BWI on World Environment Day and EU Green Week

The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) joins the global community in observing World Environment Day and the European Union (EU) Green Week this week. We take this opportunity to reiterate our call for a greener and more equitable future in which social justice and the rights of workers, especially those in the green economy, are properly recognised and protected. 

As a global union representing 12 million workers worldwide in the building, construction, wood, and forestry industries, we strongly believe that conserving the environment and maintaining biodiversity for future generations necessitates the full involvement and participation of the working people. We cannot protect the environment without also preserving workers' fundamental rights.

Trade unions must be at the front and centre of the discussions about sustainable development, and an important social force in the just transition to a green future. BWI, for one, will continue to add its voice and make a difference by assisting in the realisation of ambitious, yet feasible, environmental goals alongside the workers' quest for livable wages, safe and healthy workplaces, and decent work. In order to achieve climate justice, all workers must be given full labor protections in accordance with international labour standards. Fundamental labour rights such as the ability to organise, freely associate, and bargain collectively are critical for all workers, regardless of position, as they seek access to decent work in the face of significant climate impacts.

Finally, given that the theme of this year's EU Green Week is the need for governments and employers to invest more in workers' skills, BWI believes that training upskilling and reskilling should lead not only to their integration into new jobs created by a greener future, but also to the creation of decent and safe jobs for all. Upholding workers' rights is critical to developing just, equitable, and long-term solutions to the climate crisis. Climate justice acknowledges that all of our struggles are rooted from the same unjust system and the promise of a better world for world. Workers cannot create decent jobs from the ashes of a dead world. And there is no climate justice in an unjust world of work.