Abstract
Political conflict between environmental advocates and polluting industries is easily under-stood. However, workers may also be affected by environmental measures leading to the involvement of unions in environmental policy debates. The impact of environmental policy on the status of workers varies a great deal and the position that unions take on environmental issues also shows significant variability. How unions will relate to environmental organizations and whether cooperation or conflict will develop between them requires examination. In this article, the case of the Wisconsin Labor-Environmental Network, a political coalition of unions and environmentalists, is used to examine the outcome of labor-environmental interactions around a range of issues. Utilizing class and social movement theory to inform the analysis, a typology of strategic outcomes is created that encompasses the range of possible results. These include (a) instrumental cooperation, (b) enlightened cooperation, (c) compromise cooperation, and (d) cases of irreconcilable differences.
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