Green Party Autumn Conference 2022 fringe event on Friday 30 September at 3.15pm, in Queens Suite 7 and online.

As the cost-of-living bites across Europe and trade union disputes spread like wildfire, could renewed agency for workers help break climate politics open and deliver a just transition?

Join the Trade Union Group in attending this Green Party Autumn Conference 2022 fringe event, hosted by Green European Foundation and Green House Think Tank.

Speakers include:

• Matthew Hull, newly elected Trade Union Liaison Officer on the Green Party Executive
• Anne Chapman, former co-chair of Green House Think Tank
• Robert Magowan, author of the aviation chapter in A European Just Transition for a Better World
• And many more!

The event will be chaired by Gina Dowding, former Green Party MEP for North West England.

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Green Party Conference meeting at 9am on Sunday 2 October, open to all Conference attendees online and in-person. The meeting will be in Queens Suite 7.

Join the Green Party Trade Union Group at Autumn Conference 2022, as we hear from councillors how they have used their positions to support workers in struggle.

We’ll hear contributions from:

• Zoe Garbett (Hackney councillor)
• Lucy Pegg (Oxford city councillor)
• Jo Bird (Wirral councillor)

The event will be chaired by Chris Jarvis (Oxford city councillor). There will then be space for discussion on the topic. All welcome!

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On Monday 10 October, the Free Our Unions campaign and Earth Strike/Empower the Unions are holding an assembly and protest at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London to oppose the threat of new anti-trade union laws that Liz Truss, in the context of the strike wave, has signalled as one of her top priorities.

The Green Party Trade Union Group is supporting the call to demonstrate, and encourages all members and supporters to attend and make their voices heard.

The campaigns are also demanding the scrapping of all existing anti-union laws and their replacement with strong workers’ rights. We demand the right to strike and picket freely, including in solidarity with other workers and over political issues like the climate crisis.

As various voices across the trade union movement have noted, new and existing anti-union laws prevent us from legally taking strike action on issues relating to social and environmental issues. We need to empower our union to challenge and abolish these laws or break them.

For more information or to add your support to the protest email freeourunions@gmail.com

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This article was first published by Green World on Thursday 11th August 2022. You can read the original here.

By Ben Gladwin

The July heatwave broke the record for being the hottest temperatures ever experienced in Britain. With temperatures having reached 40.2 degrees in Heathrow London, people were confronted with heat that was debilitating, dangerous, and even potentially deadly. Climate scientists have long predicted that Britain will experience more intense and frequent hot summers. In the immediate aftermath of the July 2022 heat wave they stated that, due to current models for climate change, the UK can no longer be considered a cold country, recommending that the Government set out a plan to adapt to the new reality of extreme heat. Despite this, our workplaces are still lacking when it comes to providing conducive and safe conditions for UK workers. 

The impact of the July heat wave on schools gives us an insight into how the increasing intensity of summer temperatures affects different workers in a close environment. Schools employ more than teachers; site management, caters, educational assistants and even construction workers are all part of the daily running of schools. Classrooms are spaces which can be quite confined, with up to 30 or more students plus education staff. In hot weather, and if they lack ventilation, classroom temperatures can reach high temperatures with consequences for students and staff. More than that, school catering staff working with hot implements can also add to the pressure of working in heat, and site management workers in outdoor settings also run a risk of exposure to heat and sun.

During the heat wave in July, head teachers and the National Education Union sent a warning to the Department for Education that many school buildings across the country weren’t fit for purpose for working in extreme temperatures due to lack of air conditioning and poor ventilation. 

Given the lack of existing framework, schools were left to their own discretion as to what measures to take such as stopping physical activities such as sports days, providing water for staff and students, and even school closures. For the schools that stayed open, the government inspection body Ofsted announced that inspections would still take place for schools scheduled for an inspection, which even at times of ‘normal’ temperatures add to the stress and workload of school staff. To be inspected in 40-degree heat puts schools under even greater pressure. Although Ofsted stated that schools could request to defer inspections, these requests would be considered they would not be deferred for certain.

