North America's fastest-growing union focused on global warming's impacts on low-income people

In December 2007, SEIU delegates traveled to Bali, Indonesia, as part of the first-ever U.S. labor delegation to participate in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In June 2008, delegates representing SEIU's 2 million members adopted an historic Jobs and the Environment resolution at the union's 2008 Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Learn about SEIU members' efforts to leverage our bargaining power to the advantage of working families and the environment here.

The 2 million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) comes to Poznan to stand with the international community at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and to lend our voices to a call for action. We stand for a dual commitment to the environment and society. At every level--international, national, sector and workplace--workers and their representatives must advocate for an environmentally responsible society that respects human and labor rights. SEIU believes that approaches to climate change should be based on sound science, while allowing for just transition of workers in affected industries, vigilance in mitigating disproportionate impacts on low-income communities, and the creation of quality green jobs.

SEIU is particularly concerned with the needs of low-income workers. While everyone will experience negative climate impacts, the most vulnerable will experience them disproportionately. Low-income communities already suffer disproportionate placement of landfills and power plants and their related health hazards. When changes in consumption will be required, the most vulnerable will be poor consumers who will need to pay high prices for essential services such as electricity or fuel. As global warming is addressed, we need to be aware of the impact on vulnerable communities and be prepared to address those impacts.

SEIU also recognizes that transitional measures are needed to protect some workers from the consequences of climate change measures. We must have transitional measures, training and social protections so that workers are not vulnerable to the economic effects of addressing climate change.

With the bulk of its members in United States, the highest per-capita emitter of green house gases, SEIU also pledges to use its influence on elected officials in the United States to press for climate change adaptation through emission restrictions and investments in clean energy and quality green job creation. Such policies will reduce poverty and contribute to sustainable economic growth.

The accumulated scientific evidence leaves no doubt that climate change is an imminent threat that requires immediate, collective and decisive action at the global level. This ongoing environmental crisis will affect millions of workers' communities and workplaces--potentially for generations to come. SEIU--representing health care, property service and public service workers throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico--promotes worker solidarity and strategic alliances between labor and our allies worldwide. Addressing global climate change may be the largest challenge ever demanded by such an alliance. SEIU stands ready to do its part.