UNISON formally launched its Year of Green Activity today (Tuesday) with an online event that introduced members to the union’s busy green schedule for the months ahead.
The union has a vital role in campaigning for greener politics, working with employers to make workplaces more sustainable and ensuring workers benefit from a just transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.
The Year of Green Activity is about building momentum – creating spaces where members can connect, share ideas, and push for greener, fairer workplaces and communities.
Chairing the launch, UNISON senior vice-president James Anthony said: “It’s really exciting to be launching UNISON’s Year of Green Activity.
“While we know that many people understand the importance of climate change and the environment, over this year we’ll help shape it as a trade union issue that needs to be addressed in our workplaces and communities and by working together with workers across the globe.
“We know that public services face specific challenges and have a huge opportunity. This is just a start, and our national programme will look at the specifics for all the different sectors we work in, as well as the specific impacts on key groups of members.
“Most importantly, we will be developing activity on green issues within branches and directly with employers. There’s an opportunity to make a real impact, and to make sure that not only are we tackling climate change, but that workers have their say in the changes this brings.”
Right here, right now
UNISON policy officer Michelle Singleton opened her presentation by giving members some disturbing facts.
Right now, pollution alone causes more excess deaths than war, drugs, malaria, HIV and alcohol combined, she said. Extreme weather events are more frequent and causing thousands of excess deaths and devastation, globally and in the UK.
Last year the UK experienced new disease-carrying mosquitoes for the first time, due to the warmer climate, one sign of worrying new problems ahead.
And the Environment Agency recently announced that, by 2050, one in four homes in England alone will be at risk of flooding.
Ms Singleton outlined the impact of climate change on public services, the scale of transformation required, and the importance of a just transition “that leaves no one behind”.
She said that “the costs of doing nothing outweigh the costs of action” and that UNISON was ideally placed to combat many of the issues raised by the crisis.
A history of action
The union has been active on the issue of climate change since it was founded in 1993. It was a founder member of the TUC’s Trade Union Sustainable Development Action Committee in 1998, and was the first union to sign up to the International Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It launched its own Green Unison campaign in 2020, an umbrella for all of its climate change work, which has been a growth area for members and activists.
The Year of Green Activity builds on all of that involvement. Its aims include:
- highlight why climate change is a core trade union issue in public services
- showcase what UNISON is already doing
- promote the environmental officer role and the support that the union can offer branches and members who want to get involved
- provide engagement and activity points every month
- promote the unions’ bargaining guide on green issues in the workplace
- encourage branches to add Green UNISON to their agendas and to sign up to the newsletter.
Every month will feature new events, among them a special lunchtime training module that can be run in all branches (and which is pre-recorded and already online), opportunities to get politically engaged on winnable issues – such as workplace temperatures and greater investment in public transport – and a mini-film festival devoted to green-themed films. Some months will be dedicated to showcasing the impacts of climate change on individual sectors and equality groups.
UNISON’s Year of Green Activity will complement the TUC’s Year of Trade Union Climate Action. And today’s launch also featured a presentation by Mika Minio-Paluello, the TUC’s head of industry, energy and climate.
“We’re very excited about all the possibilities ahead, and how we can step up as as a movement,” she said, before adding a warning about the current political climate.
“Obviously, we’ve been facing a climate emergency for a very, very long time, and the reality of how our planet is changing and the impact on people’s lives are becoming more and more stark.
“But the tough reality that we face today is also that the far right and Reform are changing the conversation… Where people used to go, ‘Yes, obviously climate change is happening’, that’s being eroded, and where it used to be ‘Yes, we need to take climate action’, that’s being eroded too. So how do we shift that back?”
She also spoke of the need to ensure “that climate action doesn’t leave workers behind”, particularly in onshore supply chains.”It’s essential that we’re winning climate policy that delivers good quality jobs, but also future proofs those existing jobs.”
The panel took questions from members, which illustrated the degree of engagement that already exists among many.
And in a special video message to all UNISON members, the broadcaster and environmental activist Chris Packham urged them to “never forget that your voice is important” in the fight to save the planet.
“I think one of the problems we face when connecting with people over these issues is that there’s still a perception that it’s happening somewhere else, it’s not actually happening here,” Mr Packham said.
“But that is probably not the case for many of you, because I imagine that you are beginning to work at the forefront of the negative impacts of climate breakdown, when it comes to extreme weather events and how they impact on all our lives.
“That could be flooding, it could be drought, it could be health, it could be inequality caused by rising food prices. All of these things are going to get even more difficult unless we address them ever more urgently.
“Another problem that we face when it comes to this existential issue of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss is that we think we can’t have an impact ourselves, because there are big global issues that are quite beyond our reach.
“But hey, there’s power in a union. You may think that you’re just a drop in the ocean, but an ocean is a multitude of drops. When those drops unite, they become a force for change.”
