Talking Union, Talking Climate
Talking Union, Talking Climate (2023, 15 minutes, film director - Vivian Price).
The film follows three oil workers from California, Norway, and Nigeria as they share their experiences and views about labor conditions, climate change, and the future of oil industry. Through conversations, the film explores the role of the state, unions, and the power of oil profiteering across countries.
Program:
18:00 - Smoothies served
18:30 - 18:45 Film screening
18:45 - 19:30 Discussion with the film director Vivian Price
19:30 - Event ends
This event is organized by the Sustainability Community Finland in collaboration with Smoothies & Movies of the Aalto University.
Film description
Three oil workers share their experiences and views about their jobs, labor conditions, and thoughts on the impact of climate change on their industry. Their conversation is both a funny and serious dialogue between workers in the global north and south (California, Norway and Nigeria) each of whom is involved in forms of union leadership. But they also are rank and file workers: Charlie is a refinery operator in California, Kristian is an oil platform machinist in Norway, and Didi is fluids engineer in Nigeria, as well as working in other countries. The film is a collaboration that emerged from WAGE, Work and Labour in a Greening Economy, a four-year project funded by the Norwegian Research Council to study the views of oil workers about their role in a green transition, The purpose of the film is to stimulate dialogue among workers and their unions in diverse political economies about how they situate themselves around climate change. But the film is also useful to the wider public to understand workers’ perspectives and their ideas about the green shift. While the beginning of the film follows the three workers as they find similarities and bond as trade unionists in the oil industry, differences soon emerge. These reach a climax when a deep contrast punctuates their experiences and perspectives around climate change. In the end, underlying questions linger about the role of the state, unions, and the power of oil profiteering across countries. Audiences of workers, students, environmentalists, and others have responded with great interest to this covid era film that challenges stereotypes and takes on hard questions about just transitions.
Captions:
Charlie from California
Didi, from Nigeria
Kristian, from Norway
Meet Vivian Price:
Vivian Price, PhD, Professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills & former union electrician, is a researcher and filmmaker for US and international projects on labor and climate justice. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Liverpool, a Fulbright specialist in Norway, working with the WAGE team at the University of Oslo on the perspective of oil workers on climate change, where she directed Talking Union, Talking Climate. She’s a member of the Climate Industry Research Team for the Canadian Building Trades Union on climate literacy in the construction industry. She is directing short films as part of “Transition: action, concepts, debates and strategies - an international comparison,” a study based in the Leeds School of Business and Is a visiting scholar at the University of Eastern Finland starting on a film on workers and environmentalists in the context of the Finnish forest climate sink as well as serving on the research team for the Critical Minerals Just Transition Listening Project.
About Sustainability Community Finland
The Sustainability Community is an English-speaking group based in the Helsinki area, dedicated to learning and sharing knowledge on sustainability-related topics. The community organizes monthly events including company visits, hands-on workshops, and talks by expert speakers. Through these activities community members connect, expand their professional networks, and exchange ideas among other people interested in sustainability. Welcome to join the LinkedIn group! And a Telegram channel!
Photos & Videos
Let us know if you’d prefer not to appear in photos or videos taken during the event.