Trade Unions and Labour Environmentalism Network (TULE)

TULE explores how trade unions can advance working-class environmentalism and tackle today’s ecological challenges through collective action.

SASE 2026 – MC07 Rethinking Labour on a Troubled Planet

We are delighted to announce that the schedule of our SASE mini-conference is out! All details may be found below.

22 JUNE – ONLINE SESSION

3 JULY

PARALLEL SESSION 1 – FINDING SOLIDARITY FOR A JUST TRANSITION
  • Dissident voices: energy workers wrestle with the “just transition” (Andrew Stevens and Emily Eaton)
  • Reconfiguring union jurisdictions in a warming world: climate change and trade union conflict (Evelyn Dionne, Pier-Luc Bilodeau)
  • Pursuing a Just Transition in the education sector (Todd Vachon)
  • Varieties of green collective bargaining. The German case in international comparison (Nele Dittmar and Isabel Kleefeld)
  • Workers as transition managers? Transition approaches and experiences of Works Councils in company production networks within Germany (Maximilian Wilken and Nathan Weis)
  • When executives revolt. The entry of managers into the trade union movement through their embrace of the environmental cause (Pauline Riffaud)
PARALLEL SESSION 2 – LABOUR ENVIRONMENTALISM IN AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS
  • Reputation and risk as industrial survival strategy: trust in renewable energy work (Beck Pearse)
  • Agricultural exceptionalism and the missing Just Transition in Canada (Stephanie Eccles)
  • Just Transitions in urban food systems: inter-municipal reflections on Istanbul and London (Laura Toffolo, Alejandro Colas, Candan Turkkan)
  • Revisiting class analysis in the context of the climate crisis: insights from Soma, Turkey (Gökçe Yeniev)
ROUNDTABLE – ELECTRIC CARS AND THE GLOBAL WORKING CLASS: WHAT SHOULD UNIONS DO?

SPEAKERS:

  • Lucas Cifuentes (University of Manchester, UK)
  • Mathieu Dupuis (Laval University, Canada)
  • Ian Greer (Cornell University, USA)
  • Laura Leonelli (University of Milan, Italy)
  • Gregor Murray (University of Montreal, Canada)
  • Christian Pepin (University of Montreal, Canada)

CHAIR:

  • Anja Kirsch (Free University of Berlin, Germany)
PARALLEL SESSION 3 – GLOBAL SOUTH JUST TRANSITIONS
  • A temporal struggle analysis of the hegemony of and resistance to privatization: the case of the Philippine electric power industry reform act of 2001 (Brian-Anthony Gumiran)
  • Ensuring inclusion and sustainability: examining the application of Just Transition principles and the role of trade unions in the modernization program of the Jeepney transport sector in the Philippines (Lucille Jade Galvan)
  • Just Transition on whose shoulders: labour regime in Chilean lithium industry (Lucas Cifuentes)
  • Who benefits from Green Transitions? Labour, foreign investment, and industrial policy in Brazil and Chile (Arantza Gómez Arana, Jorge Damián Rodríguez Díaz)
  • The Alteo Gardanne red mud case through the lens of labour environmentalism (Mody Diaw and Valérie Deldrève)
WORKERS’ ROUNDTABLE – ASIA’S SOCIAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE ON THE ENERGY TRANSITION

SPEAKERS:

  • Asad Mehmood (Pakistan Workers Federation, Pakistan)
  • Benjamin Velasco (University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines)
  • Seok Kim

CHAIR:

  • Chao Cabatingan (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Philippines)
KEYNOTE: LIAM CAMPLING

Oceanic Accumulation, Ecological Decline and a Maritime Just Transition?

KEYNOTE: MATT HUBER

After the Climate Movement: Against Movementism and Toward a Labor Strategy

4 JULY

ROUNDTABLE – A NEW PHASE OF THE CLIMATE TRANSITION: ORGANIZE, INDUSTRIALIZE, DECARBONIZE, DEVELOP

SPEAKERS:

  • Andrew Curley (University of Arizona, USA)
  • Nikki Luke (University of Tennessee, USA)
  • Priyanka Mohanty (United Auto Workers, USA)

CHAIR:

J. Mijin Cha (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA)

PARALLEL SESSION 4 – GREEN CAPITALISM AND LABOUR RESTRUCTURING IN MANUFACTURING
  • Diversity and competition between circular economy models: limited inclusion of workers (Clarisse Cazals)
  • An uneven and fragmented transition to electric vehicles? Evidence from Benelux car, truck and component plants (Lynford Dor, Valeria Pulignano, Yennef Vereycken and Marco Hauptmeier)
  • Permanent restructuring through electrification: insights from Stellantis factories in France and Italy (Clelia Li Vigni and Angelo Moro)
  • A Just Transition to Electric Vehicles: Employee Representatives and the Legitimacy of Restructuring in the Auto Industry (Tobias Zimmermann, Anja Kirsch, Ian Greer)
  • Unions in Transition: Socio-Ecological Conflict in the Automotive Sector in Italy and Spain (Pierpaolo Mosaico)
  • The Ecology of the Labour Process: Control and Resistance in an Italian Home Appliance Manufacturing Plant (Angelo Castellani and Pierpaolo Mosaico)
TULE’S ROUNDTABLE – BRIDGING THE GAP: TRADE UNIONS AND LABOUR ENVIRONMENTALISM NETWORK (TULE)
  • Vinnie Collins – A Just Transition or Just Another Transition? How Deindustrialization Impacts Labour Union Strategy Over The Energy Transition
  • Brendan Davidson – Yesterday’s Values, Tomorrow’s Industry: The Manufacture of Local Labour Regimes in Colorado
  • Nicole Kleinheisterkamp González – Green class dealignment – Rethinking climate policies without alienating workers
  • Jonathan Michaud – Workers’ agency in just transition: overcoming contested interests and conformity in the workplace
  • Christian Pépin – “Green” Progressive Competitiveness in Troubled Waters: The Case of Quebec’s Recent Industrial Policies
  • Benjamin Velasco – Just Transition Images: Comparing Awareness of Climate Impacts and Responses by Informal Transport Workers and Platform Riders