FOCUS □ CLIMATECHANGE ANDLABOURSTANDARDS Crisis, What Crisis? Environmental imperativesmay forcesociety to alterits understanding ofthe notionof work.This offers the greatest challenge to organised labour NIGEL MOOTER isPrincipal Lecturer In Labour &Trade Union Studies atLondon Metropolitan University Ulrich that ernenvironmental the Beck fundamental inhis'risk crisis difference society' is in theses the in character the asserts modthat thefundamental difference inthemodernenvironmental crisisis inthecharacter oftheproblem; he conceptualises thenotionof the 'pervasiveness of risk',whereas,traditional technologies presented hazardsthat werelocalin origin andcouldbe controlled locally, newtechnologiespresent hazardson a qualitatively differentscale .Thesetechnologies, that includegenetic modification, nuclear power,andnanotechnology ,arguably presentrisksof a magnitude far greater thanhas everbeen envisaged before and thatpotentially threaten ourquality oflife, ifnot ourcontinued existence. Whyshouldthisbe of particular concernto trade unionists? It'sa goodquestion; theanswer is, ofcourse,multi-faceted. Firstly, I wouldargue,it has had a significant impactupon manyof our politicalreferencepoints and assumptions.I wouldn't fora moment wantto givetheimpressionthat I believethat'Greens' havea monopoly ontruth whenitcomestoa political assessment of society, farfromit. Howevertheirinfluence in informing the imperatives of modernindustrial society isdifficult tounderestimate; rebuke them if you like, but ignore them at your peril! Nevertheless, interms ofa programme resolution thepolitical position ofmany mainstream Greens, farfrom beingnew ithas a veryfamiliar marketbasedflavour toit.Their emphasis on theindividualmaking 'rational choices'inthemarket toinfluence the direction of supplyand demandin a moreecologically-minded direction, far from challenging orthodox market liberal thinking tendsto reinforce it.Consider, forexample, Anita Roddick intheintroduction totheGreenConsumer Guide , 'theindividual is forcing thechange.People are shopping around, notonlyfor theright jobbutfor theright atmosphere'. A statement that completely ignores thepossibility ofcollective actionthrough unionsor even thereformist handof regulatory change;it is therefore reactionary. Nonetheless, Greenpolitical influence isstill manifold including theobservation that thenature ofpervasive environmental risk results intheconcept ofclassbeing transcended; as DavidPepperhassceptically summarisedin Radical Environmentalism and the LabourMovement, 'pollution, overpopulation and resource shortages wouldgetus all,regardless of whether we wereleft orright, middle orworking class'.Anditis notjusta departure from socialisticpolitics that mainstream Greens predict, itisthe transcendence of all 'traditional' politics; 'theleft areno better thantheright, andthecentre is the worst ofthelot'.(Porritt, J.inSeeingGreen1984). Forthetrade movement, that has,ifnotuniversallytheninthemajority ofcases,described itspoliticsinshadesofred ,thisis a challenge. Secondly, themoveto a low carboneconomy isboundtodisplaceemployment incertain areas; it may even precipitate the closureof certain industries resulting indisplacedworkers competing forwork in the job market- a process, euphemistically referred to as 'job churn'.As much as the promiseof new environmental employment opportunities may exist,such a processis bound to generategreatinsecurities and worries for any labour force currently employed but under threat.Thirdly,in the extreme scenario there's thepossibility that environmental imperatives mayforcesociety to significantly alteritsunderstanding ofthenotionof work.Itisthislatter pointthat perhapsoffers the greatestchallengeto organisedlabour.Whilst redundancy can be devastating foran individual worker, tradeunionism has alwaysmanagedto accommodate thechanging patterns ofworkand industry andremain relevant tosociety. However, it remainsto be seen how equipped modern tradeunionswillbe atadapting, orperhapsaidinga transition toan alternative economicmodel ifitisultimately concluded that capitalism itself is theproblem. Whatabout theWorkers? 'Labouris encumbered by a century's worthof obsolescent philosophy ... thatitcan becomeno moregreenthana tortoise can becomea hare'. The wordsofJohnMorrissey, quotedby David Pepperin1986seemtoeffectively summarise the position orantithesis inmuchofthe1980sGreen movement towardstradeunionism.Indeed, a SERAeditorial in 1985,wentso faras tosuggest that'there is a dangerthatsometrades unionists may,in the long term,be sidingwithcapital, helpingto sow theseeds ofa poisonedfuture'. Anysnapshot ofGreenviewsoftradeunionsis alwaysgoingto be plaguedwithgeneralisations thatdon'tnecessarily reflect thefullpictureof tradeunion ecologicalengagement and many will be familiar withthe positiveexamplesof tradeunioninvolvement inenvironmental issues. Somearemoresympathetic totheroleoforganised labour;MaryMelloreloquently outlinesin Breaking Downthe Boundaries that 'workers will notbe movedtodestroy their ownlivelihood by somevagueniceties aboutsaving theplanet', and this,is,perhaps, thecentral cruxofthisdebate; oftenreferred to as the 'jobs and environment trade-off itessentially describes theunreasonable positionof expecting a workerto foregotheir livelihood forthesakeoftheenvironment, when inreality a worker willdefend their ability toearn a wage againstanythreat, howeverwell-meaning .The character ofthisdefencecan often then be attackedforits apparentshort-sightedness, limited visionand lack of political conviction INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 18Volume 17Issue 12010 FOCUS □ CLIMATE CHANGE ANDLABOURSTANDARDS for, itis argued,whilstmanytradeunionscan illustrate internal policiesthatsupportenvironmental imperatives, whenitcomesto a decision betweenemployment or protecting theenvironment ,theywill side withthe job everytime, thereby, as Pepper(1986) suggests, ignoring 'the possibility thatsometechnologies arepotentially too dangerousand costlyto be continued'. Indeed,itcanbe anargument difficult tocontend whenconsidering numerous policiesrelating to trade unionsupport forairtravel, nuclearpower amongmanyothers.Moreover, when you discovertrade unionsthat areinopposition tosuch supportivepositions, greater scrutinyoften revealsthe pandering to sectionalmembership interests. Itmakesitdifficult nottoconcludethat trade unionsarecurrently so steepedintheexistingeconomic arrangements that they're limited to thinkonly in termsof protecting jobs...