Trade union action on Sustainable Development: from right to
information to collective bargaining
Today more than ever, we are suffering from the multiple dimensions of the global crisis. On
one side is the serious economic crisis, the most severe impact of which has been on
employment, is reflected in the need to create 600 million jobs in the next decade. 80 percent of
the world's population earns less than the equivalent of 10 USD a day in the US, and 40 percent
earns less than the equivalent of 2 USD a day (just enough not to starve). In the background
looms the environmental crisis that has, among its protagonists, climate change and the loss of
biodiversity: up to two thirds of species are in the danger of becoming extinct.
And in this context of scarce salaries and increasingly growing challenges the deregulation
pressures on the world of work are extremely important; millions of workers fall outside the
systems of collective bargaining, and others are in those where collective bargaining is reduced
to only covering wage settlements, without including other important aspects of working
conditions.
The international trade union movement is aware of these challenges and of the fact that a lack
of progress in addressing them comes from the absence of a coordinated response to social,
environmental and economic problems.
We need a new paradigm where economic prosperity and well-being come along with a fair and
sustainable distribution of natural resources; where freedom and the respect for human and
labour rights, gender equality and the full enjoyment of economic social and cultural
development are guaranteed, and they match the world's ecosystem's carrying capacity. The
mechanisms to achieve such an outcome are crucial. Trade unions are convinced that for
democracy to become a reality, it should also be real at the workplace, meaning that workers
become informed protagonists who form part of the process and contribute to the alternatives.
Green and decent jobs not only include calling for the best working conditions, they also signify
recognizing workers´ participation as an essential element for fulfilling the objectives of a
sustainable economy.
Diverse country experiences show that trade union action and collective bargaining at different
levels, has the potential to speed up and deepen the transition towards sustainable
development.
Citizens’ and workers' rights to information and participation
Workers face environmental challenges in their dual capacity as main production actors and as
citizens, affected by the environmental impact of economic activity.
Principle 10 of Rio's Declaration states that:
“Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the
relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information
concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on
hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in
decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and
participation by making information widely available.
Effective access to judicial and
administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided”.
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Consequently, Principle 10 rests upon three main pillars:
1. The access to environmental information, as it plays an essential role on society's
environmental education and awareness, making it an indispensable tool in order to
knowledgeably take part in public affairs. This right has two dimensions: the right to find
and obtain information held by public authorities, and the right to receive
environmentally relevant information from those public authorities in charge of gathering
and disseminating it, without the need to request it in advance.
2. Citizens' participation in the decision making process, that extends to the three main
areas of public activity: the authorisation of certain activities, the approval of plans and
programmes, and the drawing-up of regulations of legal or ordinance nature.
3. The right to access to justice, aimed at guaranteeing citizens' access to the courts to
revise governments' decisions that may have potentially infringed upon citizens'
environmental democracy rights.
Unfortunately, these rights, as outlined in the Rio Declaration, have not been brought into
practice. Many countries are not willing to commit further to their implementation although
others, such as the European Union and a growing number of Latin American governments, are
advancing through regional or national regulations.
These principles are even further away from being implemented in the workplace. This has two
negative effects: on the one side, it reinforces workers' vulnerability, who remain ignorant of the
risks they face in their workplaces; on the other side, it reduces the chances to actively change
the modes of production.
Collective bargaining for sustainable development
In order to advance towards a sustainable development, decision-making must be democratic at
every level, including at the workplace. Collective bargaining is fundamental to ensure firms'
economic and social sustainability, guaranteeing better working conditions and decent salaries.
Although collective bargaining is traditionally focused on wages and working hours, more and
more qualitative elements such as training, working conditions, pensions, occupational health,
hazardous materials, or environmental risks, are beginning to form part of it.
Economic, industrial and service activities are responsible for the majority of environmental
impacts. For this reason they are subject to a large number of regulations aimed at keeping
their environmental performance in check. This makes environmental management in the
workplace a main necessity as well as a condition for the viability of many companies in the
long run.
