This was a preview article written before Labour Party conference. We will post a report of the conference and our activities there soon.
Aviation sector companies are out in force at the UK Labour Party conference (8-11th October in Liverpool), reinforcing their links with a Labour leadership that too often seems more interested in their voices than those of grassroots aviation workers or even their trade unions. Safe Landing is here seeking to maximise the voice of aviation workers.
Bosses turn to Labour
A huge number of corporations will be present – both because Labour is likely to be in power soon and they opportunistically want access; and because under Keir Starmer the party has taken a definite pro-corporate turn.
Among the many companies with questionable environmental records that have paid large amounts of money to have an official presence at Labour conference, are a group connected to aviation.
That includes, for instance, the International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns British Airways; aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing; and Heathrow Airport, which is running an all-day “lounge” at the conference.
Heathrow will be lobbying for a climate-disastrous third runway. To be fair, Heathrow’s presence at Labour conference is not new. In 2019, at the height of the “Corbyn movement” in the party, Labour climate activists protested about it. But this kind of problem is exacerbated by the turn Labour has taken.
All these companies have corporate “sustainability” plans which, as aviation workers, we view as high risk and dangerous. In particular we object to aviation bosses’ lobbying for subsidies for “Sustainable Aviation Fuel”, which will mostly end up lining the pockets of fossil fuel shareholders, while creating virtually no actual jobs in aviation.
The kind of connections aviation corporations have maintained across the political spectrum also help explain why our industry pays so little for the pollution we create, while continuing to pursue wildly reckless airport/airline expansion plans and the driving down of many workers’ terms and conditions they have been able to get with.
Unions and workers
Aviation workers’ unions Unite and GMB are affiliated to Labour. It is not that they have progressive policies on climate. But much better the Labour Party engages with them than with aviation bosses. In the first instance, on issues like pay and workers’ rights. Under the control of the employers lobbying for expansion, real wages in air transport have seen the biggest post-2008 fall of any sector.
The Heathrow that wants to put millions of tonnes more CO2 into the atmosphere through a third runway is the same corporation against which security workers had to strike in the summer to drive up poverty pay. Which side is Labour on? The same for British Airways workers, involved in many battles with the company over the years. The union of all these workers, Unite, is the Labour Party’s largest affiliate….
More broadly, unions, unlike corporations, are or can be democratic organisations in which it is possible for the rank and file to change policies – as for instance the Grassroots Climate Justice Network is organising in Unite to do.
Though Unite and GMB will have large numbers of delegates at the conference, we doubt there will be many aviation workers among them, or in general much discussion of aviation from workers’ perspectives.
Safe Landing at Labour Conference
Safe Landing is not party political; but as part of the workers’ movement and climate movement, we are political in a broad sense. Part of that is wanting to engage with political parties to push forward our agenda. We attended the Lib Dem and Green Party conferences. The Labour Party, with its likely role in the next government, trade union connections and large concentration – still, despite everything – of radical activists is undoubtedly important.
That’s why Safe Landing members are attending Labour Party conference – and parallel events include left-wing festival The World Transformed. We will be taking part in discussions, making contacts and introducing and explaining about our organisation and its purpose and work, particularly to other trade unionists and to rank-and-file political activists. We will also be meeting some sympathetic politicians, including former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, a strong supporter of workers’ rights and trade unions and, as MP for Heathrow, a vocal opponent of its expansion.
We will be making the case to oppose business-as-usual expansion of aviation, not least from the perspective of ensuring sustainable jobs for aviation workers; arguing to tax aviation, as a matter of both climate justice and social justice; and putting forward the case for Workers’ Assemblies as a way for workers to shape the necessary transition in our and other industries.
We will also be working with other trade union and Labour climate activists to raise issues including opposition to the new Rosebank oil field; and distributing civil service union PCS’s pamphlet about its National Climate Service proposals.
If you’re at Labour conference or The World Transformed (or just in Liverpool!) and would like to meet up with us, get in touch: info@safe-landing.org