Conference Agenda

Global energy transitions, particularly the shift away from coal, are driving significant changes in labor markets, with profound implications for workers in coal-dependent regions. In this context, trade unions are pivotal actors in advocating for just transitions that ensure socio-economic support for affected workers, promote economic diversification, and facilitate inclusive, participatory decision-making processes. Drawing from comprehensive empirical research, this paper critically examines the evolving role of trade unions in shaping just transitions in India.

The paper addresses two key research questions: First, how can trade unions in India can lay claims in emerging energy systems while maintaining their influence in India’s coal sector? Second, what are the key stakeholders shaping trade union agendas on just transitions, and how do these interactions influence outcomes?

The study employs a rigorous mixed-methods approach. I have conducted 37 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with union leaders, policymakers, and experts across India's coal regions. This is complemented by a unique, primary dataset of 500 union-led grievances filed in coal belts from 2015 to 2024, providing a longitudinal perspective on labor issues, union demands, and evolving priorities. Additionally, the research integrates document analysis of union charters, meeting minutes, and reports, along with media and policy analysis to contextualize union activities within broader socio-political and economic dynamics. The analysis applies the power resources approach (PRA) and frameworks from the political economy of coal to examine how unions mobilize resources, build alliances, and negotiate with stakeholders.

The findings indicate that the revival of the PRA provides trade unions with opportunities to assert their influence in emerging energy sectors. Unions can advocate for employment in these sectors and address the needs of informal workers, as both the coal and renewable energy industries in India are characterized by a high degree of informality. Unions are uniquely positioned to contribute insights into supply chain data, worker skill sets, and the socioeconomic dependence on coal due to their close connection with workers. The study also reveals that unions are expanding their agenda to include broader community concerns and actively engaging with local governments, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to influence transition planning in some way advocating social movement unionism.

This paper makes a significant contribution to the literature by presenting the first comprehensive empirical dataset on grievances addressed by trade unions in India’s coal regions and their role and influence in both existing coal-dependent labor markets and the emerging renewable energy sector.

Global climactic changes have contributed to an increase in the intensity and frequency of floods and fires in Australia (Plass & Zinn, 2024). Some regions, such as the Blue Mountains, NSW, have recently been affected by cascading disasters like drought, fires, the pandemic, floods, and storms. Continuing as a viable and sustainable workplace in the face of cascading disasters relies on the collective rather than the individual and involves all components of the workplace (Ingham et al., 2023). Climate change-related disasters are predicted to increasingly impact work health and safety in Australia (Wuersch et al., 2023). The Australian Government (2018) has employed a community-led approach in its Disaster Preparedness Framework, intending to increase the disaster resilience of both workplaces and their local communities.

Our study investigates how a regional NSW workforce can contribute to workplace safety by actively engaging in a decision-making process supported by a Resilience Action Plan framework. We ask the research questions: What role can workers play in disaster-prone workplaces to improve resilience and workplace health and safety? And how can their voice be strengthened in broader climate-related decision-making processes?

Following Yin’s (2018) case study methodology, we collected data relating to childcare centres engaging a predominantly young and female workforce in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia, between 2023 and 2024. The data was analysed using thematic template analysis (King & Brooks, 2016) and NVivo software to investigate worker initiatives to increase their own workplace resilience.

Results highlight that workforce-led actions and plans are vital for workplace safety in Australia’s disaster-prone regional and remote areas. Being assisted by either governmental or non-governmental structures can help the workforce, both leaders and employees, engage with workplace health and safety measures. In particular, a trauma-informed approach enhances the creation of trust, which, in turn, strengthens disaster-affected workers in effectively dealing with past trauma and preparing for the future. The research found that a bottom-up approach to worker support can increase workplace resilience and safety.

With climate change-related disasters on the rise, workplace resilience is becoming more important. Consequently, our empirical investigation informed two recommendations. First, organisations should empower their leaders and employees for ‘resilience thinking’. Second, workplaces must support their employees by offering climate-related decision-making approaches or frameworks to work with. This case study highlights the success of implementing the Resilience Action Plan approach in childcare centres across the Blue Mountains, NSW, and suggests further improvements.

Extreme temperatures already claim more lives around the world than any other natural hazard and under climate change this risk is increasing. Nevertheless, whilst the scale of the problem is increasingly recognised, understanding the lived experience of excess heat is a major research challenge.

A key issue facing such efforts is that heat stress is socially as well as geographically determined. The thermal experience of climate change is thus determined both by one’s position in space, and one’s position in society. The jobs we do, the roles we play in society, the conditions we work in, and our freedom within those roles, all shape our exposure to the changing climate.

This paper presents data on heat stress in the workforce from Cambodia, where the number of very hot days – days over 35˚C or a Wet Bulb Global Temperature [WBGT] of 32˚C (UNICEF, 2022) – have increased by 46 days per year since 1990 (World Bank and ADB, 2021), making the country one of the world’s most vulnerable to the impacts of rising temperatures. In climates like Cambodia’s, WBGT is a major threat to health, with a large proportion of the working population of the country centred in high-risk sectors

Our study presents data from an integrated heat stress assessment methodology, combining body worn CORE thermal sensors with survey and qualitative data. It draws on data from 788 workers in three occupational sectors: garment workers, informal sellers and transport workers.

Its results show that the proportion of workers experiencing heat stress depends on time of year, spatial location, occupation and specific roles within each occupation. In addition, the likelihood of workers experiencing heat stress is associated with socio-economic factors such as assets, liabilities and income.

In addition, the findings shed light on the effectiveness of individual and site level heat mitigations. It finds individual mitigations, such as using hand fans or wearing lighter clothing, to make no statistically significant difference to core temperatures. However, collective mitigations such as factory level measures, collective bargaining and union membership, are shown to be effective.