38-year-old Bimala Magar is a waste-picker in Nepal. Each morning she starts the day sweeping the road, collecting waste and taking it to the waste dump site. Many women in Nepal earn a few rupees daily like this.

Recently, she has found that the extreme heat and the torrential rains have made it difficult for her to work outdoors like this. The impact of climate change means there are an increasing number of days that she wont be able to work. She is also at risk from the noxious gases released from the dump site.

Bimala has 2 children, and she worries about them contracting mosquito borne diseases such as dengue which is on the rise. These diseases were unheard of decades ago.

Climate change is union business

Bimala is not alone. Global warming affects every workplace, everywhere. In Nepal, extreme snowstorms and unseasonal snow melting threaten Sherpas who work as tourist guides for mountaineers. Street vendors and day labourers in the Philippines are vulnerable to severe typhoons and fossil fuel pollution. Torrential rain, flooding, landslides, and drought are hitting plantation and agricultural workers hard in Indonesia.

Climate change is a workers issue so workers must be part of the solution.

What we're doing

Union Aid Abroad APHEDA is working with our partner organisations in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India to help unions and labour organisations to educate workers and union leaders on how climate change affects their daily lives, support union organisers to advocate for climate solutions, and ensure unions are involved in the climate planning at the workplace, regional and national level.

Our partner in the Philippines is the Centre for Trade Union and Human Rights. It has created a climate justice training module to better address climate change as a workplace issue. They also support workers to mobilise for collective climate justice campaigns.

In Nepal, we work with the Centre for Labour and Social Studies and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Center to help identify workers who are most impacted by climate change across the waste management, tourism, agriculture, construction, electricity, and transportation sectors. They will be assisted to organise workers to lobby for climate mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage strategies for working people.

Help us continue this important work

Help us put workers at the centre of climate justice by donating to Union Aid Abroad-APHEDAs climate justice appeal today. Your donation will immediately be put to good use helping workers like Bimala and others on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

This festive season, your generosity to help workers who are organising for their future will be a gift with long-lasting benefits.