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A joint Executive Committee meeting of three European trade union federations on 31 January put the final touches on statutes, a political programme, and also nominated candidates for leadership in what is to become a united eight-million-member industrial workers&rsquo; federation. The meeting, held near Mechelen, Belgium, was attended by 150 national union leaders from 25 nations. 
 
The European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers&rsquo; Federation (EMCEF), European Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (EMF) and the European Trade Union Federation for textiles, Clothing, Leather and Footwear (ETUF-TCL) are now geared to formally merge on 16 May 2012 in Brussels, with dissolution Congresses coming a day earlier. 
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The joint Executive decreed that the new federation will strive to become a fighting force for a dynamic economic framework that allows industry to thrive as the motor for jobs and sustainable growth across Europe. The three current federations vowed that &ldquo;social progress and the European social model cannot be sacrificed at the altar of ultra-liberal dogma.&rdquo; 
 
Although the new grouping has yet to formally adopt a name, its temporary moniker is the European Industrial Workers&rsquo; Federation (EIWF). 
 
Michael Vassiliadis, President of Germany&rsquo;s IGBCE, was nominated to serve as President, while current EMF General Secretary Ulrich Eckelmann was nominated to be General Secretary. Anders Ferbe of IF Metall, Sweden, Renzo Ambrosetti, UNIA, Switzerland, and Valeria Fedeli, CGIL FILCTEM, Italy, were nominated as Vice Presidents, while Sylvain Lefebvre, EMCEF, Bart Samyn, EMF, and Luc Triangle, ETUF-TCL, were nominated as Deputy General Secretaries. 
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Michael Vassiliadis
The new federation will consist of four policy committees &ndash; Collective Bargaining and Social Policy, Company Policy Committee, Industrial Policy Committee, and Social Dialogue Policy Committee. It will also be composed of eight regions: South, Benelux, Central, South-East, Eastern, British, Nordic/Baltic, and South-West.

Curtain Up on Europe’s New Trade Union Industrial Federation

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	Coalminers represented by three Australian unions under the grouping Single Bargaining Unit (SBU) voted late last week to resume strike action against the BMA, the BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi metallurgical coal alliance that operates seven rich mines in the Bowen Basin of central Queensland. 
	 
	After six days of futile bargaining between 16 and 23 January, the SBU held a series of mass meetings on 2-3 February in which workers again decidedly rejected the employer&rsquo;s proposal by better than 1,600 to 2 to turn the clock to the former Howard government&rsquo;s WorkChoices set of laws. 
	 
	Mineworkers will soon stage a simultaneous set of seven-day strikes at dates to be decided. Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) Queensland District President Stephen Smyth said, &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be choosing a time which has the least impact on our members and the most impact on the company.&rdquo;

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	July Picket at Goonyella Riverside Mine

	The SBU is led by the ICEM-affiliated CFMEU and also includes ICEM affiliates Australian Manufacturing Workers&rsquo; Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing Union (CEPU). It represents 3,500 Bowen Basin coalminers. 
	 
	The two sides have been negotiating for 15 months and a prior enterprise labour agreement expired in May 2011. SBU undertook a series of strikes throughout the second half of 2011, and BMA&rsquo;s opportunity to conduct a vote among miners under the new Fair Work Australia law failed with a 92% rejection in October. 
	 
	Yet, management has refused to yield on issues that would compromise work-life balance in terms of shift schedules and mine safety. This includes BMA&rsquo;s refusal to provide fatigue crib breaks for miners working 12-hour shifts on consecutive nights and contract language which permits managers to permanently replace workers performing safety-critical open cut examiner and mine deputy roles. 
	 
	Their proposal, said Smyth, &ldquo;seeks to take mine safety out of the pit and into the office.&rdquo; 
	 
	The SBU is also seeking restoration of rights and pay taken from labour hire workers and sub-contractors during the WorkChoices era. &ldquo;Australia has moved on from WorkChoices, but it appears BHP hasn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Smyth. 
	 
