| 1. | The Symposium, organized as part of the ILO Workers' Education Programme, was held in Geneva, from 6 to 8 October 1993, and was attended by 22 representatives of trade unions in 22 countries, together with observers from international trade union organizations. The list of participants is appended to the report. | |
| 2. | The meeting was opened by Mr. John Svenningsen, Director of the Bureau for Workers' Activities, who outlined the origins and intentions behind the Symposium and introduced by Mr. David Taylor, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Office. | |
| 3. | Mr. Taylor welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director-General and recalled that the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 had recommended that workers and trade unions should be more directly involved in the adjustments and opportunities that arise from the implementation of development efforts. It was also recommended that the UN system should extend its environmental training and support activities to workers' organizations. In that context, the ILO was well placed to support its constituents so that they themselves could deal directly with environmental and related development goals. In fact, the ILO had been actively engaged in this field for many years. | |
| 4. | In conclusion, Mr. Taylor referred to the Workers' Activities Programme, and its endeavours to strengthen the participation of workers and trade unions in the promotion of local, national and international strategies and policies on environment and economic achievement. It was hoped that the symposium would be able to define priority areas for the ILO Workers' Education Programme in environmental protection. | |
| 5. | The meeting then elected the following officers: | |
| Chairman: Vice-chairmen: |
Mr. Freden (Sweden)
Mr. Asper (Philippines) |
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| 6. | At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr. Querenghi, Chief of the Workers' Education Branch, explained the precise objective of the meeting: to enable the participants to exchange information and opinions on workers' education and environment, and to offer suggestions and advice concerning the future work of the ILO in this field. | |
| 7. | Mr. Querenghi informed the meeting that the ILO had long been active in the various aspects of the environment. These had received encouragement and impetus from recent developments, such as the United Nations conferences in Stockholm (1972), Rio de Janeiro (1992), and the Brundtland Commission, whose report on Environment and Development in 1987 had contributed greatly to international debate. The Workers' Education Branch was now in the process of developing new programmes, and looked forward to receiving specific comments and suggestions for future activities. | |
| 8. | The Chairman then invited Mr. Larry Kohler, Manager of the Interdepartmental Project on Environment and the World of Work, to introduce this project. | |
| 9. | Mr. Kohler briefly outlined the background, beginning with the preoccupation of the ILO since 1919 with the working environment. Following the Stockholm Conference of 1972, the Brundtland Report in 1987, and the Director-General's Report on "Environment and World of Work" (1990), the ILO had embarked on a wide programme of activities, aimed, inter alia, at involving trade unions in the active promotion of change. The UNCED Conference held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 had given a further impetus to this trend. | |
| 10. | He indicated that although it was difficult to define priorities, taking into account north-south, urban-rural distinctions, the project could nevertheless identify the following concerns in: | |
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Working environment. Ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions, and in particular the Chemicals Convention, 1990 (No. 170); production of materials and programmes in small enterprises and the informal sector; information exchanges; risk reduction. | |
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Employment. Promotion of research, and advice on the transition to an environmentally sound future; poverty alleviation; ratification and implementation of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169). | |
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Cooperative activities. Encouragement of tripartite cooperation. | |
| 11. | Following the discussion of this presentation, the background paper,' "The practical role of trade union in improving environmental protection and sustainable development" was introduced by its author, Mrs A. Rice. This was a comprehensive survey of the subject, covering a wide range of environmental problems, from pollution to poverty, and underlining the importance of trade union action in respect of environment and sustainable development problems, employment promotion and workers' rights. | |
| 12. | In the discussion, participants reported on trade union experience in their own countries - one of the principal objectives of the meeting. They referred to problems which they had encountered, and steps taken to deal with them, and also to successful initiatives in relation to collective agreements, legislation to protect workers, and cooperative action with non-governmental organizations concerned with the environment. | |
| 13. | The Symposium was then addressed by Mr. William Brett, Worker Vice-Chairman of the Governing Body. Mr. Brett emphasized that the workers are the best protectors of the environment. Their concerns go far beyond the protection of the working environment. They want sustainable jobs, the right to participate in environmental decisions, the application of all the relevant ILO standards, and the opportunity to influence international bodies such as the IMF and the World Bank, whose decisions have considerable influence on the lives of workers and their families. | |
| 14. | Trade unions have an important task, to educate their own members. Some workers appear to attach little importance to their own health and safety, as long as wages are sufficiently high. It is not sufficiently appreciated that sustainable job opportunities exist in industries producing pollution control and prevention equipment. For all these reasons, Mr. Brett argued that the ILO should strengthen and extend the facilities it provides for workers' education. | |
| 15. | This address was greatly appreciated by the participants, who contributed to the lively discussion which followed. It became clear that much of what Mr. Brett had been advocating had been successfully promoted by trade unions in certain countries; for example, joint action with "environmental" NGOs, the protection of the interests of indigenous people and women, the halting of uranium mining and the education of the workers. In conclusion, Mr. Brett suggested that a useful motto for the ILO would be "People matter!" | |
