Unions demand greater role in low carbon economy

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) will today call for unions to play a greater role in the development of a low carbon economy with the release of a new report urging government and businesses to ensure workers' groups are fully involved in the transition to greener business models.

The report, which has been compiled by sustainable business think-tank the Green Alliance and features contributions from the leaders of some of the UK's largest unions, calls for the development of a so-called "just transition" which ensures that new green jobs are fairly distributed and that those who lose jobs as a result of the decline of carbon-intensive industries are adequately supported.

Writing in the report, Jack Dromey of the UK's largest union Unite and Sally Hunt of higher education union UCU, argued that unions had to play a central role in an economic transition that will inevitably lead to painful job losses in some sectors.

"Trade unions must be central to decisions about retaining and creating decent green jobs, ensuring that there are the investment and skills needed to do so and assistance for workers and communities that would otherwise suffer," they wrote. "The transition cannot be left to short-termist and brutally impersonal market forces alone, as the recent experience of job losses at [wind turbine manufacturer] Vestas has made all too clear."

They called on the government to adopt legislation similar to that already in place in Spain, where unions and government have agreements in place guaranteeing workers involvement in the development of environmental policies.

They also reiterated previous TUC calls for a "Green New Deal", arguing that low interest rates and high unemployment meant "there has never been a better time for a mass upscaling of public "green works"".

In addition, the report called for unions to extend their reach to promote membership in emerging low carbon sectors, arguing that workers in new industries are less likely to be unionised.

Dromey and Hunt cited the example of the waste and recycling sector, which employs over 170,000 people, but currently has an accident rate four times the national average. They argued that the high accident rate is partly the result of the prevalence of small and medium-sized operators that lack union recognition agreements and therefore do not have joint statutory health and safety committees in place.

Stephen Hale, director of the Green Alliance, said that the development of a low carbon economy had the potential to revitalise a union movement that has suffered in recent years from falling membership.

"This is the obvious step for the modern trades union movement in the UK," he said. "We have been excited by the growing engagement and commitment of the unions here to the opportunities presented by the sustainable economy agenda."