Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma

Adrien Thomas and Nadja Dörflinger 12th November 2020

Unions can be torn between mitigating climate change tomorrow and saving jobs today. A significant Just Transition Fund could ease that dilemma.

union strategies, jobs versus environment
Adrien Thomas

The European Trade Union Confederation has criticised the fact that the Covid-19 recovery package, Next Generation EU, does not contain a stronger Just Transition Fund. The transition to a low-carbon economy is one of the major challenges ahead for the European Union, its member states and citizens. It also poses a particular challenge for trade unions which have to take a stance vis-à-vis this large-scale transition—as it will inevitably reshape the economy, create and destroy jobs and affect working conditions and skills.

union strategies, jobs versus environment
Nadja Dörflinger

No matter how unions respond, they may be faced with criticism. If unions advocate ambitious mitigation of climate change, workers may turn away because of potential job losses. Companies may meanwhile blame unions, as policies reducing emissions could entail lower profits.

If unions however focus on safeguarding employment—possibly to the detriment of the environment—this may spark criticism from society at large. So how do unions deal with the challenge of decarbonisation and reconcile potentially diverging interests?

Three strategies

Most unions across the EU generally acknowledge the need to stem climate change and endorse the goal of decarbonising the economy. Their particular strategies are however marked by the dilemmas arising from concerns over job losses.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

Our recent research has identified three union approaches towards emissions-reduction policies in manufacturing and power generation: opposition, hedging and support. These are best conceived as ‘ideal types’—not necessarily expressed in a pure form in reality but points on a spectrum.

Strategies opposing climate-change mitigation see unions openly reject emissions-reduction policies in the industries they represent. To the best of our knowledge, the only example of such outright opposition would be the Polish coalminers’ unions, seeking to preserve jobs and arguing for national energy ‘sovereignty’.

Hedging strategies are adopted by those unions that do not deny the need to mitigate climate change but seek to minimise (rather than oppose) regulation, advocate incremental approaches and construct a dichotomy between the competing priorities of employment and environmental protection. An example is the position of the steelworkers’ unions affiliated to the European trade union federation IndustriAll Europe, over the latest reform of the EU emissions-trading system.

A similar response could be observed among unions representing car workers, dealing with new EU-wide CO2 emission standards for cars and vans. Car workers’ unions upheld employment concerns, arguing for incremental approaches. Hedging strategies seem to be the most widespread ones to date.

Support strategies are adopted by unions with a proactive approach to decarbonisation. An example is the Statement on a Just Energy Transition signed in 2017 by the union participants in the European social dialogue in the energy sector (Eurelectric, European Federation of Public Service Unions and IndustriAll Europe). Although not legally binding, the statement includes recommendations on company policies and calls for additional public investment in a just transition.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Relatively new topic

The diversity in strategies reflects the challenge unions face. As climate-change mitigation is a relatively new topic on which unions are just about to build up expertise, their strategies are not necessarily based on an exhaustive analysis of circumstances and evaluation of all options, but are likely to be influenced by short-term perceptions and established modes of organisational priority-setting.

Unions should however adopt a long-term perspective. The transition towards a low-carbon-economy will inevitably happen and how unions position themselves may offer opportunities as well as threats.

There is the opportunity for unions to present themselves as responsible actors proactively shaping the just transition. Such a response could raise public awareness of the broader role of unions in society and help recruit new members, including in the emerging and expanding green economy.

Just Transition Fund

There is however a risk that established groups of members adversely affected by decarbonisation could turn away from unions. This danger explains the importance that European trade unions assign to the Just Transition Fund within the EU recovery plan.

A strong political commitment by European leaders and lawmakers to a substantial fund would represent a resource for those within the union movement willing to address the challenges of climate change. Resolute public support for mitigating the possible adverse employment consequences of decarbonisation would make it easier for unions to strike a balance between employment and climate concerns.

Adrien Thomas and Nadja Dörflinger

Adrien Thomas is a research scientist at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), focused on employment relations and the social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Nadja Dörflinger is a senior social scientist in the 'Changing World of Work' research group at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), Germany, interested in employment relations, labour markets and trade unions in a comparative European perspective.

Home ・ Ecology ・ Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

trade,values,Russia,Ukraine,globalisation Peace and trade—a new perspectiveGustav Horn
biodiversity,COP15,China,climate COP15: negotiations must come out of the shadowsSandrine Maljean-Dubois
reproductive rights,abortion,hungary,eastern europe,united states,us,poland The uneven battlefield of reproductive rightsAndrea Pető
LNG,EIB,liquefied natural gas,European Investment Bank Ukraine is no reason to invest in gasXavier Sol
schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube