Workers and labour movements in the fight against climate change

Labour organisations play an increasingly active role in climate and green transition politics, with the worker perspective broadly encapsulated in calls for a ‘just transition’, whose principles are set out by the International Labour Organisation and the International Trade Union Confederation in terms of environmental sustainability, decent work and union voice. The just transition agenda provides unions with a platform to pursue a socially just, green transition that counters technological and market-oriented narratives that dominate the inter-governmental climate change agenda. The chapter identifies the range of union strategies and interventions adopted, their sectoral specificity and realisation, and tensions in implementing a ‘just transition’ at global, regional, national and local levels. The notion of a ‘just transition’ is orchestrated by global labour unions involved in the regulatory space of international climate governance, with limited involvement of non-European affiliate organisations. With its focus on waged-labour, the union-centred social dialogue approach can also marginalise informal- or self-employment, migrant workers, communities impacted, and grass-root organisations, whose inclusion is critical for just and equitable outcomes. At local level, the context-dependent nature of a just transition is apparent as environmental interventions foreground power inequalities between stakeholders, the challenges of ensuring effective union representation, sectoral differences, and diverse union identities. Bottom-up climate action involving direct input from front-line communities, workers and activists can be the well-spring of transformative transition strategies, challenging existing inequalities and exclusions. Nevertheless, union engagement in the governance of the transition process tends to be top-down, lacking the involvement of rank-and-file membership. Empowering workers for a proactive role is crucial if a just transition is to be grounded in their experiences, respond to their needs and succeed against other stakeholder interests. Such a just transition is vital for economic and social justice and to ensure effective action to meet the climate emergency.