Health and Safety

PSAC Policy 22 Environment

Introduction

Over the past three decades environmental issues have achieved a more global focus as environmental awareness has spread worldwide. Governments and people have become increasingly aware that the global environment is under attack. Environmental problems were initially local issues, but as the list of local issues began to expand, so to did the realization that these issues would now have a global impact. The awareness that the failure to take corrective measures threatens the future of all people has been witnessed by the growth of international agreements on the environment.

In 1987, the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development released a report called "Our Common Future". The Brundtland Commission, as it became known by the Chair of the committee, identified development as the prime cause of environmental degradation. The Commission highlighted the growing number of specific crises threatening countries around the world. The Commission suggested that unrestrained development must be terminated. It coined the phrase sustainable development as being the only type of acceptable development. Sustainable development was defined as "human activity meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

In 1992, the United Nations Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, adopted Agenda 21, which was a comprehensive blueprint for global action in all areas of sustainable development. Agenda 21 recommended action on climate change, depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain, deforestation, soil loss, toxic wastes, and depletion of fish stocks and biological diversity. It had also addressed patterns of development which cause stress to the environment; poverty and external debt in developing countries, unsustainable patterns of production and consumption in industrialized countries, demographic pressures, and the structure of the international economy.

Therefore, issues surrounding the environment have become a priority for not only Canadians but for many people worldwide. Unions around the world have now taken up the challenge to enhance environmental quality and making this issue a top priority. Nothing is more basic than the air we breathe or the water we drink. We are now consciously aware of the threat to life on this planet from global warming, rain forest depletion, destruction of the ozone layer, massive pollution of both fresh water and salt water, climatic changes, the collapse of fish stocks, soil erosion, the extinction of animals, insects and plant species. We are aware that the actions of individual countries, communities and people have world-wide consequences which lead to environmental degradation on a global scale. Environmental degradation knows no national boundaries. For example, sulphur emissions in one country causes acid rain in another which is downwind. Depletion of the ozone layer from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in one nation can lead to skin cancer on the opposite side of the world.

Our involvement with health and safety issues in the workplace has always had an interrelationship with the environment. Improvements on workplace health and safety standards generally limit the impact in the workplace environment and these in turn also limit the impact to the outside environment. Our demand for better control of hazardous products through the elimination of toxic chemicals/products; or through substitution to less hazardous products; or to a transition to cleaner production technologies will usually reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated in our endeavor so that zero emission levels can be achieved.

As we attempt to move steadily toward sustainable development, we must ensure the needs of the workers and communities for those whose employment have been negatively affected by environmental considerations are supported. We must ensure an appropriate transition program is available where such a program should include elements such as re-training, re-education and income support.

Although some of the environmental problems start in the workplace, and can thus be resolved there; the largest contributor to air, soil and water contamination, however, is the way we live, the way we consume, the way we choose to transport ourselves, the way we use land that is causing the majority of environmental degradation. Our workers have power over worksite environmental protection and we must encourage and devise new strategies for worksite action; however, it is even more pressing to ask our membership to examine their own customer behaviour. Over consumption, excessive waste and toxic waste are unsustainable.
The Alliance is committed to ensure that the environment is protected and embedded in our Union’s mandate and all our work. The Alliance also recognizes, as a socially responsible union, the paramount importance of protecting the environment if we and our next generation are to survive on this earth. The Alliance, recognizing the need to protect the health and well-being of present and future generations and of the natural environment, promotes the following principles as they apply to the environment:

Environmental Principles

• Endorse sustainable development as defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development (also known as the Brundtland Commission). "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

• Endorse a commitment to the phase-out of the use and generation of all inherently toxic substances, and in particular, those that are persistent and bioaccumulative.

• Endorse a commitment to environmental lay-off protection. While job security is a fundamental concern of workers, it is possible to reconcile full employment with environmental protection as long as some mechanisms are put in place for transition to sustainable development.

• Promote the use of financial incentives to reduce pollution. Where pollution and/or waste is inevitable, a combination or regulations and financial incentives such as effluent charges, input charges, refundable deposits and specific consumption taxes should be used.

• Develop positions and strategies on new environmental issues before and when they arise.

Education and Training

• Develop and disseminate information and literature regarding the environment to maintain awareness, to improve members’ ability to solve problems, and to indicate the seriousness of Alliance concerns.

• Educating union members concerning environmental matters is a priority as we need knowledge, skills and resources to protect the environment. People must be empowered, to protect the environment. The priority should be the conservation of resources through the reduction of waste, the avoidance of unnecessary consumption and the principle that re-use is more acceptable than recycling which is more acceptable than waste disposal.

Legislation

• Promote and lobby for improved environmental legislation and regulations.

• Promote and lobby for proper compliance and enforcement of environmental legislation and regulations.

• Promote environmental "whistle blower protection" in legislation. To all workers the right to inform the government, the public, and the media of pollution, whether the pollution is legal or not.

• Promote the workers’ right to refuse to pollute and without the fear of employer’s discipline

Coalition Work

PSAC will continue to support and work with the Canadian Labour Congress in its environmental initiatives.

PSAC will consult as needed with organizations dealing with environmental issues.

PSAC will advocate workplace and community action at a local level which are essential in securing a clean and healthy environment.
Pollution Prevention

PSAC will promote the reduction and elimination in the use of persistent organic pollutants and chemicals to prevent their release into the environment through the substitution of products and materials, and the introduction of cleaner production technologies.

PSAC will promote the transition to a cleaner production must be achieved in a way that protects employment and the economic viability of communities; meets social and environmental needs; and improves the quality of life throughout the world.

PSAC will lobby for "zero emission" of pollutants as a necessary and feasible policy for pollution control.