Here’s the video of Ian Allinson’s introduction to a discussion on organising in the workplace that we held on 25th June 2021. Ian is a former Fujitsu shop steward who ran as a candidate for the Unite union general secretary in the last election.
One of the key issues we heard from oil and gas workers in Offshore was the high cost of training, borne by workers as more and more are forced into short-term contracts, posed a barrier to moving easily between similar offshore jobs in renewables as well as oil and gas.
This new survey shows that these workers are paying an average of over £1,800 a year in training costs, and among more results that:
97% are concerned about the UK’s offshore energy industry training costs
74.5% are employed ad-hoc as contractors
65% said their employer contributed 0% to their training costs including safety and first aid training in the past two years, which is up from 45% before 2015
94% of respondents said they would support an offshore passport, which licences accredited workers to work offshore in any sector through a cross-industry minimum training requirement.
2) Written responses from Drax to environmental campaigners during Drax’s BECCS public consultation in March which reveal that Drax’s “BECCS assumptions are not based on trials” & its BECCS pilot project with C-Capture was not using ‘proven technology’: https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2021/drax-beccs-response/
There is a growing network of campaigns for a Green New Deal in the United States. This is an example from a newly established campaign in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. They are keen to get feedback from the wider network in the US and internationally.
Scot.E3 has signed up to a statement on the G7 summit that is taking place in Cornwall between the 11th – 13th of June. Please follow the link and add your name and if possible get your organisation to sign too.
G7 the world is watching
The countries meeting at the G7 in Cornwall between June 11th -13th comprise just 10% of the world’s population but hold 62% of the world’s wealth and spend more on their militaries than the rest of the world put together.
They are responsible for
– the lions share of historical carbon emissions
– and are still investing over $100 billion a year into coal, gas and oil.
If the world is to avoid catastrophic climate breakdown the G7 meeting needs not only to commit to
– single mindedly going flat out for domestic transition to sustainability, but also to
– stop financing and subsidising fossil fuels and
– pay its dues to the international community; including the $100 billion a year pledged at Copenhagen for the developing world to cope both with immediate climate impacts and to develop without fossil fuels and
– seek global co-operation not conflict.
Claims to “global leadership” will be judged the world over against these benchmarks.
Scot.E3 is also part of the Edinburgh COP 26 Coalition which is organising for a solidarity rally at the Scottish Parliament at 11am on Saturday 12th June
Thanks to the People and Nature blog for alerting us to this excellent short video which sums up many of the reasons why the hype that surrounds hydrogen is so misguided. You can find links to a couple of longer articles on this issue on our ‘further reading‘ page and to blog posts here and here.
Employment, Energy and Environment 