Jobs vs. climate justice? Contentious narratives of labor and climate movements in the coal transition in Germany

Climate and labor movements clash over the need to keep fossil fuels in the ground versus protecting industrial jobs. In examining movement-countermovement dynamics in the coal transition in Germany, I analyze how labor and climate movements engage in discursive struggles about the meaning of justice in the just transition. In combining Gramscian theory with a narrative approach, my focus is on how labor and climate movements construct narratives around justice claims in the struggle over the hegemony of coal. In the case examined, claims about distributional, restorative, procedural and recognition justice are pitted against each other in jobs versus climate narratives. The results show that the inability to resolve the justice dilemma ultimately weakened counterhegemonic challenges and delayed the coal transition. This points to the need for transformative just transitions that bridge jobs versus climate divides and for a closer look at conflicts, contradictions and tensions in just transitions.