All this left schools with a confusing framework with which to decide how to adapt to the heat wave. Some schools closed – the Telegraph reported 200 schools nationally – while others remained open. Perhaps predictably, student attendance dropped with roughly one-third of pupils not attending school. The impact of this on lessons and teachers’ planning would be to add stress as planning for a lesson for 30 pupils, and then only having half turn up means that activities need changing and the lesson needs adapting. 

Consideration needs to be taken too for pupils’ learning if they remain at home during extreme weather events. The pandemic saw schools close and online learning become a substitute for learning in the classroom – this is very difficult to adapt for short-term situations such as heat waves.     

Issues therefore arise around protection for workers in extreme weather – this is crucial, as various health problems can arise if people are exposed to heat for too long. Dizziness, fainting, confusion, and if blood temperature exceeds 39 degrees, there is a high risk of heat stroke. Given the increasing evidence that Britain will experience more extreme and more frequent heatwaves, it would seem logical that the Government puts in place a framework for adapting workplaces. 

Countries within the EU have taken measures – Germany has a defined maximum temperature of 26 degrees whereby the employer must take action such as providing drinking water, although this is not enshrined in law. Depending on the federal state in Germany, schools can close due to hot temperatures – called Hitzefrei, which translates as ‘heat free’ – but this is down to the discretion of the school. Spain has a legal requirement of physical work between 14 and 25 degrees, which, if not met by the employer, can lead to an official complaint by the workforce to the Labour and Security Inspection.

Currently, very few legal frameworks exist in the UK beyond the Government Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Workplace Regulations of 1992. The regulations state that workplace temperatures must be ‘reasonable’, without stating what a maximum temperature would be. Employers are also not legally obliged to send workers home if the workplace is too hot. The Government’s own website recommends a minimum temperature in the workplace where employees are engaged in physical work.

As the example of schools shows, workers will be faced with increasing temperatures and more extreme heat in the summer in the coming decades. Our current legislative framework doesn’t cover the reality of working in a world where summer temperatures can reach the mid to high 30s and, even as we saw in July, low 40s. 

Action needs to be taken to ensure that workers are safe to work in environments which are conducive to such extremes. This needs to include ventilation in areas such as classrooms, as well as a legal maximum temperature beyond which it is no longer considered reasonable to work. The TUC has already called for measures to be taken, but it is up to workers to organise if they want to protect themselves in an age of climate extremes.

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The Green Party Trade Union Group is calling on all Greens to vote for pro-worker, pro-union motions to be heard at the Green Party’s Autumn Conference in October.

Between Friday 12th August and Friday 26th August, Green Party members will vote in a prioritisation ballot to decide the order in which motions are heard at the Autumn Conference.

The Green Party Trade Union Group is asking Greens to prioritise the following four motions by ranking them highly in the ballot:

• E01 £15 Minimum Wage
• E04 Amending Crime and Justice Policies
• E22 Stating Opposition to Anti-Union and Anti-Strike Laws
• E23 Supporting Workers Taking Strike Action

In addition, the Group is calling on Greens to de-prioritise the following two motions, by ranking them low in the ballot and by using all ballot preferences:

• D05 Changes to GPEx
• D13 Pathfinder

The two motions seek to make changes to the Green Party’s constitution, which would result in the Trade Union Liaison Officer position on the Executive being removed – and replaced with nothing.

The Group has produced a detailed briefing on the motions and our position, which members can read by clicking here.

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The Green Party Trade Union Group is calling on members to oppose motions to Green Party Autumn Conference 2022 which would remove the position of Trade Union Liaison Officer from the Party’s structures – replacing it with nothing.

The proposed changes envisage trade union liaison work being a ‘collective responsibility’ of the new Executive, to includes seven elected ordinary members.

The Trade Union Group has argued this move is unrealistic, would jeopardise future trade union links and would result in liaison work being neglected at a time when links with the labour movement are increasingly essential to the party’ political voice.

The Group has written a detailed briefing outlining its concerns surrounding motions D05 Changes to GPEx and D13 Pathfinder. Members can view it by clicking here.