	The ICEM will continue to track this critical Australian labour struggle that has become a bellwether for restoration of trade union rights under the two-and-a-half-year-old Fair Work Australia law. ICEM reports from 2011 can found <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4731-Australian-Miners-Reject-BMA-s-Contract-Proposal-by-92">here</a> and <a href="-BMA-Tries-to-Bully-Aussie-Labour-Law-Back-to-Howard-Era">here</a>.&nbsp;

Queensland Coal Strikes to Resume against BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi Alliance

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Disappointed with a draft of the UN Global Compact document &ldquo;Corporate Sustainability Leadership: A Framework for Action at Rio+20 and Beyond,&rdquo; global labour&rsquo;s two representatives on the body &ndash; ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda and UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings &ndash; worked to get stronger trade union language adopted by the Global Compact for the UN&rsquo;s June 2012 World Summit on Sustainable Development, dubbed &ldquo;Rio+20.&rdquo; 
 
That effort succeeded last week when the Global Compact accepted inclusion of a better accounting of the social dimension of sustainability. All UN agencies, including the Global Compact, have been preparing their input to that summit. 
 
At the insistence of Warda and Jennings, the document now calls on businesses fully respect human rights, including the rights of workers. Governments are called on to guarantee a high standard of social protection, and to establish programmes that support a Just Transition to a future with sustainable jobs and decent work in both existing industries and in new and greener ones. 
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ICEM and UNI worked to get reference to fairness, equity, justice, social dialogue, and Global Framework Agreements in the document. 
 
The document, while a compromise, is a significant step forward that will allow further elaboration on these ideas at future Global Compact meetings. In addition, these words will support and strengthen other trade union inputs for Rio+20. 
 
The <a href="http://unglobalcompact.org/docs/news_events/9.1_news_archives/2011_11_1/UNGC_Rio+20_Submission.pdf ">full document</a> can be read here. 
 
The Global Compact was started by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the year 2000 to motivate businesses to work towards a sustainable future and now includes ten principles. 
 
Among the ten are two related to basic human rights, four regarding labour rights (freedom of association/right to collective bargaining; abolition of child labour; elimination of forced and compulsory labour; and elimination of employment discrimination), three on environment (businesses supporting a precautionary approach to environmental challenges; undertaking initiatives for greater environmental responsibility; and to encourage the development and diffusion of environmental friendly technologies), and an anti-corruption principle.

Explicit Trade Union Language Adopted by UN’s Global Compact for Rio+20

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	It was a two-and-a-half-hour high speed drive on chaotic Egyptian roads to travel from 6th of October City, an industrial zone of Cairo, north to El-Mahalla El-Kubra, a large industrial and agricultural city in the middle of the Nile Delta. It is known for its dominant textile industry and is home to the largest public-sector Egyptian textile company, the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company. 
	 
	El-Mahalla El-Kubra is also famous for industrial and political struggle. On 6 April 2008, the city held mass demonstrations protesting the election results of President Hosni Mubarak. The citizenry claimed election fraud and demanded better wages. Security forces were ordered to crackdown on the dissidents.

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	The movement that called for the 25 January 2011 demonstrations adopted the name &ldquo;6th of April&rdquo; in reference to these earlier struggles in Mahallah. On 3 February, last week, the city became the venue for another major trade union event, the first Congress of the Independent Union of Workers in Electricity and Energy. 
	 
	With a membership of 50,000 workers, including both skilled and unskilled workers as well as technicians, the Congress took place after a year of struggle to establish an independent and democratic trade union throughout the country. And democratic it certainly was! 
	 
	Votes were called for every two or three minutes. Proposals, counter proposals and amendments were shouted from the floor with the Congress appeared to be on the verge of chaos constantly. Over 200 delegates crammed into a room that would have been full with only half that number. They travelled from as far as Alexandria to Aswan, with representatives from the state-owned electric power structures of every governate in Egypt said to be present.

