Climate Change and Labour Union Strategy in the Accommodation Sector: Opportunities and Contradictions

Climate change is affecting tourism-related industries such as accommodation and hospitality (e.g., changes in tourist flows, the ‘greening’ of hotels). The role organized labour in such industries will play in climate change mitigation and adaptation is less studied. This paper explores how such responses may be integrated into recent strategic initiatives building labour union capacities in the accommodation sector. The case of UNITEHERE, a union representing over 100,000 hotel workers in the United States and Canada, is explored. Specific attention is given to the integration of climate change into current activities such as: the union’s fight against ‘green-washing’; the scaling up of collective bargaining; the use of consumer preference as leverage against hotel companies; the implementation of a ‘high road vision’ for the sector; and campaigns for accessible public transit and community economic development. The paper concludes that climate change will be incorporated into existing union strategies, but there is limited capacity for radical transformation of the sector practices.Work in a Warming World (W3

Greening Hotels and Fair Labour Practices

In recent years, a number of labour union strategic initiatives have been developed which seek to leverage consumer preference against employers in the accommodation services sector. These programs largely focus on rating and certifying hotels based upon environmentally and socially responsible behaviour and labour friendly practices. In part, the campaigns are a response to the perceived 'green-washing' of hotels through voluntary, self-reporting rating systems. This paper examines three union campaigns that recommend hotels according to social and environmental criteria: The Fair Hotels campaign (Ireland); the First Star program (Australia); and INMEX (United States and Canada). We find that limitations are related to the geographic scale of the campaigns and their inability to advocate for any significant shift toward a more socially and environmentally sustainable accommodation services sector.Work in a Warming World (W3

HETDEX pilot survey for emission-line galaxies - I. Survey design, performance, and catalog

We present a catalog of emission-line galaxies selected solely by their emission-line fluxes using a wide-field integral field spectrograph. This work is partially motivated as a pilot survey for the upcoming Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We describe the observations, reductions, detections, redshift classifications, line fluxes, and counterpart information for 397 emission-line galaxies detected over 169 sq.arcmin with a 3500-5800 Ang. bandpass under 5 Ang. full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) spectral resolution. The survey's best sensitivity for unresolved objects under photometric conditions is between 4-20 E-17 erg/s/sq.cm depending on the wavelength, and Ly-alpha luminosities between 3-6 E42 erg/s are detectable. This survey method complements narrowband and color-selection techniques in the search for high redshift galaxies with its different selection properties and large volume probed. The four survey fields within the COSMOS, GOODS-N, MUNICS, and XMM-LSS areas are rich with existing, complementary data. We find 104 galaxies via their high redshift Ly-alpha emission at 1.9<z<3.8, and the majority of the remainder objects are low redshift [OII]3727 emitters at z<0.56. The classification between low and high redshift objects depends on rest frame equivalent width, as well as other indicators, where available. Based on matches to X-ray catalogs, the active galactic nuclei (AGN) fraction amongst the Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) is 6%. We also analyze the survey's completeness and contamination properties through simulations. We find five high-z, highly-significant, resolved objects with full-width-half-maximum sizes >44 sq.arcsec which appear to be extended Ly-alpha nebulae. We also find three high-z objects with rest frame Ly-alpha equivalent widths above the level believed to be achievable with normal star formation, EW(rest)>240 Ang.Comment: 45 pages, 36 figures, 5 tables, submitted to ApJ

The design and fabrication of a micro-air vehicle

The objective of the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) project was to design and fabricate an electric aircraft of minimum size to achieve a flight time of 15 minutes with a flight speed of 12 to 15 m/s. Wind tunnel testing provided experimental values at low Reynolds numbers for lift, drag, and thrust. The single-skin wing structure had a wing span of 15.7 cm. and a total weight of 90.72 g., and was constructed of carbon-Kevlar composite fabric which increased stability in flight and durability upon landing

What Do We Know? What Do We Need To Know? The state of research on work, employment and climate change in Canada - Program

This Program reproduces papers delivered to the What do We Know panel discussion at York University, Toronto on June 7 2010. The What do we know? What do we need to know? Research project is a knowledge-gathering and knowledge-assessing project, the first national project to be funded on the climate change/work relationship in Canada. Papers presented initial findings for the sectors of energy, tourism, postal services, and transportation equipment, with overview remarks by Principal Investigator Carla Lipsig Mumme, placing the research in an international perspective.Work in a Warming World (W3