Tag: sustainability

Solidarity with shipyard workers in North Devon

Reposted from REEL News

Huge demonstration in Bideford, North Devon this weekend, to stop the only merchant shipyard in the country from closing. All 200 workers are facing redundancy a few days before Christmas, and the knock-on effect for the local economy will be huge. And this shows the lunacy of modern capitalism – the Government urgently needs non-military ships built for the Royal Navy, but instead of giving the work to the highly skilled workforce at Appledore shipyard and keeping the shipyard open, they’re putting it internationally to competitive tender to get the lowest price.

On top of that, the Tories know they need to take drastic steps to move to renewable energy to stop catastrophic climate change – so why aren’t they immediately giving Appledore a contract to build all the offshore wind turbines and other infrastructure we’re going to desperately need, and instead pushing ahead with a dangerous fracking operation that is already causing tremors and will push up our carbon emissions?

This is also one of the few places left with a proper apprenticeship scheme, training up the highly skilled workers of the future – but the Tories and engineering multinational Babcock International want to just chuck all this in the bin in their race to the bottom.
This is a major dispute kicking off with national importance – get behind the Appledore workers and demand the shipyard stays open. You can start by signing the petition at https://www.change.org/p/save-appledore-shipyard before they and it in to Parliament tomorrow.

 

Conference

Just Transitions: Employment, Energy and Environment

A one day conference on Saturday 17 November

The aim of the conference is to bring together rank and file trade unionists, and climate activists to debate and discuss the transition to a sustainable economy. The focus is on jobs, energy and the environment.   Contributors include Joe Pisani (Unite steward Balfour Beattie, Rosyth Dockyard and Unite Executive), Jonathan Neale (Campaign Against Climate change and coauthor of the Million Climate Jobs pamphlet), Andrew Feinstein (author, filmmaker and CAAT), Fliss Premu (REEL news) and Hazel Graham (Cumbrian climate activist). The agenda will cover climate change, transitions, job creation and defence divestment.

Sign up for the conference on Eventbrite

If you would like to book one or more children into the creche please email Zareen at tajzareenok@gmail.com with the names and ages of the children.  To ensure that we have sufficient creche workers bookings for the creche will close on 12th November.

If you are a member of an organisation that could sponsor the conference download the invitation letter here

You can download a poster/flyer to advertise the conference here

conference flyer.

 

Film showing at Edinburgh World Justice Festival

2018-07-19 08.57.05Just Transitions: Employment, Energy and Environment

Friday 12th October, 7.30pm Augustine United Church, George 4th Bridge, Edinburgh

Showing of the REEL News film, Just Transitions, followed by discussion

 

Nuclear – no thanks

The latest ScotE3 briefing looks at the uncertain contribution that Scotland’s two ageing nuclear reactors make to energy supply, argues that nuclear has no place in a sustainable energy policy and that immediate steps should be taken to invest in alternatives.  Download the bulletin here.

Bulletin 6 screen shot

Three new briefings available

With the addition of numbers 3 – 5 we now have 5 briefing sheets available – all downloadable from this site.

#1 INEOS and fracking

#2 BiFab shows prospects and pitfalls facing Scotland’s renewables energy new age

#3 Time for action

#4 Trident & Jobs

#5 Deindustrialisation and Diversification

What kind of expertise is needed for low energy construction?

Thanks to Craig from the PCS union’s Green Forum for highlighting this paper.  It looks at the skills that are required for a serious shift to low energy construction.  It argues that a new curriculum is required for vocational training and that a low carbon future for construction requires a radical transition pathway rather than market-based solutions.  You can read or download the paper here.

BiFab shows prospects and pitfalls facing a new age of renewable energy

The second SCOT.E3 bulletin looks at BiFab, renewables and the prospects for moving towards secure employment in the fabrication sector.  You can download the bulletin (2 sides A4) here.  Or contact us to order hard copies.  The image shows page 1 of the briefing.

Briefing 2

Just Transitions – Edinburgh Premiere

Just Transition: A low carbon economy that benefits workers and communities

Just Transition is a new film from REEL News that looks how workers around the world are engaged with the struggle for a low carbon economy. The final section of the film focuses on Scotland and the recent fight by workers at BiFab to keep their jobs.

We’ll be showing the film at the Augustine Church on George 4th Bridge, 3pm Saturday 20th January.

After the film there’ll be plenty of time for discussion of the issues it raises.

Keep up to date on details of the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/1812607072365284/