Conference on Developing a Labour Agenda for Socially Sustainable Development in the Global South

Towards the international trade union movement’s objective to influence the debate on an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable international economic order, a trade union Consultative Conference on Developing a Labour Agenda for Socially Sustainable Development in the Global South was held in Johannesburg, South Africa on ¹¹ and 12 September 2012.  The conference is part of a 3 year Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) funded project.

The urgent imperative for sustainable development was embraced by all stakeholders attending the conference. The conference brought together IndustriALL affiliates from the Sub Sahara Africa region and Mexico, South African Government representatives, representatives from the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, representatives from AngloGold and Ashanti and civil society representatives to reflect on the challenges posed by the sustainable development challenge and imperative in the Global South mining industry.

“Sustainable development has become an urgent imperative in the face of globalization. It is, at the same time, a fiercely contested concept which enjoins the Global South trade unions to either contest or find accommodation with the interpretation of sustainable development, as provided by others. The Global South trade unions need to determine for themselves what sustainable development means for them, according to their own experiences, and communicate and advance their joint position,” said Glen Mpufane, IndustriALL Global Union’s Director for Mining and DGOJP.

The meeting in South Africa was held against the backdrop of the African Mining Vision, acknowledging and recognizing the important significance of this historical document to the realization of sustainable development in the mining and energy complex on the African Continent and of mining as a key catalyst for growth and development.

The African Mining Vision envisions a mining sector that:

• optimizes and partners Africa’s limited mineral resource endowments;
• is diversified, incorporating both high value metals and lower value industrial minerals at both commercial and small-scale levels;
• is sustainable and well-governed and effectively garners and deploys resource rents and that is safe, healthy, gender and ethnically inclusive, environmentally friendly, socially responsible and appreciated by surrounding communities;
• is African knowledge-driven and catalyses and contributes to the broad-based growth and development; and
• is fully integrated into a single African market.

A Chamber of Mines representative reported on how the chamber had embraced the African Mining Vision through the commissioning of a project to operationalize mining vision 2030 based on sustainable development principles. Mining vision 2030 is a document agreed upon by stakeholders in the South African Mining Industry in 2010.

IndustriALL’s Director for Health, Safety and Sustainability, Brian Kohler, reminded the conference that the trade unions were the first environmentalists and that the concept of a just transition, developed by the trade unions, captures the essence of the trade unions’ response to the challenges of sustainable development and climate change. He went further to implore that, “we want a truly just transition, not a nice funeral.”

Challenges of implementation for sustainable development were identified. How these challenges were to be ultimately resolved rested among other imperatives, on building an African alliance for change where states and citizens moved from conflict to a common purpose, building global alliances and solidarity and South-South cooperation

Through this initiative, IndustriALL affiliated trade unions from the Global South will not have to wait - possibly in vain - for governments and regional institutions to establish institutions of social dialogue on sustainable development and then respond to positions already taken. The Consultative Conference approach would rather result in trade unions from the Global South taking a proactive approach and influencing the agenda for engagement.  The outcome of the conference deliberations and debates will feed into the African Mining Vision action plan.

This FES funded project is not a stand-alone project, but will feed into other IndustriALL initiatives as mentioned in the IndustriALL action plan.

Similarly, a Trade Union Consultative Conference on Developing a Labour Agenda for Socially Sustainable Development in the Global South will be held in Mexico in 2013. This conference in Mexico will undertake a review of what happened with the commitments made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa in 2002 and start a broad debate on how trade unions in the mining sector in Latin America / the Global South define sustainable development. While the project is based on a critique of the 2002 summit, the 2012 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio will provide a perfect sounding board for the project.