The trade unions make themselves heard during the CSD

Sustainlabour actively participated in the 17thssion of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) which took place in New York City from the 4th the 15th of may. During this session, the focus was on Africa, agriculture, droughts and desertification, among others. The trade union movement, with 24 delegates from 14 countries, insisted on the need to include key issues into the debate: the need to protect and give a voice to agriculture workers, the need for a right to food, or the urgency to promote social protection and decent work in rural areas in order to advance towards a more sustainable agriculture.
Sustainlabour and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) organized an event on the 11th May entitled “In the context of a multiple crisis (food, labor, financial, climatic): a new global compromise on agriculture?”. 40 delegates, of which a number of governmental representatives, took part in the workshop. Speakers included Danila Boneba, the United Nations rapporteur on the right to Food, and Katishi Masemole, general secretary of COSATU, among others. The director of Sustainlabour, Laura Martin (who also made a presentation) and Anabella Rosemberg of the ITUC were present at the meeting. Leer más...

UNEP-Sustainlabour: training on renewable energies in Peru

Over the month of June, Sustainlabour will be organizing a professional training course on solar energies which will be mainly targeted at construction workers. The course includes the evaluation, design, implementation and management of photovoltaic energy systems, thereby encouraging the creation of sustainable jobs in the region and throughout the country. During the training, there shall be a combination of theoretical and practical activities, including the setting-up of a photovoltaic energy system. Leer más...

Sustainlabour at the International Conference on Chemical Management

Sustainlabour actively participated as part of the Trade Union Delegation at the second session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2 – SAICM) which took place in Geneva from the 11th to the 15th May. SAICM is a non-legally binding United Nations process which aims at ensuring that, by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.
Questions about the actions to undertake on emerging issues such as chemicals in products, lead in paints, electronic waste, nanotechnology and nanomaterials were part of the discussion. Also basic questions on rules of procedure and how to monitor the progress in achieving the goals were part of the agenda.
Although progress in some areas was observed, there was important disappointment on others as for example the outcomes on nanotechnologies which did not success to adequately address occupational health and safety issues. Leer más...

United Nations Comission on Sustainable Development: Sustainlabour prepares a side event

A new policy session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CDS) takes place in New York from 4th to 15th May. The session is focused in Africa, agriculture, drought and desertification and rural development, among others. Last year politics were reviewed and now it is time to approve recommendations to deal with these issues.

Sustainlabour and the International Trade Union Confederation, in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, organise a side event on the 11th in United Nations building. The event will be focused on hunger and changes in agriculture in the contexts of crisis. ITUC will also present a report on the Food Crises “A Recipe for Hunger. How the World is Failing on Food”.

On 6th May, Laura Martín, director of Sustainlabour, spoke to the plenary in representation of trade unions groups to call for the inclusion of fundamental issues such as the need to increase the incomes on rural and urban workers and guarantee that agriculture works for their communities. She also defended the need to include occupational health issues in the final text. Martín expressed trade unions disappointment because there was just a single minute for civil society interventions, and thanked United States governments for its attempt to increase trade unions participation. Leer más...

Bonn Climate Change Talks

The first series of talks on climate change ended on 8th April in Bonn (Germany). Throughout this year, governments are negotiating for a new and ambitious agreement on climate change (in view of the upcoming COP in Copenhagen next December). In Bonn, ITUC called for the integration of social justice into the transition towards a low carbon economy. Read more in our bulletin. Leer más...

Second Conference on Labour and Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean

From 4th to 6th of May, TUAC organises the Second Trade Union Conference on Labour and Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the presence of more than 70 participants from the region. Chemicals management and climate change are the two main issues addressed at the conference. This Conference is part of the joint programme UNEP-Sustainlabour, and it is a follow up of the First Conference which took place in April 2006.

One of the main objectives of the event is to provide information to the trade union movement on both issues. In fact, trade unions have been working in recent years in climate change and sound management of chemicals, and its consequences for workers.

On climate change, it was expressed the need to advance towards a consolidated, common trade union position to be defended at the upcoming United Nations Framework Conference in Copenhagen. On chemicals management, the conference mostly focus on training with the objective to place Trade Unions in a better position to demand more chemical health and safety programs to public and private sectors.

For more information on the conference, documents, etc. visit TUCA's site here

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