Zane Alcorn argues why those concerned about global warming have a duty to show solidarity with communities on the frontline of the climate crisis they did not create. This includes coal workers, who need alternative, sustainable jobs.
Zane Alcorn
Eight teenagers who took a class action lawsuit against a major extension to the Vickery coal mine, near Gunnedah in New South Wales, won a landmark victory on May 27.
Three unions aligned with the right faction of the ALP have called for the scrapping of the 88-day working holiday visa program. They claim this will cause farm bosses to pay better wages. But will it? Or, is it an excuse to scapegoat and play the nationalist card?
The Green Bans movement, as it became known, inspired a new type of union practice. The precedent it set could not be more relevant today.
Conventional trade unionism, which focuses exclusively on the pay, conditions and safety of the workers, pretends not to have a position on the critical social questions of the day, including climate change.