Illawarra workers are being invited to have their say on a just transition to a better future.
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The Just Transitions working group of the Illawarra Climate Justice Alliance (ICJA) has launched a regional survey of local coal, steel, gas, and associated workers to hear their views on how best to respond to the climate, environmental, and extinction crises.
Dr Mark Gawne who teaches at the University of Technology Sydney about the future of work, and Dr Nick Southall, whose work at the University of Wollongong includes a study of regional unemployment, are among the group who have created the survey.
"The survey focuses on understanding the conditions and viewpoints of workers within mining, steel and other associated industries," Dr Gawne said.
"We have developed the survey to further our understanding of the issues confronting these workers, as well as to encourage further consideration of what it means to work together towards a just transition in the Illawarra.
"We hope the survey will allow for the voices of workers in these industries to be heard in the discussions about the character, scope and development of a just transition."
Dr Southall added with the coal industry in decline and many jobs becoming casualised and poorly paid, now was the time for the people of the Illawarra to have a greater say about how this city was transformed.
"So, as we enter a period of rapid transition, we are seeking to involve all of those likely to be impacted by the changes that are coming. In response to the many problems facing our community we want to work with each other, share our ideas, and organise our own better futures together," he said.
Ali Smith, from the Just Transitions working group. added the ICJA believed that a genuinely just transition will require a rapid redistribution of wealth and power, moving away from environmentally destructive industries, away from damaging jobs, towards socially useful work that sustains life and livelihoods.
"This transition will include the closure and rehabilitation of coal mines and the elimination of hazardous industrial emissions. It will entail new types of work, new skills, and new technologies," she said.
"To transform how and why things are produced, we will need to construct forms of community control over social development and completely restructure, retool, and decarbonise production, exchange, and consumption. This transition process should involve shorter workhours and living incomes for everyone, guaranteeing a better quality of life for all, whilst living within the limits of the earth's ecosystem.
"One of the real strengths of the climate movement in Wollongong is that so many of us are either current or former fossil fuel workers or have close links to fossil fuel workers.
"We know we've got to stop emitting methane and CO2 very, very quickly, and we've got to look after everyone in our community as we do that. Listening to fossil fuel workers is key to understanding how to solve this problem."
The survey can be found on Facebook at Illawarra Just Transition Survey or directly via - https://tinyurl.com/yx4vvf9p
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
