How do workers view the green transition?   Representing worker interests in climate and just transition agendas 

Abstract:

Addressing the climate and environmental crises will call for dramatic shifts in production and consumption with considerable implications for jobs and skills. How trade unions operate as 'climate actors' has come under scrutiny through assessment of union environmental policy positions, collective bargaining strategies and workplace innovation on environmental issues. We suggest that an understanding is also needed of the union-worker nexus. How do workers view the climate challenge, what climate responses do they want included in their demands for the so-called 'just transition'? Examining data from national level surveys of 4,000 German and UK workers conducted in 2022, this paper explores the ways in which workers in these two contexts view the green transition: their perceptions of the climate challenge, the prospect of green economy transitions, the implications for jobs and skills and their preferences for how the implied restructuring should be managed. We consider the responses of workers in countries with comparable climate policy but distinct employment relations systems. The paper reflects on how organised labour in those contexts currently articulates worker interests and the implications for worker representation in climate and just transition agendas.

Speaker:

Dr. Jo Cutter is a Lecturer in Work and Employment Relations at the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change at Leeds University Business School. She is also a member of the Priestley Centre for Climate Change at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on social dialogue and the regulation of work with a core focus on the negotiation of skills formation and training. Her current research includes a 12-country study of labour agency within Climate and Just Transition policy and practice funded by the Hans Bökler Foundation and an ESRC funded multi-actor study of the re-regulation of work in the UK labour market post-Brexit . Prior to joining LUBS, she worked for 15 years in public policy research on vocational training and lifelong learning for government departments, NGOs and UK trade unions. Her practitioner and academic research has informed government and union policy-making in the UK nations and regions and the EU. She has also written on research impact and the co-production of research between academics and other stakeholders. She an executive member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association and on the Board of the European Sociological Association Research Network 17 Work, Employment and Industrial Relations. She speaks English and Spanish.