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Home » Issues » Toxic MouldToxic Mould Labour, environmentalists push for action on mould B.C. Environmental Network Report October, 2000 If anyone still thought that trade unionists and environmentalists only got together across the forest blockade, they should have been there at the citizens’ forum June 1 at Vancouver’s Maritime Labour Centre. Around the table were representatives of leaky condo owners’ organizations, First Nations and environmentalists, together with local reps and activists from a dozen unions, including the Building Trades, health care unions, the B.C. Teachers Federation, CUPE and the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union. The main subject on the agenda? Mould and its effects on workers’ and public health. Mould? “It may not seem like a topic that would pull people together from across all those sectors, but it really is a huge public health issue, affecting hundreds of building trades members working on leaky condos and condo residents, as well as health care workers and patients in old hospitals, municipal employees in composting facilities — even liquor store workers handling recycled bottles,” said Mae Burrows, executive director of the Labour Environmental Alliance Society, one of the main organizers of the forum. More to the point, those people came together to work out strategies to deal with an important environmental issue — and it’s that kind of pioneering labour-environmental activism that the newest member of the B.C. Environmental Network, the Labour Environmental Alliance Society (LEAS), is demonstrating can be effective in building coilaitions and “greening” jobs. Since its formation in 1997, LEAS has worked with CAW members on its campaign against carcinogens in the workplace, campaigned with municipal workers against water privatization and worked with the Canadian Labour Congress to develop policies on green jobs and just transition. LEAS high-profile board of directors also demonstrates the kind of commitment that both labour activists and environmentalists have given the to the organization — and the possibilities that both see in joint action. Among the board members are: Herb Barbolet, Farm Folk/City Folk; Delores Broten, Reach For Unbleached; David Cadman, Society Promoting Environmental Conservation; Harold Funk, Communications, Energy, Paperworkers; Marilyn Hannah, Canadian Union of Public Employees; Denise Kellahan, CAW Local 3000; Greg McDade, Chair, VanCity Savings; Wayne Peppard, Plumbers and Pipefitters; Cliff Stainsby, B.C. Government and Service Employees Union; David Thompson, Sierra Legal Defence Fund; Loretta Woodcock, CAW National Environment Committee; and Allan Young, Environmental Mining Council. LEAS first took shape during the difficult summer of 1997 when trade unionists and environmentalists clashed over resource policies. The Vancouver and District Labour Council’s environment committee sponsored a series of forums “to create an opportunity for positive and constructive dialogue between environmentalist and labour,” and brought activists from both constituencies together to discuss common issues. Topics covered at the forums, held over several months, were wide-ranging — from fisheries disputes to right –to-know laws, to environmental regulation in international trade agreements. What they found was that there was common ground and also the possibility for linking economic and environmental issues with strategies for joint action. Many of the forum participants went on to form LEAS, which carries the spirit of the forums in its own mission statement: “Protecting jobs and the environment through social justice.” Forums are still organized from time to time, but LEAS has expanded its work to projects that sich as the Cleaners and Carcinogens Campaign (see sidebar) that bring together workers and environmental acrtivists. LEAS’ unique contribution to the environmental community is to bring trade unionists and environmentalists together on environmental issues that affect workers and the public, mobilize the knowledge and activism that both constituencies have and use them to develop common strategies for change. New and UpdatedCancerSmart 3.0July 30, 2010 Cleaners and Toxins January 28, 2010 FAQs June 5, 2009 Alliance building wins change on pesticides April 2, 2009 Bisphenol A and right to know November 25, 2008 Support LEASMake a donation |
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