Wrapped in a mossy green scarf, the Wilderness Committee’s Policy Director Gwen Barlee explained to the assembled national delegates how private power brought her organization and Local 378 together in as part of a dynamic coalition.

Barlee credited the coalition and relationships built by joint efforts with broadening the Wilderness Committee’s point of view. She spoke about campaigning not solely from an environmental perspective, but from a social justice perspective.

She noted the fight against the privatization of BC Hydro and the fight for BC’s wild rivers spoke to the broader public because it directly related to the public good. Corporate interests, she said, “want us to believe we’re alone, that we aren’t a community and we don’t have communal interests.” Barlee pointed out the coalition proves exactly the opposite; that loggers, grandmothers, environmentalists, fishers, trade union activists, and office workers are intrinsically tied together and care about the same things.

Barlee praised the communal action of Canada’s unions which achieved many of the benefits enjoyed today, including the eight hour work week and two-day weekend, health care, health and safety legislation and women’s equality.

She said labour’s perspective and values are needed as Canada moves towards a green economy, and that the best way to tackle climate change is with unions and working people as partners. “We still need to hold these values dear,” she said, “because a truly green economy values democracy, sustainability and workers rights.”