Trade unions, climate change, and the north-south divide

Global environmental degradation and the global division of labour constitute a "dual exposure" to the effects of globalisation. The focus of our analysis is on how these processes intersect with industrial relations and the formulation of trade union environmental strategies.

The paper presents findings based on trade union policy and discussion papers, participant observation at conferences, and over 35 in-depth interviews with senior trade union officials in national and international unions and NGOs.

Our findings show that the traditional power relations between the global North and the global South are reproduced to a certain degree within the trade union movement. Given the evidence of environmental destruction and the crisis of justice, there is a need to reconfigure what development means. Alternative models of development that are being created in the North and the South by unions and by environmental movements might provide the bridge to connect the seemingly irresolvable conflicting interests of Northern and Southern unions. The task appears less impossible when we remember that historically unions were created precisely to solve the apparently irresolvable conflict between the individual interests of workers competing against each other and the need to organise a unified response against exploitation. This same conflict exists now at a global level and suggests the need for a global response from workers. This could be a critical moment in trade union history, where unions recognise that although addressing climate change is a non-traditional area of their concerns, it could be decisive for their future, not only in terms of the effects it will have on jobs, but also regarding the impact it could have on international solidarity.