One the key arguments used by airports who want to justify their expansion plans is that more flights mean more jobs.
Forecasting the increase generated by the expansion in flights, passenger numbers and therefore the jobs created is all guess work, and airports all tend to be overly optimistic. They often claim that vast amounts of jobs will be created by expansion and will benefit local communities, however the numbers of jobs created can be as few as 100 per million passengers.
This argument was used by Manchester Airport during the first round of expansion plans in 1991 when it claimed that the second runway would generate 50,000 jobs. However, following the opening of the runway in 2001 the actual net increase in jobs provided at airport was only about 6000. MAG are actively using this argument again throught the creation of the ‘Airport City’ or Enterprise Zone.
Check out the AEF’s report on aviation and jobs for more information.
Climate campaigners recognise the importance of and need for new jobs, and a new report from the Campaign against Climate Change ‘One Million Jobs Now‘, provides the answer. It shows how over 1,000,000 jobs could be created in ‘climate jobs’.
These jobs would directly help to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we’re putting into the air – unlike the ‘green jobs’ the Government keeps supporting. The report suggests that new jobs could be created in all areas – including those in sustainable energies, homes and buildings and transport.
Providing this many new jobs is vital to tackling climate change and providing a transition for workers employed in polluting industries. It would also assist the two and a half million people currently unemployed in the UK. The report demonstrates how over half those people could be re-employed in new ‘climate jobs’.
The report was partly inspired by the Vestas struggle, where a group of un-unionised workers on the Isle of Wight were given their marching orders when a factory manufacturing wind turbines was shut down. Work in sectors like the aviation industry is notoriously precarious, with boom and bust cycles creating little job security. The report argues for Government investment in genuinely sustainable employment, for work which will continue to be useful; regardless of the vagaries of the market.
This document is hugely important to climate change activists. It helps to highlight the compatibility of workers and climate activist’s struggles and so helps to cement a crucial relationship in the fight against unsustainable capitalism and climate change.
Link on reasons/jobs page leads to article on Peter Mandelson and Airbus – ie previous government. Ideally should point to something the present government is doing wrong, if anything.
Creation of extra Jobs
I have noticed that Manchester Airport does produce more and more jobs every year I have worked there for 3 years and have already had 3 jobs at the same airport. I have noticed that the airports staff community has grown drastically and as the airport expands its terminal buildings, thus creating more squarefootage and therefore floorspace, as well as its cargo centre we will see a massive raise in jobs not only in but around Manchester Airport. As for the environmental factor the airport is constantly undertaking new measures in and around its area, new “Turn off don’t Idle” schemes have come into place around the airfield and the airport has also planted more trees around the area it takes up. When runway 2 was developed Manchester Airport moved thousands of wild animals, including pond life, to new or re-vamped areas of natural beauty. As for the noise and sight polution, I live a mere 15 minutes walk from the end of runway one and I never hear aircraft, not only this but I cannot see anything to do with the airport from my house. You may like to go and have a look in the night sky on a clear day on the railway bridge as there you will see many more stars in the sky than if you looked into the clear night sky at your or anyones house. PIA used to fly from MAN but after they had too many complaints of noise made against them MAN told them to leave. I’d also like to inform you of MAN’s strict recycling policy for all companies at MAN. When a company takes rubbish to the bins they must be seperated into: Green glass, clear glass, brown glass, plastic, paper, newspaper, cardboard, general waste, electrical, and hazardous, if a company is found to have placed something into the wrong recycling bin they gain a fine after three the airport takes stronger action against them. Out of interest the server that your website runs on 24/7 is that an environmentally friendly server made from fully recycled materials and is it energy saving? And what make of computer are you using right now? How did that get here? Boat or aircraft? Probably aircraft. Look around your home and tell youself exactly what has come from English soil and what hasn’t, once you start using items that are only made in England and locally then maybe you can bang on about the effects of air travel on the environment, but not untill EVERYTHING you use is from completley local sources. Sorry, keep meaning to cut it off but, was the paper, paste and ink all eco-friendly? I could go on for a lot longer about how, I feel, this website is incorrect and when the research is done you acctually find that there isn’t a lot of eco-unfriendliness at MAN, also if you distrupt airport activities on and airfield it is classed then as terrorism, around or near a RZ it is just going to p*** people off. Not only this but if you delay a flight or two then passengers still have to get out of the country somehow and wether that be now or later its going to happen and what’s a backlog of an extra 10 aircrafts worth of polution going to do to the eco-system in comparison to all flights leaving on time?