Trade union network tackles air pollution

Air pollution is an occupational health, as well as a public health, emergency, according to the new Trade Union Clean Air Network (TUCAN). 


Launched by the Hazards Campaign, Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) and education unions the NEU and the UCU last month, the network is developing a charter to provide a framework for unions to campaign on this issue. 


“Decent work means being able to breathe clean air at work and on the way to work, in homes and in communities,” said Hazards Campaign spokesperson Janet Newsham. 


Over 40,000 people die in the UK where the air they breathe is a contributory factor, and a significant cause of the pollution is work and travel to work. 


But according to GJA secretary Graham Petersen: “Workers are a forgotten group when it comes to air pollution.” 


He said there is little acknowledgement of the role of work and the impact on workers in most government and local authority clean air policies, while government strategy is essentially “kicking the can down the road by delaying vital measures or passing it over to local authorities to sort out”.


TUCAN aims to change this by bringing workers’ voices into the public debate on air pollution. 


Its charter will provide a set of demands for unions to prioritise in campaigns at local, regional, national and international level and will support the development of new resources for union reps.

http://www.greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GJA-TU-Clean-Air-Charter-EMAIL.pdf