Trade unions have shown a readiness to expand their scope and they recognise the limits of
material and resource exploitation. Environmental issues have become a major topic in trade
union strategies, and trade unions have frequently been the ones to demand a rebalancing of
market and capital-based approaches through the consideration of social and environmental
aspects. Trade unions as long-term counteragents of capital, are precisely in the right position
to address issues linked to a new externality - environmental resources 1. In that respect,
collective bargaining may be the key to sustainability
In this context, provided that workers' rights are respected, collective bargaining could play a
role in the following areas:

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Workers' participation: For companies to be able to carry out an efficient, integrated and
environmentally adequate management (sustainable), to adapt to the necessary
How trade unions cope with the Challenger of the green transformation in Europe. Bela Gaglczi, ETUI
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
changes, and to fulfil requirements set out in environmental regulation as well as in
other instruments (voluntary agreements, environmental management systems, etc.),
and.
Workers, their representatives and trade unions' will and commitment, to take part in,
and to cooperate with the company to achieve an efficient, integrated and
environmentally sustainable management, and to reach its goals.
The purposes of collective bargaining for sustainable development are:
To make up for the absence of specific regulation to adequately rule labour relations
concerning environmental or social matters, and to establish appropriate rights and
duties within their sphere of action.
To turn implicit rights and duties into explicit ones in the environmental context of the
company.
To develop more elaborate and concrete forms of environmental and social commitments
from employers and workers, within the scope of the company or industrial sectors.
These three aspects could not only play a major role in reducing the social impact and
environmental footprint of workplaces, but also in preparing economic sectors and their workers
for the transition towards sustainability, therefore generating information on the consequences
of environmental regulations on employment, and skills programmes for future job-relocation,
just to mention a few. The next big restructuring will be associated with this transition to a
resource-efficient and low-carbon economy, and collective bargaining will be a fundamental tool
for making this process a fair one.
Unions' commitment to advancing Sustainable Development through collective
bargaining
Already back in 1992, at the Rio Summit, trade unions' role in advancing sustainable
development and the role that collective bargaining could play in achieving this objective were
recognised. 20 years have passed since then and there has been a variety of experiences that
make us confident of trade unions' capacity to achieve more sustainable companies:
We call on employers to:
1. Make their businesses fully accountable for the social and environmental impacts of
their economic actions.
2. Be aware of workers' capacity to improve the environmental and social sustainability of
their companies.
3. Drive the prevention and minimization of environmental and social impacts within the
company.
4. Propel the introduction of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) to allow for companies
to improve their environmental behaviour.
5. Maintain and improve employment and the quality of working conditions.
6. Enhance dialogue with trade unions in firms.
As workers, we commit to:
1. Demand a more systematic access to information on environmental and social impacts
in every company. Every firm keeps a registry of its interactions with the environment.
Demanding access to this information is a first step forward which has to be
accompanied by a formal cooperation proposal to improve the company's interaction
with the environment.
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2. Incorporate environmental and social issues within our proposals for collective
agreements and call for the appointment of focal points by the company and by
workers.
3. Raise awareness on and the profile of environmental authorisation procedures.
4. Demand workers' participation in the establishment and functioning of Environmental
Systems' Management
5. Disseminate best practices on these experiences among trade unions.
Demands of the international trade union movement
The trade union movement considers progress made on collective bargaining as a key means
to move from general agreements to more concrete commitments such as the recognition of
environment workplace rights and the holding of responsibilities, as an essential part of the
production system. In that sense, it is of fundamental importance to establish who holds these
rights and what are their functions, as well as to determine the framework for collective
bargaining in both collective and voluntary agreements.
The Just Transition framework towards a new production model, such as the one being
promoted by trade unions, is a key element to ensure long term-planning, and to achieve decent
work for all. It implies significant improvements in wages, gender equality, working time, health
and safety, occupation training, among others, that will contribute to making the economy more
sustainable. Collective bargaining can contribute to fulfilling these objectives. Collective
bargaining could expedite this process, given that a series of conditions are met:
 The promotion of labour and trade union rights
 The launch of a process to adopt a global convention on Principle 10
 The translation of this convention to the workplace where the following rights are
guaranteed: right to information, right to participate, right to refuse dangerous work or
right to refuse work that harms the environment.
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