Workers suffering from heat and other environmental stresses are best able to address the effects of climate change when they do so collectively, such as through their unions—especially when they can bargain collectively, according to Laurie Parsons of Royal Holloway,...
The climate crisis impacts workers and their communities in a multitude of ways. Flooding, drought and extreme weather events push workers to migrate, often into low-wage jobs under dangerous conditions. Workers in highly polluting industries face the dual impacts of occupational health and safety hazards and environmental degradation, both of which put their families and communities at risk. Marginalized workers—including minority populations, workers with disabilities, women, youth, migrants and workers in the informal economy—are already experiencing some of the worst impacts of climate change and are often excluded from decision-making processes. Workers and their unions are uniquely positioned to help build a global climate justice movement, bolstered by their support from, and participation in, broad-based coalitions as well as long-term experience in people-centered policy and legislative advocacy in their respective countries. As governments and industries plan to transition to cleaner alternatives, workers and their unions must have a meaningful say in the process to ensure that a greener economy is also one that protects worker rights and advances decent work. The needs of workers and their communities must be at the center of climate-responsive policies and practices, including in designing a fair or just transition to a more equitable and sustainable economy as a way to mitigate the impacts of climate change and enable adaptation for impacted communities.
Our Approach
The Solidarity Center recognizes that addressing the climate crisis is critical to ensuring decent work and a strong labor movement in the future. In response, the Solidarity Center supports workers and their unions to:
- Develop worker-driven climate solutions and play a significant role in their implementation to protect hard-fought gains and advance worker rights in changing industries
- Use collective bargaining to advance cleaner, safer and more sustainable operations across sectors; and ensure an inclusive process that prioritizes the needs of workers and their communities in transitioning sectors.
- Build broader coalitions, securing the mutual commitment of climate, human rights and community organizations in the fight to win decent, unionized green jobs; build healthy, resilient and sustainable communities; and support worker rights
- Effectively participate in national, regional and global climate justice negotiations and hold policymakers and employers accountable for achieving a just transition to a cleaner economy that enables workers to enjoy their fundamental freedoms and rights; and
- Advance an enabling legal environment to achieve a just transition, recognizing the critical link between labor rights and environmental justice.
Our Programs Solidarity Center initiatives to advance climate justice include:
- Legal research on the new forms of collective representation and collective bargaining necessary to attain a just transition, and, with the Solidarity Center’s International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW network), litigation of cases and legal processes and advocacy that advance worker rights
- Following a convening of palm oil unions from Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia and Malaysia, with environmental partners, implementation of a strategic plan by labor leaders from those countries that addresses issues with common actors and challenges within the supply chain, and pursues advocacy avenues for worker protection demands and engagement in policymaking on climate-change mitigation measures
- A coalition-building program in Colombia, Indonesia, Nepal, South Africa and Ukraine that raises awareness within and between unions, environmental and community groups about the environmental impact of the extractive and energy sectors in their respective countries while identifying opportunities for coalitions to advocate for safe, sustainable employment within these sectors
- Publication and dissemination of a report on the intersection of climate change and migration in Bangladesh that highlights for policy makers in that country how climate-related salinization has diminished the ability to grow rice and demonstrates that many workers are forced to migrate in search of jobs elsewhere or seek lower paying jobs in the shrimp industry
Heat Stress in the Cambodian Workplace
In Cambodia, workers health and safety and climate change are linked. This report details the results of surveys, interviews, and thermal monitoring conducted in the garment, delivery, and informal food sector that display the negative effect that heat has on workers,...
NIGERIA: UNIONS ALLY WITH GOVERNMENT, CIVIL SOCIETY ON HEAT STRESS
Built on research commissioned by the Solidarity Center, the Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) in May launched a heat stress campaign with other civil society groups and government in Abuja to address the impact of worsening heat on Nigeria's...
Heat Stress in the Cambodian Workplace
In Cambodia, workers health and safety and climate change are linked. This report details the results of surveys, interviews, and thermal monitoring conducted in the garment, delivery, and informal food sector that display the negative effect that heat has on workers,...
2023 Annual Report
In 2023, the Solidarity Center supported workers as they took on exploitative multinational companies and robot algorithms, demanded their governments tackle social ills and deliver on promises, and fought for justice in environments increasingly dangerous to those...
In Their Own Words: Workers Address Gender-Based Violence & Harassment in South Africa’s Garment Factories and Clothing Retail Stores
In South Africa, 98 percent of women garment and retail workers surveyed in 2022 said they had experienced one or more forms of gender-based violence or harassment, including physical abuse, unwanted sexual advances, psychological abuse, bullying and rape. To better...
In Our Own Words: Workers Address Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Garment Factories in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, 80 percent of women garment workers surveyed in 2019 reported they had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment, molestation or assault, endured extreme verbal abuse or witnessed a factory manager or supervisor abuse and harass other women in the...
Global Impact report: Eradicating Gender-Based Violence and Harassment at Work
The Solidarity Center Global Impact report highlights the Solidarity Center's support of unions and civil society organizations in ending gender-based violence (GBVH) at work and showcases key outcomes, including a landmark agreement to address GBVH in Lesotho garment...
Securing Equal Access to Decent Work in Nigeria: A Report by Workers with Disabilities
A survey of more than 600 workers with disabilities in Nigeria conducted by the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Women Commission and the Solidarity Center in collaboration with Nigerian unions and disability rights organizations, finds that most workers...