Unions as environmental actors

Building on a long history of concerns with the working environment, unions are now addressing issues arising from the debates and policies on the human causes of climate change. This article examines how unions are responding to such issues. Many unions are extending their capacities in relation to environmental concerns and in the process are refocusing their purpose. This is, however, not straightforward: unions are caught in a tension between pressures to ensure job creation and pressures towards environmental responsibility. While unions address climate change as independent organizations, more comprehensive outcomes may be possible via emergent forms of unionism that bring unions and their local communities together in solidaristic ways.