Trade Unions for Energy Democracy – Articles and Presentations

RECENT ARTICLES

• Why stopping Eskom’s closures can be good for both unions and the environment, Amandla! Magazine (South Africa), May 2017
• Pandering to the Predator: Labor and Energy Under Trump,  New Labor Forum, Feb 3, 2017
• Standing Rock Solid with the Frackers: Are the Trades Putting Labor’s Head in the Gas Oven?, TUED, October 2016
• Corporations Call for ‘Net Zero’ Emissions: Do They Know How to Get There?, New Labor Forum, August 2016
• Contested Futures: US Labor After Keystone XL  New Labor Forum, May, 2016
• Corbyn’s Class Act is a Climate Game Changer,  New Labor Forum, December 17th, 2015
• Climate Challenges and Trade Union Responses,  European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) In cooperation with Trade Unionist Network Europe (TUNE), Presentation with text and visuals, November 18, 2015.
• Memorandum or Grexit: What are the implications for the future of Greece’s energy system?, July 24, 2015
• Green Capitalism Won’t Work published in New Labor Forum, Spring, 2015
• Alberta election shock: More evidence that ‘class and climate’ politics can win? Trade Unions for Energy Democracy bulletin, May 10, 2015; for Spanish, click here.
• Syriza can show ‘another energy is possible.’ New Government in Greece is committed to ‘ecological transformation’ TUED website, February 18, 2015; for Spanish, click here.
• Earth to Labor: Economic growth is no salvation  New Labor Forum, February 28, 2012

WORKING PAPERS SERIES  Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED)

2013:

•  Resist, Reclaim, Restructure: Unions and the Struggle for Energy Democracy, click here for English and here for Spanish (TUED framing document)

2014:

• #1, Global Shale Gas and the Anti-Fracking Movement: Union Perspectives and Approaches, click herefor Spanish.
• #2, Climate Change and the Great Inaction: New Trade Union Perspectives, here for Spanish.

2015:

• #3 Energy Democracy in Greece: Syriza’s Program and the Transition to Renewable Power.
• #4 Power to the People: Toward Democratic Control of Electricity Generation, (co-authored)
• #5  The Hard Facts About Coal: Why Trade Unions Should Re-evaluate Their Support for Carbon Capture & Storage

2016:

• #6 Carbon Markets After Paris: Trading in Trouble
• #7 An Illness to One is the Concern of All: The Health Impacts of Rising Fossil Fuel Use (co-authored with Svati Shah)

2017:

• #9 Energy Transition:  Are We Winning? (Is the Word Really Moving Away From Fossil Fuels?)  (co-authored with John Treat)

TUED ARTICLES

• Unions call for democratic control of energy as IPCC warns of “widespread and profound impacts” of climate change November 7, 2014
• Jobs, Health, Methane: Supplementary report on fracking   May 13, 2014
• 577 Billion Ways Extreme Weather and Extreme Energy Are Connected February 15, 2014
• Fracking: Union opposition is growing in Canada, Europe and Latin America, November 29, 2013
• When Fighting to Save a Coal Plant is Absolutely the Right Thing to Do September 8, 2013
• Fossil Fuels will Dominate Global Energy System Beyond 2040  August 4, 2013
• Solar Eclipsed? PV’s Global “Shake Out” Calls for a Public Sector Approach to Renewable Power  July 3, 2013

ON VIDEO, RADIO & PODCAST

• Winning Clean Energy and Climate Justice for All – People’s Summit, Chicago, June 10, 2017
• Video Presentation to Eco Conference – New Zealand, August 2016.  Climate Justice Aotearoa
• Energy Democracy Rising, (Video)  Bridge to the Future Conference, Oslo, Norway, February 17, 2016
• Jeremy Corbyn and Naomi Klein: A Conversation with Trade Unions, Paris, France, December 7th, 2015; click here
• Podcast Interview, People’s World, on Unions and the Paris Climate Talks, COP 21, click here
• Presentation on fracking, GMB International Conference on Fracking, Blackpool, UK, January 30, 2015, click here.
• Pipe Dreams: Labor Researchers Say Keystone XL Project May Kill More Jobs than it Creates, interview with Amy Goodman, Democracy Now , December 12, 2014, click here.
• Unions Confronting the Climate Crisis  (with Jeremy Brecher), EqualTimeRadio, click here
• A Global Climate Treaty: Why the US Must Lead,  Panel with UN Special Envoy Mary Robinson, former President of the Republic of Ireland; Society for Ethical Culture, New York, September 20, 2014, click here.
• New Initiatives to Really Confront the Climate Crisis: Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, Clearing the Fog radio, July 2014, click here.
• Trade Unions and Extending Solidarity to the Ecosystem,  interview with Laura Flanders, Grit.tv, full transcript and video interview published on Truthout, December 10, 2013, click here.

CHAPTERS/PAPERS

• Conflicting Agendas: Energy Democracy and the Labor Movement in Energy Democracy: Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions, edited by Denise Fairchild and Al Weinrub, Island Press 2017
• Working Towards Energy Democracy, in State of the World 2014: Governing for Sustainability, The Worldwatch Institute
• US Trade Unions and the Challenge of ‘Extreme Energy’  Chapter 15, Trade Unions in the Green Economy: Working for the Environment, Nora Rathzel (ed.), Routledge Press, 2013
• The Impact of Tar Sands Pipeline Spills on Employment and the Economy, Cornell University Global Labor Institute Research Paper, March 2012. (Co-authored)
• Pipe Dreams: Jobs Gained, Jobs Lost in the Construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, Cornell University Global Labor Institute Research Paper, September 2011 (Co-authored)
• Transport Workers and Climate Change: Towards Sustainable, Low-Carbon Mobility, document for the World Congress of the International Transport Workers Federation, Mexico City, August 2010 (co-authored)
• Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World, United Nations Environment Report, with ILO/ITUC/IOE, September 2008 (co-authored)

PRESENTATIONS*

• The Climate Crisis and the Threat to Human Health Global Nurses United, Sept. 26, 2014, Las Vegas
• Conference, A Europe in Crisis, A Europe Without Jobs, European United Left/Nordic Green Left  (GUE/NGL) In cooperation with Trade Unionist Network Europe (TUNE) European Parliament, Brussels, April 10-11, 2014
• Presentation to the International Conference on Building a Socially-Owned Renewable Energy Sector, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), Johannesburg, SA, February 2012.
• European Trade Union Confederation Youth Conference, Brussels, “Extending Solidarity to the Ecosystems” September 2013

*available from the author;  please email sean.sweeney@cuny.edu[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]