Year: 2009
Location: Edmonton
Profile: At the time of the interview, Lucien Royer was Director of the International Department at the Canadian Labour Congress. He became active in environmental action early in the 1970’s, heading STOP, an early environmental that was the first to launch a suit against a tar sands plant for polluting air and water. He then worked with the tin miners’ union in Bolivia, until he was deported, after which he worked with the Peoples’ Food Commission in Canada. In the 1980’s, he joined the staff of the Alberta Federation of Labour focusing firstly on human and worker rights where, amongst other issues, he worked on Lubicon land claims, and later, on the Change the Law Campaign that grew out of the 1986 Gainers’ strike. His work in coalition building led to the creation of the Action Canada Network which assembled a coalition of activists across Canada to oppose Canada-U.S. Free Trade agreements being drafted at the time. In 1992, he represented the CLC at the First Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero, after which he was hired by the ICFTU, and later, the trade union arm of the OECD, to coordinate sustainable development and climate change activities for the trade union movement at the United Nations, the ILO and several other agencies. He was also responsible for organizing a trade union campaign to recognize an International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers.
Keywords: Action Canada Network; Alberta Federation of Labour; Bolivian Tin Miners Union; climate change; Gainers’ strike; ILO Conventions; International Commemoration Day; Labour Law Review; Rio Earth Summit.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Canadian Labour Congress; Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta