Despite their reputation for linking progress and security to dirty smokestacks, many trade unions around the world have designed and fought for sophisticated environmental policies—many of which promote a radical restructuring of production in order to prevent environmental harm. This article surveys trade union perspectives on cleaner production and offers examples of trade union action for cleaner production in the United States and around the world. Two general conceptual frameworks arising out of union writing on the subject—the “Transition Position” and the European-based “Harmony of Interests”—are elaborated. The article concludes with recommendations for employee participation in pollution prevention activities and ideas for a trade union agenda on cleaner production.
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References
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KohlerB., Making the Transition to a Clean Economy, presentation to Great Lakes United, CEP Website, June 2, 1995.
2.
TindaleS., Jobs and the Environment, SERA, the Labour Environment Campaign, London, Great Britain, February 1996.
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United Steelworkers of America, Our Children's World: Steelworkers and the Environment, 1990 and USWA Environmental Policy Statement, USWA Website.
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Canadian Labour Congress, Pollution Prevention Strategy and A Workers' Manual on Pollution Prevention—How to Clean Up Your Workplace and the Environment at the Same Time, CLC, Ottawa, Ontario, July 1998.
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T&G Safety, Health and Environment Issues and European Works Councils Guide, Transport and General Workers' Union, London, Great Britain, March 1997.
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All examples, except where noted, are from Cohen-RosenthalE., Labor, Climate Change and the Environment, Work Environment Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1997.
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Cohen-RosenthalE., Environmental Action and Social Partnership in North America, New Solutions, Fall 1995.
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The Public Health Institute and the Labor Institute, Jobs and the Environment, New York, May 1993. Citing Dorfman, Muir and Miller, Environmental Dividends: Cutting More Chemical Wastes, Inform, New York, 1992.
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BungeJ.Cohen-RosenthalE.Ruiz-QuintanillaA., Employee Participation in Pollution Reduction: Preliminary Analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory, Work Environment Institute, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1997, WEI Website. J. Buckbee, Total Employee Involvement Helps the Bureau of Engraving Meet Pollution Abatement Goals, Pollution Prevention Review, Winter 1990–91.
18.
MassCOSH's unpublished Labor and Toxics Use Reduction: Opportunities and Challenges, (Draft 1992) is a very useful guide and it informs many of the points below. Additionally, unions will find useful the booklet Using the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act to Protect Worker Health: A Fact Pack for Labor Unions, also by Mass-COSH and published by TURI at University of Massachusetts Lowell. It is based on the previous draft document.
