CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
During the 1970s, amid the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and associated calls for a general move away from nuclear power, fears grew among labor unions of potential massive layoffs and unemployment. One of the main contributors to the concept of just transition was Tony Mazzochi, the labor and environmental leader of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW). Mazzochi represented atomic workers and was aware that disarmament after the Cold War could result in job loss for many atomic workers. A visionary as well as a Second World War veteran, Mazzochi took his idea from the GI Bill of Rights. The GI Bill, initiated after the Second World War, provided veterans with up to four years of tuition and a living wage in an attempt to boost the US economy and prevent mass structural unemployment and economic dislocation after the war. Mazzochi proposed that workers who lost their jobs owing to disarmament should receive similar support.
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE BECAME OVERWHELMING THAT THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS CAUSED GLOBAL WARMING AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
Scientists and environmentalists also stressed the dangers of using chemical pesticides. It was during this time that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forced the company Velsicol to suspend sales of chlordane and heptachlor, both toxic pesticides. This decision resulted in Velsicol closing its operations in Marshall, Illinois, and laying off all its hourly wage employees. The EPA listed the plant and property as a “Superfund Site,” ordering that more than $10 million be spent on cleaning up the site, which had been in operation since the mid-1930s. However, this did not include compensation for the laid-off workers. Mazzochi questioned why there was a “fund for dirt” (toxic cleanup) but not one to support the workers who had lost their jobs due to environmental policies.Mazzochi and other unionists acknowledged that the industries whose members they represented were causing severe environmental degradation and advocated for change aimed at addressing health and safety issues, employment, and the preservation of the natural environment. Mazzochi advocated for a “Superfund for Workers” based on the premise that workers should be compensated during the transition from one kind of economic activity to another. The “Superfund for Workers” would guarantee full wages and benefits to employees who were displaced by environmental protection policies or accidents, until they obtained higher education or could secure comparable employment. According to Les Leopold, a close friend and protégé of Mazzochi, environmentalists felt the term “superfund” held too many negative connotations, and it was changed to “just transition”.
START OF THE JUST TRANSITIONS ALLIANCE
Les Leopold, then executive director of the Labor Institute, and Bob Wages, the
president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, began to convene representatives from organized labor and frontline communities that were experiencing environmental degradation to discuss what a just transition could look like from the perspective of both of these groups. As a result of these efforts, the Just Transitions Alliance was established in 1997.
EMERGENCE OF JUST TRANSITION
During the early 2000s the term “just transition” started appearing in International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ITUC) publications, which represents over 200 million unionized workers globally in more than 160 countries and territories. For climate change mitigation plans to succeed, scholars, environmentalists, and labor and trade unions argued that a holistic and collaborative approach was needed that focused on inequalities, jobs, poverty, and economic growth. The terms “job creation” and “climate change” could no longer be mutually exclusive.
ITUC RELEASES A STATEMENT FOR THE UNFCCC
In December 2007 the ITUC released a statement for the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Bali, Indonesia, indicating the need for collaboration between climate change policy and the economy. The trade unions called for all countries to engage in a stronger commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, along with a commitment to aid and protect the most vulnerable. At the second ITUC Congress, held in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010, the concept of just transition was adopted as the basis for fighting climate change.
PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT
In the preamble to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the ITUC mobilized heavily around climate change, asserting that “a transition towards a zero-carbon world cannot leave workers behind and the time for a Just Transition has come”. Prior to and during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), the trade unions distributed their demands for the Paris Climate Agreement. Business coalitions and civil society representatives signed a petition issued by the ITUC calling for dialogue on a just transition, which was unveiled by the ITUC the day before COP21 began. The Unions presented their petition as a list of demands, including #3, which stated: “The Paris Climate agreement, in its OPERATIONAL section, must include a commitment to ‘Just Transition’ measures. This is essential to support the challenge of industrial transformation in all sectors, in particular jobs and livelihoods for workers in emission-intensive industries”. The ITUC’s initiative succeeded, and “just transition” was recognized in the Paris Agreement.
SILESIAN DECLARATION ON UNITY AND JUST TRANSITION
In 2018 national government representatives signed the Silesian Declaration on Unity and Just Transition at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 24) in Katowice, Poland. The result of the Katowice meeting was the creation of a complex package containing operational guidance on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the importance of a just transition. This political support was intended to assist in mainstreaming climate change policies and to garner social approval for future transitions.
Just Transition literature and policies are emerging constantly as this area becomes more researched and known to the public, such as policymakers, corporations and more.