Jobs, Justice, Climate

Cornell’s Global Labor Institute co-organizer of Climate Week event

The Global Labor Institute, part of Cornell’s ILR School, and Realizing Rights, a human rights group, are co-organizers of a Sept. 21 event at which labor, environmental and youth leaders will urge world leaders to take decisive action on global warming.

“Jobs, Justice, Climate” in New York City is free and open to the public, but registration at www.JobsJusticeClimate.net is recommended to ensure admittance. Seven-hundred people are expected, organizers said.

“The gathering will express the fact that labor, environment and other social movements are uniting behind the call for a strong global agreement to reduce global, warming emissions that creates good ‘green’ jobs for all and advances social justice at home and abroad,” said Sean Sweeney, director of the Global Labor Institute.

The gathering is part of Climate Week NYC, Sept. 20 through Sept. 26. It coincides with the United Nations’ general assembly opening in New York City.

Activities in more than 100 cities worldwide are planned in an effort to encourage a climate agreement at the United Nations’ Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen this December.

The event sponsored by the Global Labor Institute and Realizing Rights is being held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th St, New York.

Participants will include Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and founder of Realizing Rights, a human rights organization; Juan Somavia, director general of the International Labour Organization; Richard Trumka, who is expected to be the newly-elected leader of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and Mohamed Rasheed, president of the Maldives.

Also, Kevin Knobloch of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Kumi Naidoo, leader of the Global Campaign for Climate Action, and, by video, author and environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Folk artist Judy Collins and singer-songwriter Kaki King are scheduled to perform.

The event begins at 6 p.m.

In November, Robinson spoke at a meeting sponsored by the Global Labor Institute at the ILR Conference Center in New York.

Labor and environmental groups, along with members of the international development community, agreed at the meeting that the potential to ally the labor and climate change movements was strengthened by the election of President Barack Obama.

Also in 2008, the Global Labor Institute collaborated with the United Nations and other international groups in creating the first global Green Jobs Report. More about the report is available at http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/projects/greenJobs/.