Skinner and Sweeney attend CTA Congress to discuss new energy project
The Worker Institute at Cornell participated in the National Congress of Delegates of the Argentinean Workers Federation (Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina--CTA) which took place in Buenos Aires on April 11-12, 2013.
Lara Skinner and Sean Sweeney, directors of the Cornell Global Labor Institute, met with union leaders to discuss Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, a new project that was launched in New York during the October 2012 "Energy Emergency, Energy Transition" global trade union roundtable. The goal of the project is to build a global trade union community to develop ideas and approaches to advance higher levels of community engagement and democratic control over the world's energy systems in ways that promote real solutions to the climate crisis, energy poverty, the degradation of land and people and the repression of workers' rights and unions in the energy sector.
The CTA's 1500-person Congress broke down into a number of platforms to discuss pressing issues facing Argentina's labor movement. Formed 13 years ago, the CTA has developed strong ties to progressive social movements, cooperatives and precarious workers.The CTA has also cultivated strong international ties. Unions from across Latin America, and also South Africa, Australia, South Korea, and India attended the Congress, as did union representatives from the Basque region in Spain. Prior to the Congress, international representatives discussed the challenges confronted by workers' organizations and social movements – particularly with regard to precarious work which, suggested CTA, was now more typical than formal sector work.
During the Congress, Skinner and Sweeney were interviewed by the energy workers federation(Federacion de Trabajadores de la Energia de la Republica Argentina) about the Trade Unions for Energy Democracy project.The interview (in Spanish) can be viewed here. The project was officially endorsed by the CTA following the Congress.
The Cornell Global Labor Institute is a program of the newly launched Worker Institute at Cornell.