The Year of Climate Action – Building Worker Power for People and Planet

This November, as world leaders and corporations gather once again for the global climate talks at COP, the BFAWU is launching our Year of Climate Action, part of the wider movements Year of Climate Action led and coordinated by the Campaign Against Climate Change, a year-long campaign to put working people at the heart of the fight for a fair and sustainable future.

For too long, climate discussions have been dominated by politicians and executives who talk about ambition while refusing to challenge the profit-driven system at the root of the crisis. Our Year of Climate Action is about changing that bringing workers’ voices and trade union power to the centre of the debate.

Because the same forces driving the climate crisis corporate greed, exploitation, and inequality are the same ones our members confront every day in their workplaces. And that means the solutions to both are the same: collective action, strong unions, and democracy at work.

Why Climate Action Matters to Our Union

Climate change isn’t an abstract issue or a distant threat. It’s already shaping our lives, our jobs, and our communities.

In our food factories, bakeries, and supply chains, we see the effects first-hand: extreme heat making conditions unsafe, floods disrupting production and transport, rising energy costs putting pressure on wages, and food insecurity spreading across communities.

For BFAWU members the people who feed the country this isn’t a future problem. It’s happening now. The climate crisis is a workers’ issue, and that makes it a trade union issue.

If we don’t act, employers and governments will once again make working people pay the price for a crisis we didn’t cause. But when workers organise, we don’t just defend ourselves we lead the fight for change.

From Awareness to Action

The Year of Climate Action is about building understanding, confidence, and power across our union.

Over the next twelve months, we’ll be connecting the dots between climate justice, class justice, and collective bargaining and showing that climate action isn’t something separate from trade unionism, but part of its core purpose.

Throughout the year, we’ll:

• Raise awareness about how climate change affects our industries, workplaces, and members.
• Train and support new BFAWU Green Reps to take action in their workplaces.
• Get climate on the bargaining table, making sure it’s part of pay talks, health and safety discussions, and investment decisions.
• Embed climate justice in every part of our union’s work, from equality and education to international solidarity.

Our goal is simple: by the end of this year, every member should understand that climate action is part of union action and that workers are the key to real solutions.

Workers Leading the Way

We’ve seen what happens when decisions are left to politicians and CEOs empty pledges, broken promises, and greenwashing while inequality deepens. Real progress comes when workers take the lead: negotiating for greener workplaces, demanding just transition plans, and standing together to defend jobs and communities.

That’s why our Year of Climate Action is rooted in the principles that have always defined our movement solidarity, fairness, and democracy.

It’s about giving workers the voice and power to shape the future of their industries, rather than being sidelined by it.

Because the question isn’t whether change will happen it’s who it will serve.

A Year to Build, A Movement to Last

Launching alongside COP is no coincidence. While world leaders talk, we act.

This year is about turning words into power making sure that climate action starts on the shop floor and runs through every level of our movement.

Each month will focus on a different theme: from workplace health and safety and food justice, to just transition, equality, and international solidarity. Together, these conversations will build the foundations of a lasting, worker-led climate movement one that fights for both people and the planet.

So, let’s make this a year of education, mobilisation, and organisation.

Let’s grow our network of Green Reps. Let’s put climate on every bargaining agenda. Let’s make sure every employer knows that protecting workers and protecting the planet go hand in hand.

Because when workers act together, we don’t just adapt to change we shape it.

This is our Year of Climate Action.

A year to organise, educate, and lead.

A year to put people and the planet before profit and to show that the future must be built by workers, for workers.

Get Involved: Be Part of the Year of Climate Action

• Talk to your branch about becoming a Green Rep or environmental lead.
• Raise climate issues at your next workplace meeting from heat safety and waste reduction to transport and energy use.
• Share your ideas and experiences tell us how climate change is affecting your workplace and how you’re taking action.
• Look out for upcoming training and resources from BFAWU on green bargaining and just transition.
• Spread the word discuss the Year of Climate Action with colleagues and on social media using #BFAWUClimateAction.

Together, we can make the next 12 months the year we put workers’ voices at the heart of the fight for climate justice.

Because the climate crisis is a workers’ crisis and the solution is worker power.