could and should have been manufactured in Scotland.

Aberdeen TUC delegates are very alarmed that the Scottish Government speaks well when talking of a Just Transition but takes business decisions that act contrary to the spirit and intent of its own policy and against the interest of workers and their families in Scotland.

ATUC Executive member and Aberdeenshire UNISON Green Champion, Steve Gray said, "Now is the time for a Just Transition in Scotland. We need to move towards a modern low-carbon economy in ways which protect not only the environment, but also workers’ livelihoods, particularly those who currently work offshore and in sectors reliant on fossil fuels.

"Radical action is needed now to avert the environmental and economic costs of climate change. We need to move towards a planned economy that has environmental and social justice at its heart, and which provides jobs making products in a sustainable way, where workers have secure employment and good terms and conditions.

"Trade Unions are fundamental to delivering that vision and will assist the process of transitioning traditional industrial sectors in a fair and just way. Workers, if losing their job in these sectors, should be able to redeploy to new sectors and the opportunities for retraining must be provided."

ATUC support and solidarity to Bifab workers as Scottish government ends hopes for the communities in Fife and Lewis

Aberdeen Trade Union Council has described as "heart breaking"  to all those workers, their families and their trade union movement supporters, the collapse of a deal between Bifab and EDF for the manufacture of wind turbine jackets to support the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind project.

 As part of the campaign to save Bifab last year, the STUC organised the November 2019 Energy Conference which offered wide spread trade union and environmental organisations' support for a just transition and support for the Bifab community.

Follow up reports have been produced but the failure to support the Bifab workers shows the lack of political will across the UK and Scottish Governments to support a just transition for working people.

 

ATUC sends our support and solidarity to Unite and GMB members affected by this apparent failure on the part of the Scottsh Government and to the communities that will be affected.

Responding on Wednesday 21st October to the breaking news over the collapse of a deal between BiFab and EDF for the manufacture of eight turbine jackets to support the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind project, Unite Scotland Secretary Pat Rafferty and GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said:

“It looks like the Scottish government ministers have walked away from our best chance of building a meaningful offshore wind manufacturing sector, and in doing so have extinguished the hopes of communities in Fife and Lewis who were banking their future prosperity on it. 

“It’s a scandalous end to a decade which started with promises of a “Saudi Arabia of Renewables” supporting 28,000 full-time jobs in offshore wind and now finishes in mothballed fabrication yards and no prospect of any contracts or jobs on the horizon. 

Just transition report - offshore oil and gas workers' views

 

Click on image to see report

Aberdeen Trades Union Council is a long term supporter of a just transition away from fossil fuels and arms production towards renewables. We therefore welcome the Friends of the Earth Report  released this week, Offshore: oil and gas workers views on industry conditions and the energy transition, which is particularly relevant to the North East of Scotland.

The report builds on a survey of 1,383 offshore workers, revealing the impact of Covid-19 on their lives, their views on life in the industry generally and their hopes and solutions for the energy transition. In addition to the survey results shared, there are eight case studies in the report from the workers themselves, revealing an exhaustion with precarious employment in oil and gas and a huge appetite for alternative industries, including offshore wind and other renewables.

The report concludes with several recommendations, including the need for governments to engage in participatory policy-making with a representative section of the oil and gas workforce and their trade unions. We request that the government bodies and individuals listed in the report begin this process by meeting with a pool of survey respondents who have expressed interest in speaking with them.

Ryan Morrison, Just Transition Campaigner from Friends of the Earth Scotland. said, “I hope you think its a useful piece of work in the Just Transition struggle. We want to continue worki,g with workers, TUs and communities in crafting solutions for a just transition.”