Unions and the Environment: Pathways to Global Labor Environmentalism

During the last two decades labor unions at the national, regional, and global levels have developed environmental agendas that add to their long‐standing and well‐justified concerns with occupational safety and health. Yet, it is also fair to say that the internalization of environmental priorities by the broader labor movement remains tentative and contested. The goal of this article is to address three challenges encountered on the road to global union environmentalism, in each case highlighting some promising initiatives undertaken by unions in response. These are the challenges of forming a global labor agenda on the environment, of strengthening the links and deliberations among unions, particularly those in the reconfigured core of the world political economy, and of moving away from business environmentalism and in the direction of social environmentalism.