Yorkshire & the Humber TUC is equipping an increasing number of union reps with the skills to successfully negotiate improved environmental outcomes through its pioneering programme of just transition training courses.

The two-day training course is the key priority of the Low Carbon Task Force, originally set up by regional TUC in 2018 to develop a regional low-carbon transition plan through cooperation between unions, business and environmental groups.

The urgent need for a strategic response to the climate crisis is clear from the high concentration of carbon-heavy industries across Yorkshire and the Humber. Not only is the region home to the Drax power plant, the country’s single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, there are also steel, cement, chemicals and glass manufacturing works, as well as energy-intensive industries such as food processing and brewing.

The evolution of this industrial profile means that this network of plants currently provides around 28,000 jobs, according to regional TUC estimates, with another three to four times that number supported in the supply chain.

It was the combination of the urgency of answering the call of the climate emergency and supporting tens of thousands of workers into green jobs that lay behind the launch of the Low Carbon Task Force, according to TUC Regional Secretary Bill Adams.

Bill said:

Our role is to bring together employers, unions, academics, local authorities and enterprise partnerships who are working on just transition, and even institutional investors, to work out what needs to be done in the next 20 to 30 years to make those industries sustainable.”

They’re looking to invest in new green technology, new processes that aren’t polluting – that’s where the future profits lie and that’s where big investors are going to be.”

And central to the work of the task force is its training programme.

Bill explained:

Our main job is to inform union reps in those industries about what the issues are, how they can go about challenging some of the decisions that certain firms are making and how to get these issues on the collective bargaining agenda.”

It's about helping them develop the skills to get involved, to have their feet under the negotiating table right at the start and in some cases lead from the front in terms of what needs doing.”

The just transition course enables learners to:

• examine what national and international climate change policy means for their workplace and region › map their region’s energy use
• evaluate renewable energy and energy reduction options where they work
•  assess the implications for skills and training where they work
•  develop a negotiating strategy with their employer.

Complementing the regional TUC course is a new Level 2 Environmental Certificate at East Riding College called Green Shoots.

 Designed from the ground up by Trade Union Studies Curriculum Leader Rob Goodfellow, the course is aimed at giving union reps not only the latest, up-to-date environmental knowledge but also the organising skills to create change in their workplaces.

Rob said:

I wanted to create a new course that will give people the ideas to get them thinking and all the skills to go out and do something about it – social media skills, public speaking skills and bargaining skills in the workplace.”

With the pressure of dealing with day-to-day industrial issues, union reps may feel they have enough on their plates without having to engage with green issues, Bill points out. But many parts of the business world already recognise their profits are at risk unless they help industries decarbonise, he says.

Bill said:

A lot of investors are saying that if you're not working towards greening your business, we’ll be pulling our money out. They’re looking to invest in new green technology, new processes that aren’t polluting – that’s where the future profits lie and that’s where big investors are going to be.”

Union reps working on just transition also have the force of UK law on their side, he points out.

I’ve said to many reps on the course that green issues might feel like just another headache with all the things they are having to deal with in the middle of austerity but this is the law.”

The government passed an act of parliament to say that companies need to be zero-carbon by 2050, so they need to get on with it. And given the changing, often devastating, weather we are seeing, the sooner the better.”

This case study first appeared in the unionlearn publication “Cutting Carbon, Growing Skills: green skills for a just transition”