Talking Union, Talking Climate (2023, 15 minutes) Three oil workers share their experiences and views about their jobs, labor conditions, and thoughts on the impact of climate change on their industry. Their conversation is both a funny and serious dialogue between workers in the global north and south (California, Norway and Nigeria) each of whom is involved in forms of union leadership. But they also are rank and file workers: Charlie is a refinery operator in California, Kristian is an oil platform machinist in Norway, and Didi is fluids engineer in Nigeria, as well as working in other countries. The film is a collaboration that emerged from WAGE, Work and Labour in a Greening Economy, a four-year project funded by the Norwegian Research Council to study the views of oil workers about their role in a green transition, The purpose of the film is to stimulate dialogue among workers and their unions in diverse political economies about how they situate themselves around climate change. But the film is also useful to the wider public to understand workers’ perspectives and their ideas about the green shift. While the beginning of the film follows the three workers as they find similarities and bond as trade unionists in the oil industry, differences soon emerge. These reach a climax when a deep contrast punctuates their experiences and perspectives around climate change. At the end, underlying questions linger about the role of the state, unions, and the power of oil profiteering across countries. Audiences of workers, students, environmentalists, and others have responded with great interest to this covid era film that challenges stereotypes and takes on hard questions about just transitions.
Voices from the green transition (2025, 8 minutes) While scientists worldwide agree that we must reduce greenhouse gasses quickly or face extreme climate change, how are those efforts affecting workers and communities? This piece is the first of several research to film shorts based on studies organized by the University of Leeds Just Transition project, funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation. This initial piece presents stories from unionists in South Africa and workers and Indigenous communities in Chile about the need to involve local people during the phaseout of coal in the former and transition to a green economy in the latter.
At the COP26, western countries and the World Bank set their eyes on rapid decarbonization by lending billions of dollars to several global South countries to abandon coal. In South Africa, that contributed to a rapid shutdown of the Komati coal power plant, celebrated with great fanfare as a model program. However, unionists from the National Union of Mineworkers express their anger at the empty promises of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), the massive loss of jobs, the lack of authentic skill training and employment in renewable industries and the resulting devastation of a community dependent on coal. There are also issues of growing inequality as the funding further plunges South Africa into debt and privatizes green energy.
In Chile, international investors and private Chilean companies push to expand the extraction of lithium from brine, while the national government attempts to expand domestic control of the industry for the benefit of the country. A lithium worker recounts stories of poor treatment and low wages and the opposition to strong unions, while an Indigenous woman protests the destruction of the fragile habitat of the arid desert where the Atacameňos and others have lived for generations. This glimpse of the center of the world’s green economy calls attention to the contradictions of renewable development driven by profit and without meaningful consultation with workers and communities.
Please note: Vivian Price will be presenting virtually.
Professor, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Vivian Price, PhD, Professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills & former union electrician, is a researcher and filmmaker for US and international projects on labor and climate justice. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Liverpool, a Fulbright specialist... Read More →
Thursday April 3, 2025 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Hannaford HallAbromson Community Education Center, 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101
Despite our pristine environmental reputation, Maine has the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in New England. As a lifelong Mainer who is raising three children in the Dirigo State, I am passionate about helping to accelerate the transition from finite, polluting fossil... Read More →
Thursday April 3, 2025 2:15pm - 3:15pm EDT
Hannaford HallAbromson Community Education Center, 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101
Todd E. Vachon, PhD is Assistant Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University and serves as the Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN)—the university’s labor education program. Todd has written extensively about labor and climate... Read More →
Friday April 4, 2025 9:00am - 9:30am EDT
Hannaford HallAbromson Community Education Center, 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101
Rick Levy is the President of the Texas AFL-CIO, a position he was elected to in 2017. As President, Rick has focused on building a broader, bolder and more inclusive labor movement, and weaving a culture of solidarity to address the challenges faced by working people in Texas. Under... Read More →
Friday April 4, 2025 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
Hannaford HallAbromson Community Education Center, 88 Bedford St, Portland, ME 04101