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	&ldquo;Long live workers in the Electrical Sector! Long Live their Struggle!&rdquo; was the cry from both the platform and the floor of the hall. As passionate and loud as the Congress was, it was also good humoured and effective. They debated and agreed on a constitution and statutes. 
	 
	Subscriptions were set at three Egyptian Pounds a month, with 10% of income to be sent to the union headquarters, the remaining 90% to remain in the hands of local union structures. All members must have access to the services of the union with no discrimination. There was a lengthy debate on worker control of any major projects or investments the union may make in the future, and no wages or special benefits will be paid to union board members. All Congress delegates were to have the right to full access to the accounts of the union at any time. 
	 
	ICEM Contact Person for the Middle East/North Africa Region, Jim Catterson, attended part of the Congress and spoke at the event. He found the enthusiasm and debate incredible &ndash; it really was the birth of a new organisation. The union confirmed its membership of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), which had itself held its first Congress in Cairo only a week earlier.

Electricity, Energy Workers’ Union Re-Born in Egypt

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Rather than bargain in good faith, Caterpillar&rsquo;s Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) dropped a bombshell 3 February on locked-out Canadian workers: the company announced it was closing its train locomotive plant in London, Ontario. The US-based heavy equipment maker now leaves no doubt that it was playing a vile game of economic blackmail through collective negotiations with the Canadian Auto Workers&rsquo; (CAW) union. 
 
The announced shutdown comes five weeks after Caterpillar&rsquo;s Progress Rail Services, the corporate entity of EMD, locked out 465 CAW Local 27 members after trying to slice their pay to C$16.50-per-hour from C$34 in collective bargaining. EMD also sought to eliminate a defined benefit pension plan and reduce overtime pay and holiday time. 
 
Friday&rsquo;s announcement comes only 18 months after Caterpillar bought the plant and was awarded C$5 million in tax breaks from the Canadian government to promote industrial development. 
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Ken Lewenza
&ldquo;Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant open,&rdquo; said CAW President Ken Lewenza. &ldquo;From day one, we believed that Caterpillar was trying to provoke a crisis, by forcing deep cuts that were not possible.&rdquo; 
 
This sting to Canada&rsquo;s industrial base comes seven days after Caterpillar reported record annual reports of US$4.9 billion in 2011, an 83% jump over 2010 earnings of US$2.7 billion. The closure announcement also came a day before Progress Rail Services was to hold a jobs fair in Muncie, Indiana, where the company opened a similar diesel locomotive plant in October 2011 and is now one-third toward a staffing level of 650. 
 
Average salaries in the start-up Muncie plant range from US$12-16-per-hour. (See prior <a href="/en/27-North-America/4823-CAW-Members-Victimized-in-Lockout-by-Caterpillar-s-Rail-Division">ICEM report</a> on this dispute.) On 1 February, Indiana became the first US state since 2001 to adopt a right-to-work (for less) law, meaning companies and trade unions are forbidden from entering into union security clauses in collective agreements. This means workers have the choice whether or not to pay union fees, yet are entitled to representation if their workplace has union certification. 
 
Caterpillar lobbied the Indiana state legislature ardently for passage and in full likelihood will zealously resist unionisation of the Muncie facility, a former ABB manufacturing site. This comes amidst Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman enjoying 2011 salary and perks of US$10 million, while his company was out to gouge C$30 million from the 465 CAW members in London. 
 
In Caterpillar&rsquo;s announcement to close the 62-year-old Ontario plant, it cited London&rsquo;s cost structure and the fact that assembly of locomotives will be shifted to plants in North and South America. Besides Muncie, EMD operates locomotive diesel plants in Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais state, Brazil; Sahag&uacute;n, Hidalgo state, Mexico; and in the US city of LaGrange, Illinois, where members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) continue to work without a current collective agreement. 
 
