By Katie Halper

As if unions didn’t already totally overact to silly things like inhuman conditions, unlivable wages, and union-busting, now it’s getting its made in America panties all up in a bunch over the environment. Global Labor Strategies reports that December 4, trade unionists from around the world are attending negotiations in Bali to establish a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 1212, to limit greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. workers will be represented by delegates from unions including the Electrical Workers (IUE), Mine Workers, Service Employees, Boilermakers, Steelworkers, Communication Workers, Transport Workers (TWU), and UNITE HERE garment and textile workers. Labor, what is the deal? You’re supposed to be short-sited and hostile to protecting the environment, remember? You’re not supposed to make the connection between the environment and workers. Hard hat-wearing workers hate Patchouli- wearing environmentalists. And drum circle playing environmental activists are out of touch with country and western/ hard rock playing unionists. Their green hybrids and blue collar gas guzzlers are supposed to collide and crash, not ride side by side or, heaven forbid, carpool, towards a common destination.So what’s up with the labor-environment mixed-genre cooperation? Why are a bunch of workers sticking their noses into global warming? What’s going on with the mixed-genre Blue Green Alliance, a coalition between the the Sierra Club United Steel Workers, also sending representatives to Bali. And why is the International Trade Union Confederation saying

As trade unionists, we are confident that Bali will mark the beginning of a new and more ambitious process of social change, where our collective hearts and minds must aspire to save our planet, on the basis of solidarity and mutual respect. Such solidarity first of all means countering global warming and its effects on the most vulnerable. Trade unions consider the best way for developed countries to exercise solidarity with developing countries is by cutting their own emissions in order to limit further suffering and irreversible changes, and by creating the means for other countries to participate in reduction efforts.

So workers of the world unite. You have nothing to save but your planet.