| 16. | A panel discussion was led by three participants in the meeting: Ms. E.M. Osmundsen, Mr. D. Bennett, and Mrs. I. Saxena, respectively from Norway, Canada and India. Ms. Osmundsen stressed the connection between environmental protection and sustainable development, and the opportunity to promote Agenda 21, adopted by UNCED in 1992, which advocated the active participation of trade unions in plans in these two fields. In order to be able to use this opportunity, trade unions must ensure that they have clear and specific policies which they must seek to enforce in a tripartite context, and should form coalitions whenever possible with like-minded organizations. | |
| 17. | Mr. Bennett outlined the education programme of his own organization, the Canadian Labour Congress. This included one-week courses, the production of a video, and the production of educational materials. The CLC defended the right of workers to refuse to carry out work which they knew would be environmentally unfriendly or dangerous, and to call attention to plants and processes which produce unacceptable levels of pollution. The CLC sought to convince workers that, although environmental measures might cause loss of jobs initially, in the long run more workers would be employed in non-polluting industries. | |
| 18. | Mrs. Saxena described some of the pro-environmental initiatives taken by trade unions in India. They had successfully opposed the pollution of the water supply adjacent to a steel mill; supported the transport workers who were required to handle hazardous substances, and promoted public awareness of environmental dangers. Also on the positive side, they had helped to encourage the use of non-polluting materials and processes in the production of household goods; for example, using banana leaves instead of plastic. She paid a tribute to the women workers, who had played a leading role in all these activities. | |
| 19. | A number of useful points were made in the discussion of the panel's opening remarks. It was suggested that education and training should not be confined to trade union members, but should be extended to non-members; that the ILO should convene meetings with the international sectoral workers' organizations, which had extensive knowledge of polluting industries such as the metal, paper and chemical industries; and that trade unions should promote their own environmental role, and work closely with the environmental groups. The view was expressed that one of the most important tasks for the ILO was to promote to the fullest possible extent the use of tripartite bodies at national level. | |
| 20. | The next subject for discussion, "Priority areas on which the ILO Workers Education Programme should focus in the field of environment protection and sustainable development" was introduced by Mr. A.L. Diallo (ILO). He outlined the means of action available : seminars and courses, manuals, audip-visual materials and scholarships. Standard setting would receive priority, but trade unions would also be encouraged to play a more active part in the application of standards. The ILO would seek the co-operation of other UN agencies, such as WHO and FAO, and would try to ensure that environmental and sustainable development issues formed part of all training courses. Special attention would be given to the most urgent problems, such as desertification, where the workers' survival was endangered. | |
| 21. | Participants requested that the ILO should also give priority to follow-up, so that contact was maintained with those who had participated in seminars and courses; that education should include sessions on environmental legislation. | |
| 22. | Ms. Osmundsen led a discussion on a project supported by the government of Norway and in the first part of which she had played a leading role. Copies were distributed of a set of booklets, produced in close co-operation with trade unionists in Asia the Caribbean and Southern Africa. Ms. Osmundsen explained the scope of the booklets, which covered the following subjects: Workers and Environment, the Workplace and the Environment, the Community and Environment, World Environmental Issues; and the New Bargaining Agenda. They were produced with the help of trade unions in the areas concerned, and it seemed to Ms. Osmundsen that, judging from this experience, trade unionists in developing countries are equally concerned about the environment and sustainable development as their fellow-unionists in the industrialized countries. The first part of the project had undoubtedly been successful, and consideration was now being given to evaluating the results and learning lessons for the future. | |
| 23. | A number of suggestions were made from the floor. One speaker felt that unions should be helped to produce their our educational aids, rather than being given ready-made material which might not be locally suitable. Many speakers congratulated the sponsors on a successful project, while making suggestions about detail, such as the preparation of loose-leaf booklets, which could be easily amended. | |
| 24. | The last presentation, concerning a global study on Labour Inspection and Environmental Control, was given by Mr. K. Palm (ILO) who called attention to the importance of labour inspection, which had implications for the general as well as the working environment. One difficulty was that some countries did not have a general definition of the environment. Where countries had set up a Ministry of Environment, some had no powers of legal enforcement. Efforts had to be made to link labour inspection with inspection of the environment. The connections were obvious to the workers, who could see for themselves the dangers of pollution in the surrounding areas, where they lived. It was necessary to change the general public attitudes to the protection of the working and the general environment. This called for public education as well as trade union education. | |
| 25. | In the brief discussion which followed, several participants called attention to the need for more effective labour inspection and some argued that more transparency in labour inspection can only be introduced through effective tripartite action. It was also pointed out that rural workers were subject to many disadvantages, not least the fact that their places of work received fewer inspections than industrial plants, and in some cases they were never visited at all. | |
| 26. | At the end of this three-day meeting, which several participants considered to be too short to deal adequately with such a broad range of subjects, the following set of conclusions was adopted. | |
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