- The African Climate Foundation(ACF) and South Africa’s Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) has partnered with the country’s main trade union federations: COSATU, FEDUSA, NACTU, and SAFTU – to support the establishment of a groundbreaking initiative: the Just Transition Labour Centre.
This significant collaboration underscores our commitment to supporting initiatives that prioritise the participation, economic inclusion and empowerment of workers in the face of global challenges, particularly the urgent need to address the climate crisis through a just transition out of the current extractive energy system into a new green economy.
The Just Transition Labour Centre is a direct response to the urgent need for worker-centric technical expertise in navigating the economic and plant-level restructuring necessitated by the just energy transition. Emerging from the collective recognition within the labour movement that these changes will disproportionately affect working people.
The centre will provide essential support and resources to capacitate workers to navigate the transition. This includes reviewing existing research and its implications for workers, facilitating engagement strategies with stakeholders, and sharing invaluable experiences from both local and international contexts.
At the heart of this initiative is the acknowledgment that workers and their unions must engage on multiple fronts – from enterprise negotiations to community mobilisation and national and provincial policy development – to realise a just transition.
The centre is housed at research institute Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS), that will serve as a vital resource for trade unions, providing technical expertise and support in various critical areas.
The Just Transition Research Centre is co-funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