The Group is calling on Green Party members to:

• Rank motions D05 Changes to GPEx and D13 Pathfinder below other motions on the prioritisation ballot
• Use ALL prioritisation preferences in the prioritisation ballot
• Oppose D05 Changes to GPEx if heard at Autumn Conference 2022
• Support GPTU amendments to these motions
• Support a GPTU late motion to launch a review of the representation of the trade union movement in party structures

The prioritisation ballot for Green Party Autumn Conference 2022 opens on Friday 12th August and closes on Friday 26th August. Voting details will be sent to party members by email.

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The campaign group Free Our Unions is holding an open organising meeting online on Wednesday 3 August at 7pm.

The meeting has been called in response to proposals made by Liz Truss – a candidate for the Conservative Party leadership – for more and increasingly restrictive anti-union and anti-strike laws.

Free Our Unions has consistently supported unions and political parties to campaign against anti-union laws as a matter of urgency. Most trade unions have policy on their books opposing existing and proposed anti-unions laws. This formal policy, however, fast needs to become united action coordinated by the labour movement on a national level.

All trade unionists are warmly invited to join this urgent call, where supporters will discuss and decide upon action to spur our unions into action against this dangerous threat.

Click here to find details of how to join the meeting on Free Our Unions’ website.

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The Green Party Trade Union Group has noted the decision by the Labour Party leadership to sack Sam Tarry MP, their former shadow Transport Minister, following his appearance on an RMT picket line.

This is a disgraceful move by Keir Starmer’s Labour, that shows he is more willing to crack down on trade union solidarity in his own ranks than he is to crack down on the Tories.

The irony of dismissing someone from post for taking part in trade union activity appears to be lost on Keir Starmer. This is behaviour we expect from the worst of bosses, not someone who claims to lead the labour movement.

This episode provides yet more evidence that the Labour Party leadership is incapable of standing up for working people. The cost-of-living emergency is tearing up our collective living standards, and people will suffer and die as a result. Workers and the trade union movement need strong, consistent political leadership that understands the importance of collective action.

Labour’s diet of platitudes and posturing will not address the crisis. Only empowering workers to take on employers and the Government to demand better pay and conditions through their unions will do that.

If Labour will not provide the independent political leadership workers need, the Green Party will.

The Greens have been consistently supportive of RMT and CWU strike action to demand better pay and conditions. We support all workers taking strike action to defend our collective living standards in this crisis.

We urge trade unionists and socialists to join the Green Party and be in a party that understands solidarity and the importance of workplace collective action.

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The Green Party Trade Union Group welcomed candidates at 7pm on Monday 18th July for our online hustings for the Deputy Leader of the Green Party!

What is their vision for the party’s relationship with trade unions? What is their offer to workers? How will the party support workers to build power under their Deputy Leadership?

Watch how they responded on Facebook here and on YouTube here.

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Join us at 7pm on Monday 25th July for a panel event and discussion – Trade Union Strategies in 2022! This event is open to all.

The summer of 2022 is shaping up to be a summer of strike action, with dozens of unions in large sectors of the economy already in dispute. Amid strikes on the railways, and with other professions balloting for industrial action, we’re hoping 2022 will be a year of revival for the labour movement.

But what is behind this surge in industrial action and how can trade unionists help turn it into a strike wave? What tactics and strategies are union leaders – from general secretaries to shop-floor reps – using to build their power? What can we learn from all this?

To comment on these questions and lead a wide and varied discussion, we welcome as panellists:

• Eve Livingston – freelance journalist, writer on industrial relations and author of Make Bosses Pay: Why We Need Unions from Pluto Press
• Emiliano Mellino – journalist at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, organiser and author of the indispensable The Week in Work e-newsletter
• Robert Maisey – Policy and Campaigns Support Officer at the TUC, and formerly Policy Officer at the RMT
• Rhian Keyse – UCU NEC member and Chair of the UCU Anti-casualisation committee

We’ll hear from each speaker before opening up the discussion to questions from the floor.

Register now to attend and take part!

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