Back in April, our Workers’ Participation Lead George Hibberd presented the Workers’ Assembly concept to the Gatwick Liaison Committee (GLC). The GLC is a committee of ground handling company representatives from Unite The Union at Gatwick airport. As a result of that presentation, George was invited to speak at the national Unite ground handlers combine. This week George presented to the combine in Eastbourne learning from the question and answers session at Gatwick.
The presentation and concept was well received with lively debate in the Q&A afterwards. The presentation was focused on Workers’ Assemblies, but the discussion afterwards featured a host of topics. These included climate breakdown, the impact of air pollution on airport workers, politics and company disputes. What it highlighted was the pressing need for facilitated deliberative forums to discuss these topics in greater depth, with expert evidence and group deliberation.
Aviation workers understandably fear decarbonisation
There were mixed opinions on the impact of climate breakdown, its causes, the impact of net zero on high carbon workers, and demand management. It underlined the understandable fear that aviation workers have around net zero and the impact that some decarbonisation pathways might have on their livelihoods, particularly demand management and taxation. That fear is very valid. After all, there is a possible future where the government decides to manage demand in aviation, increase taxes in a way that impacts low income passengers the most, and workers lose their job without being given any alternative.
Transformative policy is needed
In Safe Landing, we want to avoid that. That’s why we champion decarbonisation policy that shifts the cost of decarbonising onto the wealthiest of passengers – private jet users, luxury class passengers and frequent flyers. We also want to both decrease the exposure of workers in aviation to noise and air pollution (particularly ultrafine particles), and ensure that anyone that does need to change industry is supported in retraining and reskilling. In addition, it is crucial that workers have a voice in how our industry transforms to tackle air pollution and its climate impacts via evidence-led, deliberative and participatory processes – Workers’ Assemblies.
GLC reaffirms desire to hold a Workers’ Assembly
After the Q&A, the Gatwick Liaison Committee reaffirmed their desire to hold a Workers’ Assembly on health and safety and air pollution. They’re in a deadlock with their employer, Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL), with GAL refusing to engage any further on reducing the air pollution that ground handlers are exposed to in their work. They are hoping that exploring and holding a Workers’ Assembly will break that deadlock. It is unclear as yet who would commission that assembly, but the GLC are talking to Involve, the deliberative democracy organisation that ran our Bristol Workshop in 2023. Most notably Involve ran the UK’s citizens’ assembly Climate Assembly UK in 2020. They are hoping that running a Workers’ Assembly at an airport level can then be scaled up to a national level for Unite ground handlers.
Our decision-making processes need an upgrade
We are very excited about the prospect of this Workers’ Assembly. Whilst air pollution and health and safety are not topics that Safe Landing routinely works on, it is deeply linked to our work on climate. Ultimately, air pollution and the climate impacts of aviation are caused by the same thing – the burning of fossil fuels and a lack of workers’ power over industrial strategy. Tackling air pollution will reduce the climate impact of aviation, and vice versa. Our industrial decision-making processes both at governmental level and in our unions is not designed to deal with existential questions and huge transformational change of industry. This leads to short-termism, exemplified by Unite’s decision to back airport expansion, drill for oil and gas in the North Sea and water down net zero targets. None of these decisions will help workers in the long term. They will only lock in climate collapse and harmful air pollution.
Workers’ Assemblies are the antidote to that, providing us with the processes to inform, engage and empower workers to have a say over the future of our industry. This is why Safe Landing makes the point again and again that workers’ rights and tackling the climate crisis are not working in opposite directions. If you want to run a Workers’ Assembly in your union or want to find out more, email George at george@safe-landing.org.