Trade unions’ interpretation of a just transition in a fossil fuel economy

Normann, Håkon Endresen; Tellmann, Silje Maria

doi:10.1016/j.eist.2021.09.007

Cited by 33 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Stevis and Felli (2015) and Sweeney and Treat (2018) distinguish between different union approaches to just transition which drastically range from adjusting to green growth paradigms to questioning issues of ownership and control over power production. Unions’ mixed preferences display a response to the varying degrees decarbonization will affect their sectors (Normann and Tellmann, 2021).…”

Section: Just Transition—a Contested Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their debate about two types of policies needed for a transition, Normann and Tellmann (2021) highlight the importance of mixing destructive policies to phase-out fossil fuels and creation policies to build new industries. However, they miss a third path which is the demand for a green transformation of existing production and the “recycling” of skills after conversion.…”

Section: Futures Of Forced Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The case for an environmental labor geography: The role of organized labor in the climate crisis

Kleinheisterkamp-González

2023

Progress in Human Geography

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Geographers have increasingly studied labor and climate change, albeit not in a unitary field. I propose to address this by outlining an environmental labor geography – that draws from labor geography’s tenets. Moreover, I agree with other scholars that organized worker-led mass movements will be key to solving the climate crisis. Thus, I argue that labor agency is a useful tool that centers workers’ actions. However, to derive useful generalizations for struggles on the ground, the concept should be delimited to organized expressions of agency. Finally, I examine past and present conversion debates as cases of interest in ELG.

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Section: Just Transition—a Contested Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Futures Of Forced Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The case for an environmental labor geography: The role of organized labor in the climate crisis

Kleinheisterkamp-González

2023

Progress in Human Geography

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“…Instead, the existing literature has tended to highlight the relationships, decisions made, and interpretations of just transition by relatively powerful organisations such as governments, trade unions and businesses. Cha (2020), for example, probes local contestation to just transition in the US by interviewing representatives from unions, coal companies, government and the civil service, while Normann and Tellmann (2021) analyse conflicting policy interventions and interpretations of just transition between energy sector trade unions in Norway. Many existing studies are focused on interactions between unionised workers and their communities with state policy, and do not substantively explore other power relations or social divisions (Bray and Ford, 2021;.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics, voice and just transition: who has a say in climate change decision making, and who does not

Boss

Dietzel

Godshaw

et al. 2023

Global Social Challenges Journal

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The city of Bristol, UK, set out to pursue a just transition to climate change in 2020. This paper explores what happened next. We set out to study how just transition is unfolding politically on the ground, focusing on procedural justice. Over the course of a year, we conducted interviews and observations to study decision making at three levels – public sector, private sector and civil society. We found that not only is it difficult to define what just transition means, even for experts, but that the process of deciding how to pursue such a transition is highly exclusionary, especially to women and ethnic minorities. We therefore argue there is an urgency to revise decision-making procedures and ensure that there is ample opportunity to feed into decision-making processes by those who are typically excluded. Inclusive decision making must be embedded into the process of just transition from the beginning and throughout its implementation – it is not a step that can be ‘ticked off’ and then abandoned, but rather an ongoing process that must be consistently returned to. Finally, we conclude that cities have the unique opportunity to pilot bottom-up participatory approaches and to feed into the process of how a just transition might be pursued at the global level – for example, through their participation in the United Nations Framework for the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) processes.

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“…Consequently, the Norwegian industry regularly terms itself the cleanest in the world. In recent years, however, climate change has challenged this bond between labour and environmental interests as emissions from offshore production and the end-use of petroleum products have led to calls for a transition away from petroleum (Normann and Tellmann, 2021).…”

Section: Oil Industrial Relations and The Green Transition In Norwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Literature on Norwegian unions’ climate change policies tends to focus on the petroleum sector and on policies at the national level. The LO is typically foregrounded and portrayed as a united, collective representative of workers at the aggregate level (Normann and Tellmann, 2021; Mildenberger, 2020). There are fewer studies concerned with how climate change policies are expressed in the ‘micro-model’, involving bipartite relations at the enterprise level.…”

Section: Oil Industrial Relations and The Green Transition In Norwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Not my task’: Role perceptions in a green transition among shop stewards in the Norwegian petroleum industry

Houeland

Jordhus‐Lier

2022

Journal of Industrial Relations

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In the petroleum-dependent Norwegian economy, climate change politics challenge the powerful petroleum industry, and Norwegian shop stewards in that industry find themselves in cross-pressures of representation and responsibility. In this article, we investigate what role trade unionists in the oil sector play and can play, in a green and just transition. We analyse data from six focus group interviews with shop stewards in the petroleum industry. By engaging with theories of roles and role perceptions in light of labour agency, we fill a theoretical gap in the conceptualization of workers’ collective agency. Respondents describe themselves as active part of a green transition in their capacity as workers, but the role of shop stewards neither seem to offer tools nor a mandate for representing environmental concerns: Climate change is not their task. Shop stewards respond to externally ascribed role expectations by insisting that primary agency resides with politicians, companies and consumers–and union leaders. Their reactive and ambiguous role interpretation can prove risky, as the employment outlook in the industry is changing radically and rapidly. Last, we find that there are both a need and potential for re-scripting shop stewards’ role that is active and relevant in the green transition.

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Trade unions’ interpretation of a just transition in a fossil fuel economy

Cited by 33 publications

References 41 publications

The case for an environmental labor geography: The role of organized labor in the climate crisis

The case for an environmental labor geography: The role of organized labor in the climate crisis

Politics, voice and just transition: who has a say in climate change decision making, and who does not

‘Not my task’: Role perceptions in a green transition among shop stewards in the Norwegian petroleum industry

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