Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Climate change: labour’s neglected role

Chris Baldry and Jeff Hyman 30th July 2021

The Paris Agreement’s goals can not be fulfilled if neoliberalism prevails—which means only labour’s participation can bring success.

Paris Agreement,labour,climate change
Chris Baldry

Attractive policy promises, wrapped around ambitious long-term targets, have been presented in advance of the next climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow in November. But authoritative reports on, and critical responses to, the prior G7 negotiations (echoed by a subsequent G20 finance ministers’ meeting) confirm that very little reduction in global carbon emissions and pollution has actually been achieved since the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The main obstacle is not simply an intergovernmental failure to recognise the urgency of the crisis. Rather, it is the prevailing underlying neoliberal model of economic behaviour and growth—with its attendant belief in the ability of the market to solve all socio-economic problems—in which humans and the ecosystem are treated as ‘resources’, to be disposed of or trashed when no longer required.

Paris Agreement,labour,climate change
Jeff Hyman

Despoliation and degradation

This has resulted in a complex pattern of despoliation, in which the degradation of the environment has been paralleled by the increasing degradation of work into low-paid, insecure jobs. The two crises are closely interrelated, through a global system of exploitation extending from the Amazon rain forests to Amazon ‘fulfillment centres’. Just as waste products and emissions are identified economically as ‘externalities’—their costs not reflected in prices of products and services—so the cost of unproductive labour time has been externalised and borne by workers on zero-hours or precarious agency contracts.

The failure of most governments to recognise, still less reverse, the defects of deregulated market activity is reflected most acutely in the lack of multilateral co-operation over climate issues and emissions policies—a weakness only now being addressed by the United States following the disastrous campaign by the former president, Donald Trump, to undermine the United Nations and the World Health Organization.

In the workplace, meanwhile, the primacy given by management to maximising ‘shareholder value’ and so minimising cost, through organisational pyramids of contracting and sub-contracting, has increasingly resulted in low-paid and precarious work, intensification of performance management and denial of workers’ collective rights and representation—to the detriment of health, wellbeing and job satisfaction.

Systematically distanced

It is therefore not surprising that labour and supportive institutions appear to have been systematically distanced from helping to formulate national carbon-reduction policies or participating with governments and employers to adopt sustainable work policies. We argue in our recent book for a reversal: as employers have continually failed to address the environmental consequences of their activities, trade unions must be invited to play a critical role in meeting the challenges of rendering commercial activity and employment sustainable, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and reducing inequality. To combat the existential threat presented by the climate emergency, unions need to be involved as equal partners, alongside national and local government, employers’ organisations, policy specialists and community groups, in developing sustainable recovery programmes.

The New Deal in the depression-era US owed much of its success to the collective support of labour, whose revived membership and policy activity, following federal endorsement, offered valuable support to associated economic programmes. And amid the emergency of the second world war, unions were effectively incorporated into central and sectoral decision-making bodies.

Building on these historical reference points, the various proposals for a Green New Deal have gone some way towards this goal. They usually include a strong case for unions to be involved in plans to switch to green sources of energy, with negotiated agreements to provide secure employment and skills training for those displaced from fossil-fuel sectors and by deindustrialisation. Also, workers are likely to live in communities most affected by atmospheric and other forms of pollution and unions, alongside community groups, must be offered full disclosure on hazards and the authority to intervene in production processes to ensure a clean local environment. Remunicipalisation, in which previously privatised essential services are returned to the public domain, has been given energetic support by unions in the global north and south, and such initiatives are growing rapidly.

Parity of representation

The precise nature of worker voice and agency in meeting sustainability goals will vary with the contours of national employment systems. The system of employee nominees on the most senior bodies of companies practised in some northern-European countries should be elevated everywhere to parity representation, so that employees are partners in strategic environmental decision-making. While current representation has been only partially successful in addressing worker contributions to key decisions, Thomas Piketty argues that these approaches have ‘somewhat shifted the balance of power between shareholders and employees and encourage more harmonious and ultimately more efficient economic development’.

European works councils were established some 25 years ago to provide information and consultation on transnational issues for employees of multinational companies but, despite revisions, their impact on corporate governance has been limited. A more robust system could offer effective contributions from representatives to integrate alongside worker-director co-determination, establishment consultation and collective bargaining. This multi-tiered approach should offer opportunities for national, sectoral and enterprise representatives to contribute to environmental, economic and financial issues at local, organisation-wide and industry levels. But these developments must be initiated and regulated by national and, potentially, international policy-making bodies such as the European Union. Multilateral organisations such as the UN and its labour agency, the International Labour Organization, can make proposals but these are rarely binding on their constituents.

While the concept of ‘the social partners’ remains ignored and largely unknown in the United Kingdom, the experience of health and safety there does offer a model for joint decision-making. Legislation from the 1970s onwards resulted in the widespread establishment of effective joint health-and-safety committees, with many unions appointing safety shop stewards. While much of this achievement has atrophied owing to the decline in union membership, the model could easily be adopted to ensure environmental and sustainability criteria were fulfilled in a company’s activities.

Labour-movement weaknesses

We do not underestimate the obstacles: labour-movement weaknesses are well-documented. Increasing numbers of workers in precarious work are not recognised as employees at all. Where contracts of employment do exist, employers have increasingly adopted individualistic employment practices, estranging atomised employees from meaningful participation in company affairs. Union density and other forms of collective influence at work have meanwhile been progressively undermined, buttressed by the dominance of financial institutions in establishing criteria for funding productive objectives. Also, while transnational corporations develop strategies and oversee operations from a unified command centre, unions are locally based and often forced into competition—competition which can have adverse environmental and employment consequences.  

Traditionally associated with reformist political parties, labour and socialist movements have moreover been progressively undermined over the past 30 years by aggressive neoliberal radicalism, reinforced by the wealth and power of those organisations which have benefited most from market fundamentalism and done least to address the peril of global heating to which they have most contributed. In this period, there have been only limited opportunities for worker-initiated participation.

The climate emergency will however not be resolved by market forces or a greenwashed ‘business as usual’. A Green New Deal could offer the template and regulatory means for a reinvigorated focus by the parties most affected by commercial activity to address jointly the fundamental environmental issues—by empowering them to participate in their resolution.

Paris Agreement,labour,climate change
Chris Baldry

Chris Baldry is professor emeritus in the Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Paris Agreement,labour,climate change
Jeff Hyman

Jeff Hyman is professor emeritus of employment relations at the University of Aberdeen and honorary professor of management at the University of St Andrews.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u421983ae 3b0caff337bf 0 Europe’s Euro Ambition: A Risky Bid for “Exorbitant Privilege”Peter Bofinger
u4219834676b2eb11 1 Trump’s Attacks on Academia: Is the U.S. University System Itself to Blame?Bo Rothstein
u4219834677aa07d271bc7 2 Shaping the Future of Digital Work: A Bold Proposal for Platform Worker RightsValerio De Stefano
u421983462ef5c965ea38 0 Europe Must Adapt to Its Ageing WorkforceFranz Eiffe and Karel Fric
u42198346789a3f266f5e8 1 Poland’s Polarised Election Signals a Wider Crisis for Liberal DemocracyCatherine De Vries

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity”,

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641