Rebuilding our societies according to sustainability criteria will be a well-needed economic injection with many social benefits very important for trade union members. Rebuilding our societies according to economic sustainability will lower unemployment.
Rebuilding our societies according to social sustainability will also be an opportunity to up-grade working conditions, workers’ rights and human rights including, if the correct choices are made, reducing global inequity. Rebuilding our societies will increase welfare and every-day functionality for many people, among others: trade union members, families, and their parents, as it will modernise our neighbourhoods, including kindergartens, schools, hospitals, and elder-care-homes.
In this regard, sustainability is one of the core issues to build a better future in terms of social, environmental and economic aspects. In this sense, the BWI´s mission is not just to promote the development of trade unions in our sectors throughout the world, but to promote and enforce workers’ rights in the context of sustainable development.
We promote the three pillars of sustainable industrial development - economic viability, environmental protection and social responsibility and believe that a sustainable working life is a pre-condition. Sustainable working life means decent pay and working conditions, a meaningful job with prospects, a good working environment, continuous human resource development and secure employment.
We also support the forest certification systems – such as FSC and PEFC – to promote sustainable forest management which is very crucial to secure the long-term health of the forests, thereby to protect the ecosystem services the forest provides.
Therefore, we campaign for the promotion of sustainable practices in our sectors. I this connection, we urge governments, companies, trade unions and development agencies to work together in order to achieve this objective. We also push for trade union representatives to be involved on equal footing in social and tripartite dialogues in all countries.