Third
Tri-National Meeting of Energy Workers Of North America
Mexico City, March 16 – 18, 2009
Final
Declaration
At its
Third Tri-National Meeting, unions, networks and social movement
organizations from the energy sector of Canada, the US and
Mexico committed to seeking solutions to the major challenges
facing the sector in their respective countries and in the
region overall.
The three
countries are facing serious problems in their attempt to
confront the current global economic crisis affecting North
America as well as the other countries of the world: the crisis
of the banking system, unemployment, the criminalization of
social protest, the destruction of productive forces, deterioration
of the environment, the irrational exploitation of energy
resources, privatization and the dismantling of social programs
and services.
The response
of the governments of the three countries has been different.
In Canada and Mexico, people of the region have also been
unable to exercise democratic and effective control over their
governments, which seem to be more concerned about protecting
the interests of the transnational elite. The arrival of Barack
Obama in the presidency of the United States, elected democratically,
opens the way to a new era in the relations among the three
countries.
Workers
in the energy sector in the three countries, along with their
unions and social movement groups, have been bearing the brunt
of this frontal attack, with the disappearance of jobs en
masse, and the loss of social supports. This is why we are
seeking strategies and common actions to take on these challenges.
In that
search, the major guiding principles of our tri-national relationship
are:
1. Solidarity
within and among sectors and peoples for the mutual defence
of human, labour and environmental rights, including the
rights of indigenous peoples and communities.
2. Sustainability, including on one hand, the creation of
“green” jobs and generation of renewable energy
from sources that are less polluting and lower in carbon
emissions, and on the other, just transition toward a new
energy grid, which implies compensating and supporting those
who have lost or are at risk of losing their jobs in the
sector as well as for communities affected either by the
desertion of obsolete industries or changes in land use
for the production of alternative energy sources.
3. Sovereignty of peoples to exercise their right of access
to and use of their natural and energy resources limited
only by democratic will, and the civilian oversight of the
administration and regulation of resources, for example,
removal of obligations relating to NAFTA’s proportionality
principle, which requires the export of renewable and non-renewable
resources even in times of scarcity in the country of origin.
Areas
of action:
1) Development
of a common vision on energy and reinforcement of coordination
within each country.
2) The renegotiation of NAFTA to ensure that trade meets
the needs of peoples and not those of corporations, and
the rollback of the anti-democratic and secret SPP process.
3) The struggle for democratic labour law reform in the
three countries to encourage free association, trade union
autonomy, collective bargaining and trade union democracy
and against neo-liberal reform proposals (such as the Lozano
proposal in Mexico) and in favour of pro-union measures
(such as the Employee Free Choice Act in the US).
4) International pressure on governments to enforce and
respect labour rights, for example through the campaign
against employer protection contracts in Mexico.
5) Pressure campaigns against transnational companies that
violate labour human and environmental rights, by taking
advantage of the influence unions in one country can bring
to bear on the actions of the same employer in other countries.
6) Pressure to implement international measures to protect
the environment that punish companies rather than developing
countries.
7) Campaigns to stop privatization and deregulation processes.
8) Building alliances and cross-sectoral unity to look for
holistic solutions.
9) Efforts to defend the environment to ensure a sustainable
future for workers.
We are
critical of the recent proposed statement of the Fifth Summit
of the Americas to be held April 17 to 19 in Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, which stated that “the principles
of the market, free trade and investment systems… are
fundamental for economic growth, employment and the reduction
of poverty”. On the contrary, we insist that this is
the time to question such positions and propose a definitive
rejection of the neo-liberal model. We should promote policies
that favour energy and food sovereignty, mechanisms of citizen
control and effective wealth redistribution programs that
contribute to social justice.
We are
committed to ongoing coordination with the unions in the energy
sector along with the networks and social movement organizations
and the global union federations in a spirit of hemispheric
solidarity. Through new coordination mechanisms we are developing
we will move toward union of the movements in each country
in order to address the negative consequences of trade agreements
and neo-liberal globalization policies, and create mo.e just
and sustainable conditions for our countries.
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