The 1 January lockout and forthcoming plant closure in London has been met with complete indifference by the Tory-led Canadian federal government of Stephen Harper, as well as the Liberal Ontario provincial government of Dalton McGuinty. Only three days before the closure announcement and a month into this extortionist lockout, McGuinty urged EMD to return to the bargaining table. &ldquo;So far the owners of Electro-Motive have failed to live up to Ontarians expectations,&rdquo; he said in a speech to the London Chamber of Commerce. 
 
Within days, his words became hollow. The CAW&rsquo;s Lewenza pointed at government inaction and stated these job losses are casualties of an outdated and dysfunctional Investment Canada Act that attaches no commitment between Canadian jobs and corporate takeovers. 
 
&ldquo;The Stephen Harper government is entirely in the pocket of the corporate elite,&rdquo; Lewenza said. &ldquo;I am disgusted at this government and its indifference towards the suffering of workers and the unemployed.&rdquo;

Raging Insult to Final Injury: Caterpillar to Close Canadian Train Locomotive Plant

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From the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation 

In a unanimous vote, the 300-member Central Committee of the International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation (IMF) moved to convene an extraordinary Congress in June 2012 to create a new global union for industrial workers. The action occurred on the second day of the Central Committee&rsquo;s meeting in Jakarta on 8 December. 

The new global union organization will unite workers of metal, mining, chemicals, energy and textile industries, and will bring the IMF together with the ICEM and the International Textile, Garment, Leathers Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF). The new global union, which will represent 50 million workers in 140 countries, will be launched on 18-20 June 2012 in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Introducing the discussion on creation of the new global union, IMF President Berthold Huber said: &ldquo;Many of our members are working in companies that cut across different industrial sectors. We need to bundle up our forces to speak with a single voice of workers in the manufacturing industries.&rdquo;
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Berthold Huber
In a lively debate, delegates expressed hope about building a stronger counter-power to transnational corporations, and more focus and resources for organizing, fighting precarious work and defending trade union rights. Speakers emphasized the need to further improve gender balance in the different structures, including a 30% minimum share of women on statutory bodies and other forums. 

The Central Committee returned the proposal on presidents of IMF&rsquo;s industrial departments back to the Executive Committee in order to find a better gender and north-south balance.

IMF Central Committee Moves on Dissolution, Merger Congresses

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Like past years, the Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada held its bi-annual Women&rsquo;s Conference in the days around National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada on 6 December, the fateful date in 1989 when 14 young women were massacred at &Eacute;cole Polytechnique in Montreal in an anti-feminist rage. 
 
Some 350 women attended the CEP&rsquo;s 9th Women&rsquo;s Conference in Canada&rsquo;s national capital, Ottawa, from 4-6 December. The conference, entitled &ldquo;Imagine,&rdquo; included workshops on cyberstalking, gun registry, and street-proofing as deterrent for crime and violence against women.
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CEP Women&nbsp; 
 

On the morning of the conference&rsquo;s final day, former Governor General of Canada Micha&euml;lle Jean spoke and told of battered women&rsquo;s shelters in Quebec and the urgent need to engage young Canadians on the degradation that violence against women brings on societies. Following her address, delegates marched from the Westin Hotel in Ottawa to Parliament Hill, where a mass demonstration was occurring for gun control in Canada and the National Day of Remembrance of the Montreal Massacre. 
 
&ldquo;The gun control law is a monument erected in the memory of our daughters,&rdquo; said Suzanne Laplante-Edward, mother of Anne-Marie, who was slain at &Eacute;cole Polytechnique by a lone gunman. The CEP&rsquo;s Western Region Administrative Vice President, Wendy Sol, also spoke at the Parliament Hill manifestation. 
 
In an ICEM letter to delegates at the opening of the CEP&rsquo;s Women&rsquo;s Conference, the federation reminded Canadian women that the Montreal Massacre is rightfully marked in global observance of &ldquo;16 Days Against Gender Violence,&rdquo; as designated by the Global Campaign for Human Rights. Those 16 days began on 25 November with the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and continued across World Aids Day (1 December), the Montreal Massacre (6 December), and finally International Human Rights Day (10 December). 
 
