Trade Unions in the Green Economy

Seminar, 9 May 2011

David Uzzel and Nora Räthzel (University of Umeå, Sweden)

Trade Unions in the Green Economy: tackling the jobs – environment, North - South contradictions

Combating climate change will increasingly impact on production. Whether we are looking to create 'greener’ technologies or transform economies to become more sustainable, production and thus workers will be affected. Even policies that focus on reducing or changing consumer behaviour or consumption practices will influence production. Research to date has largely ignored the effect on workers and trade union policies towards climate change. This presentation will focus on what we see as one of the main conflicts facing trade union policies globally. The apparent contradiction between protecting jobs and protecting the environment with which trade unions are confronted when environmental measures are not accompanied by social measures. We will discuss the policies unions are developing to combine social and environmental sustainability, that is moving towards a green economy specifically and sustainable societies more generally. The emphasis will be on the conflicting views of unions in the global south and unions in the global north.

The research draws on 36 semi-structured interviews with unionists in international, regional, national and local trade unions in Sweden, the UK, Brazil, South Africa, and Malaysia, participant observation in Trade Union conferences and policy documents of unions internationally and nationally and in the metal unions and transport workers’ unions in the respective countries.

For more information on the book, visit the Routledge website here.