For the first time, LO is on the government’s climate committee: – Has consequences for hundreds of thousands of jobs
On Friday, the government’s new climate committee met with representatives from working life for the first time. LO deputy leader Sissel Skoghaug is happy that the government has set up exactly this committee.
The previous government set up a «Climate Committee 2050». The “Council for fair transition” comes in addition, and is a follow-up to this committee with the partners of working life as members.
LO deputy leader Sissel Skoghaug is happy that Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide has done this.
– In contrast to the “climate committee” like the previous government, where the trade union movement was not wanted in, I mean the council for fair transition” to a large extent including all the voices that are more reduced to find fair solutions that contribute to synergies across the board. of both climate policy, working life policy and business policy, says Sissel Skoghaug to FriFagbevegelse.
– Great utility
– LO’s 25 confederations with almost a million members are facing restructuring. In industry, trade – in fact in all sectors and industries. That is why we are busy being actively involved in this work. The climate committee will greatly benefit from listening to this new advice for a just transition, was her message to the committee members in the first, preparatory meeting.
– A green transition is absolutely necessary. But people must still have a job to go to. Fair transition is precisely about ensuring that the consequences of these necessary transition changes in working life should not worry the employees. We must ensure security. The opposite leads to resistance. Workers’ rights, safe jobs and good lives must – and must – be compatible with future climate policy, was her message to the committee.
Ensuring employees’ right to co-determination is central to LO.
– That is why it is important to put formalized structures in place and a change in the climate act that ensures a fair transition together. This is something we have been asking for for a long time – and have also suggested in the past, points out Skoghaug.
Important measures
Important initiatives that LO points to linked to a fair safeguarding of practice, including:
* Respect for worker rights.
* Right to co-determination.
* Social dialogue in working life.
* Tripartite cooperation.
* Investments in low-emission and zero-emission technology that create new jobs.
* Safeguarding the right to lifelong learning.
* Welfare schemes that secure each individual worker in the transition to the new working life.
– In order for us to ensure a secure and good future, climate policy, working life policy and business policy must be seen in context. That is why, among other things, we in LO have asked, and supported, to have big ambitions for Norwegian climate policy when it comes to emission cuts.
Barth Eide: – Green conversion will cost money, we have to be honest about that
Nothing new
LO’s commitment to the climate issue is by no means recent.
As early as the climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, the trade union movement had called for worker rights, decent work and social dialogue to have a place in the new international climate agreement, which it was believed at the time would be finalized in Copenhagen.
Right up until the agreement was concluded in 2015, the trade union movement fought for the climate negotiators to be understood and Paris’ working life in the talks.
Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) believes that the committee, which met for the first time on Friday, got off to a very good start. The committee is a follow-up to a promise from the Hurdal platform, and a concrete follow-up to the climate summit in Glasgow a year ago.
It should neither replace nor replace the «Climate Committee 2050» which the previous government set up. It has been criticized by nature conservation organizations that they have not been given a place in this committee. After Friday’s preparatory meeting, Espen Barth Eide is certain that it was the right decision.
Hit a nerve
– I have meant that all along. I am sure that the composition of this committee is right now. This committee has to do with the partners of working life. The Norwegian Nature Conservancy has other arenas for its work, such as the “Climate Committee 2050”, the “Climate Risk Committee” and so on, says Espen Barth Eide to FriFagbevegelsen.
– I see here that we have struck a nerve between the parties in working life, he believes.
– Everyone in the committee agrees that Norway must become a different country, that we must also plan for a realistic reality, says Espen Barth Eide.
– In Norway, we have a very good tradition of adapting together. This is not the first time we have experienced changes in food structures. But a change is always best when all parties are involved and feel an anchor for the change. Absence of it leads to poor processes, more injustice and greater differences. But also resistance to new measures, Eide points out.
With today’s high employment and ditto few unemployed, Norway must be fully adjusted. Espen Barth Eide believes that it has obvious advantages, but it will also require us to think about how each individual manages to find their place in the green shift.