The ICEM letter read: &ldquo;With the CEP Women&rsquo;s Conference occurring within these globally recognized 16 days, please tell your delegates that the ICEM is using this time frame and indeed, the entire new year, to remind all that gender equity will remain a major global priority.&rdquo;

CEP Holds 9th Women’s Conference in Ottawa, Canada

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Members of the United Steelworkers Local 207L numbering 1,050 are livid that management of Cooper Tire and Rubber in Findlay, Ohio, broke good-faith negotiations and locked them out on 28 November. They showed their anger on Saturday, 17 December, by manifesting strongly with other state and regional trade unionists in the northern Ohio town. 
 
To be sure, descendants of the founders of the company that gave birth to Cooper Tire are also unhappy with current management over the lockout. In a letter to top executives of America&rsquo;s fourth largest tyre maker on 9 December, Janet Clinger and Lingel Winters wrote that their grandfather &ldquo;Claude Hart adhered to the standards &hellip; believ(ing) that the company had a responsibility for the well-being of not only the shareholders, but the workers and the community.&rdquo; 
 
The <a href="/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4808-Cooper-Tire-and-Rubber-Locks-Out-Steelworkers-at-Ohio-Factory">lockout began</a> after workers rejected a concession-loaded proposal in late November and after the USW requested to continue work and continue bargaining. Cooper&rsquo;s lockout was sudden, unprovoked, and now damaging both to labour relations and workers&rsquo; lives. Within days of the lockout, the company proudly announced it would re-start production with managers and temporary scab workers.
<img alt="" src="" width="75" height="75" />
Lockout: War on Families
Cooper&rsquo;s war on rubber workers at its flagship factory was evident at the 17 December manifestation. USW Local 207L President Rod Nelson lamented misguided managers who weathered the 2008-09 US manufacturing downturn with no small help from workers&rsquo; pay-check concessions, and now return for more economic cuts from workers when profits are good and executive bonuses are back. 
 
&ldquo;Cooper hasn&rsquo;t been fair with us at the bargaining table,&rdquo; said Nelson, refuting a management that has lost touch with the company&rsquo;s founding principles. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t lock people out of their jobs, we work through our problems.&rdquo; 
 
USW Secretary-Treasurer and ICEM Rubber Sector Chairman Stan Johnson told the rally that the union has responded globally and immediately received support from Serbian union Nezavisnost. That came within days of Cooper&rsquo;s 8 December announcement that it would buy early next year a tyre factory from Trayal Korporacija AD near Krusevac, Serbia. 
 
The USW also received an assist from its trans-Atlantic partner Unite the Union in bringing the lockout to the attention of workers at Cooper&rsquo;s Melksham, Wiltshire, UK. Unite has flooded the shop floor of former Avon Tyres Ltd., which Cooper bought in 1997, with leaflets, posters and details of the American lockout.
<img alt="" src="" width="110" height="136" />
Stan Johnson
&ldquo;This lockout is about greed and gluttony,&rdquo; said Johnson at Saturday&rsquo;s rally. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about a shiny new jet (Cooper&rsquo;s new purchase) and it&rsquo;s about multi-million-dollar bonuses.&rdquo; 

It is also about abandoning the traditions of social responsibility, judging from the letter by descendants of founders Claude Hart and John Schaefer. Expressing disappointment, Clinger and Winters wrote, &ldquo;Locking out employees who helped the company during hard times and hiring scab workers to replace them subverts the purpose of collective bargaining. &ldquo; 
 
USW Local 207L and Cooper did return to the table on 13 December in talks supervised by US federal mediator Kevin Moyer. But those negotiations produced no trace of Cooper reconciliation, or rescinding of harsh contract terms. 
 
