Will our unions support a strike for the future of our planet?

Until two years ago I had attended, as a delegate or member of the National Executive Council, every UNISON National Delegate Conference since the foundation of our Union – last year, having stood down from my UNISON positions, I popped in only as a visitor. This year, in my sick bed in Brighton, I am missing out completely upon events in Liverpool (and therefore also missing the General Secretary’s most left-wing afternoon of each year, on the Tuesday afternoon of Conference).

It would appear that the General Secretary, in his annual address to Conference, applauded members who have been taking strike action. Such applause is well deserved, particularly now that the many hurdles which have to be jumped to take lawful official strike action (in furtherance of a trade dispute) include those imposed in 2016.

There is, of course, another strike now looming on the horizon, and one which poses a challenge to the labour movement to find a way to give effect to our support for climate justice. The school strikes for climate justice have been incredibly encouraging and positive, giving hope that even at the eleventh hour we may be able to save our planet from ourselves. Now the younger generation have thrown down the gauntlet to those in employment to join their action.

Earth strike are calling for a day of strike action on 27 September. This would be – straightforwardly – political strike action, it would not be taken in contemplation of furtherance of a trade dispute with any employer, and it would not therefore attract the very limited legal protections from civil liability for any trade union calling upon their members to take such action (no matter what ballots took place or notices were served).

You might therefore conclude that, in the UK at least, the idea of workers joining school students for a climate strike in September is dead in the water.

However, I remember being at the Trades Union Congress seven years ago when that august body agreed to “consider the practicalities” of a General Strike. At that time, the two leading Labour lawyers, Keith Ewing and John Hendy, had written a very interesting pamphlet, which considered how political strike action might, in fact, be lawful.

Their argument was that the right to freedom association under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, read with International Labour Organisation Convention 87, provides a basis upon which to argue for a right to take political strike action (which is completely different from the law around limited immunity from civil liability, which is what English law provides instead of a “right to strike”).

The marvellous Bakers’ Union, BFAWU, have called upon their members to support the Climate Strike but it would probably be wrong to expect that the big trade unions will also call upon their members to support the action on 27 September by taking strike action.

The officials will likely be too cautious about the threat to the resources of their organisations (indeed any attempt to raise the issue in a motion at UNISON National Delegate Conference would be ruled out of order because of the risk of “placing the Union in legal jeopardy”).

However, workers who have watched our children walk out of school several times now in order to highlight the risk to their future caused by our generation’s appalling stewardship of this planet, need not necessarily wait for an “official” call. We have the right to freedom of expression as well as the right to freedom of association – and we have a duty to the future to take action.

Employers – such as Labour-led local authorities – who want to take the climate crisis seriously, can take a positive step by opening a dialogue with local union representatives about how to facilitate maximum participation in the climate strike on 27 September, and local union activists can think creatively about how to navigate around the caution of union officialdom (without calling for strike action, a trade union branch could, for example, seek agreement with an employer that employees supporting the climate action would not face any victimisation).

I hope that UNISON activists are already thinking about this in Liverpool.