Labour and Health in the Anthropocene

This contribution explores the intersection of labor, health, and climate change in the Anthropocene. It starts by reconstructing how working conditions both affect and are affected by environmental transformations, retracing some of the key evolution in the Italian debate that spanned between the 1960s and the 1980s. Oddone and Marri’s approach, based on workers' active participation, marked a significant evolution in workplace health struggles but experienced a gradual decline in the 1980s due to political and economic factors, despite the establishment of the National Health System. The aim of this work is to bring together this body of literature with more recent one concerning climate change and health, as well as climate change and labor, starting from the assumption that climate change needs to be thought of as a global health issues that hence necessitates a reevaluation of the labor-health nexus. Rising temperatures, air pollution, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events put new pressures on workers, particularly those in vulnerable sectors such as agriculture. These climate phenomena not only degrade working conditions but also jeopardize workers' physical and mental well-being.

This contribution proposes reconceptualizing the dynamics of health struggles, suggesting that interventions should extend beyond traditional workplaces, such as factories, and embrace systemic strategies and integrated approaches to address the ecological impact on labor. The aim of this work is to explore how environmental degradation is reshaping labor dynamics and how unions and workers are developing new forms of resistance and protection, analyzing how the awareness of climate-related risks is influencing union actions and workforce perceptions.