The stakes will now get higher between the USW and Copper as a contract expires on 20 January 2012 between USW Local 752L in Texarkana, Arkansas, and the Findlay-based company. The 1,500 workers there have voted to give their union committee a mandate to strike if necessary.

Steelworkers in Lockout Manifest against Copper Rubber in US

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On 30 November, the ICEM, International Metalworkers&rsquo; Federation, and the International Textile, Garment, Leathers Workers&rsquo; Federation (ITGLWF) collaborated on an event entitled &ldquo;Cutting Emissions - Transforming Jobs.&rdquo; It was a key part of World of Work side events that were coordinated by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) at COP-17 in Durban, or the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 
 
It has become a tradition for trade unions to hold side events under the World of Work banner at COP meetings since COP-15 in 2009 in Copenhagen. 
 
The three Global Union Federations, speaking for workers in the resource, industrial, processing and other industries, held the event to discuss a sustainable foundation for Just Transition and to develop a common industrial strategy for the future of industrial workers. 
 
The panellists included: Philemon Shiburi, National Treasurer, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA); Arvind Shrouti, Analyst, Option Positive, India; Anne Panneels, Senior Advisor on Sustainable Development, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC); Bob Baugh, Executive Director, Industrial Union Council/AFL-CIO, US; and David Macatha, the National Treasurer of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), South Africa.
<img alt="" src="" width="160" height="138" />
Anne Panneels&nbsp;
All panellists were asked to consider the following points, from their particular regional and sectoral perspective: 
 
Post Kyoto Framework: Could a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol be a solution to avoid a gap in emission reduction commitments and to re-build the legally-binding framework covering all countries in the future negotiation process? 
 
Building a Foundation-Climate Finance: How should the funding be designed/realized to achieve sustainable jobs and a Just Transition? What are the components of a strong financing scheme, e.g. mandatory contributions from governments, Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), levy on maritime transportation &amp; aviation, or other? 
 
Just Transition: What kinds of programmes are needed for industrial workers who are most dramatically affected by the climate change issues? How can both today's and tomorrow's workers benefit from the transformation to a sustainable economy? What support will be needed? 
 
Developing Industrial Strategy: Industrial strategies which aim towards sustainable production, the transformation and enhancement of existing jobs, and the creation of new, greener jobs are needed at local, national, regional and international levels. How could developed and developing countries be engaged to harmonize/develop respective industrial policies? 
 
Union&rsquo;s Role for the Future: How should unions get involved to transform industry and create new, greener jobs be designed and implemented with the full participation?
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="113" />
Each panellist made a thought-provoking presentation. Philemon Shiburi emphasized the importance of a second Kyoto commitment period to Africans. Finance and technology transfer are essential. Existing jobs must be protected alongside new ones as renewable energy is developed. 
 
Arvind Shrouti identified inequalities as a barrier to sustainability and urged strengthened industrial democracy with worker participation in decision-making. Anne Panneels outlined some of the European efforts to design a long-term industrial strategy through social dialogue, for green and decent jobs that includes a Just Transition. 
 
Bob Baugh showed that in the USA many unions are committed to an industrial policy that endorses the concepts of &quot;green job&quot; transformation and creation through deployment of technology and training and education. David Macatha said that nothing can be accomplished without the efforts of workers to demand change, decent work, and a democratic renewal. 
 
The presentations showed that workers globally share a vision of an industrial and social strategy that promotes the transformation of existing jobs to a more sustainable model, as well as the creation of new, sustainable jobs that fulfil the ILO goals of &quot;decent work.&quot; The path towards a sustainable future for both today's and tomorrow's workers is strong investment in technological innovation, and a Just Transition.

COP-17 Union Panel Stresses Sustainable Industry in Climate Change Debate

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On 2 December, representatives of the ICEM Canadian affiliate Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union participated in a discussion on trade union perspectives on the Canadian bituminous sands, or tar sands or oil sands. 
 
