Australia: companies are encouraging staff to participate in the Global Climate Strike

Some forty companies across the tech, health, and finance sectors have joined the ‘Not Business as Usual’ alliance in a bid to voice their support for the global climate strike. In concrete terms the business leaders are encouraging their staff to participate in the global climate strike set for 20 September 2019 and they are also encouraging other Australian companies to join them because, “Businesses and individuals must also play their part and this responsibility is even more urgent when governments fail,” argued unicorn, Atlassian co-founder and chief executive, Mike Cannon-Brookes (here for more). Businesses are getting involved because as the Not Business as Usual alliance website states, ‘We know the number one reason people won’t strike is because of work.’ As such it is encouraging every company to do something, ‘whether it’s closing the doors, having a meeting free day, allowing time out on a lunch break to strike, or sending an email to make it clear teams will not be penalised for taking a few hours off.’ During the previous strike action in March 2019 some 150,000 turned out in Australia and the goal for the 20 September action just ahead of the United Nations Summit meeting set for 27 September in New York is to to beat that number.

Similar initiatives have been undertaken in the U.K. (c.f. article No. 11224).