Around 5% of EU employment remains in highly polluting industries that will need to transition. While public funding is crucial for retraining these workers, businesses themselves must also contribute.Just as we need an all-sector approach to industrial strategy, we must apply social conditions across the entire economy. Dal blog Mission Economics
Last month, I spoke to European trade union leaders at a joint meeting of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Economic and Social Committee’s Workers’ Group about the urgent need to place labor at the center of Europe’s green transition. In 2022 I also gave a talk to the Labour7 group, comprised of the trade union confederations of the G7 countries, at the G7 meetings in Berlin, Germany, and the previous year I had the honor of giving the annual lecture to the International Labour Organization. These discussions are more important than ever with labor’s share of global income in steady decline, and the need for working people to have a stronger voice in the design of our economies—not only the fight for a more equitable distribution.
The discussion at the ETUC highlighted a crucial truth: the concept of a “just transition” has become a popular buzzword in policy circles. But history shows us that transitions are never automatically just – they must be negotiated and fought for. Without putting labor at the center of green industrial policy, there won’t be anything just about it.