Organized by the Cornell Global Labor Institute and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) with the CEP, the session was part of the international trade union World of Work events held at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-17) in Durban, South Africa. 
 
Jim Britton, CEP Western Region Vice-President, introduced the CEP and its membership. The CEP is Canada's energy union.
<img alt="" src="" width="120" height="100" />
Britton explained why the question of the tar sands cannot be separated from the question of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a new pipeline connecting the province of Alberta with US refineries. CEP has been opposed to the Keystone pipeline, and several previous pipeline proposals, for two reasons: the value-added processing of Canada's bitumen should take place in Canada; and the pipelines stand as a symptom of the lack of a sustainable energy policy in Canada, which is desperately needed. 
 
Sadly, these concerns have not found traction with Canada's present Conservative government, nor with the regulatory bodies or courts in Canada. 
 
An intelligent energy policy could ensure a rational continued development of the tar sands, with the creation of high-quality permanent jobs and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Canadians, including those who mine and process bitumen, want adequate regulation that ensures job creation, environmental protection, respects First Nations' rights, a growing economy and reduced risks for business. 
 
This is an area where everyone could win. Instead, Canada is sacrificing energy security and sustainability for short-term and short-sighted profits. It cannot be jobs &quot;or&quot; the environment, it must be both. CEP members expect it and the CEP will fight for it.
<img alt="" src="" width="150" height="132" />
Roland Lefort&nbsp;
Roland Lefort, President of CEP Local 707, representing thousands of oil sands workers, explained that his position was based on CEP policies on energy, the environment, and Just Transition that have been developed over many years and affirmed at successive CEP Conventions. Together, these call on Canada to develop a plan for the sustainable development of the oil sands. 
 
This plan would ensure, among other things: energy security for Canadians; carbon capture and storage for all new tar sands projects; the promotion of energy conservation; a well-funded Just Transition plan for energy workers and energy-dependent regions of the country; a fulfilment of Canada's commitments to stabilize and then cut greenhouse gas emissions. 
 
Oil sands workers in Canada believe in the science of climate change, the rights of aboriginal peoples, and the protection of Canada's resources. Their position is one of sustainable development. It disagrees with the proposition that there are only two positions on the issue of oil sands development &ndash; all or nothing. 
 
The present Canadian government and industry want to extract the oil sands without impediments or controls, while the environmental lobby, which is getting stronger by the day, wants to shut down the oil sands. The CEP believes that there is a position in between, a position of balance, a position for sustainability. 
 
To that effect, the CEP has been working to bring together government, labour, First Nations, and environmentalists to the table to develop the plan on energy as stated in our policies. 
 
Lefort's strong presentation in Durban, backed by his personal credibility as a miner and President of Canada's largest group of unionized oil sands workers, made a huge impact on the audience. 
 
Another panelist was Roger Toussaint of New York City and the Transport Workers&rsquo; Union (TWU). He stated that the issues involved in the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline affected everyone and his union decided it could not be silent on the issue. Instead of uncontrolled development, there is a potential to move towards a lower-carbon and just economy, with the creation of millions of good jobs in renewable energy, mass transportation, energy-efficient buildings, and the like. Toussaint believes that the global labour movement can lead this change and pointed out the forward-looking policies of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) as an example.
<img alt="" src="" width="90" height="106" />
Asking a question from the floor, Anthony Jacobs, Director of National Construction Agreements for the ICEM-affiliated and US-based International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) stated that he understood Lefort's position, but passionately defended his union's support for the Keystone XL pipeline and the potential construction jobs it represented. Lefort said that he accepted and understood the IBB position but hoped that he understood CEP's. 
 
Other considerations in the debate on the Keystone XL pipeline include the US's dependency on foreign oil and the potential mutual economic benefit to Canada and the US. 
 
The event illustrated the value of unions' direct participation in international events such as COP-17. The value of an opportunity to hear directly from those affected is impossible to overstate.

Canada’s Tar Sands, Keystone Pipeline Gets Aired at COP-17

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