May Day 2025: Advancing a Just Transition for Workers and Climate

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As the world marked May Day 2025, a striking convergence of labour rights and environmental activism emerged: the demand for a Just Transition. Historically, the narrative separating workers’ welfare from ecological imperatives has been a false dichotomy—one that political elites and corporate boards have often exploited. For decades, campaigning on climate change frequently side‑lined those whose livelihoods depend on industries deemed environmentally objectionable, conjuring a divide between economic security and planetary well‑being. Yet, pioneers in the American labour movement of the 1970s introduced Just Transition as a rallying cry: no individual should be forced to choose between earning a wage and preserving their health or dignity.

Today, that concept has metamorphosed into a cornerstone of international climate policy, enshrined in instruments from the International Labour Organization conventions to the Paris Agreement itself, linking emissions reduction targets to commitments on social protection, re‑skilling, and community regeneration. Still, implementation lags woefully: powerful corporations frequently neglect local communities when shuttering polluting facilities, summarily abandoning workers and residents to economic precarity and environmental harm.

Recently, a dramatic illustration of this failure reached global headlines: the Colombian unions SINTRAMINERGETICA and SINTRACARBÓN took legal action against Glencore’s subsidiary Prodeco, which had overseen the closure of coal mines in the Cesar and Magdalena departments. Despite Glencore’s reported profit of US$10.6 billion in the previous fiscal year, the court determined that the company had conducted only a perfunctory community consultation, violating procedural fairness and neglecting to negotiate adequate social safeguards. Colombia’s Constitutional Court, invoking due process, ordered the resumption of meaningful talks with over 20,000 stakeholders across four municipalities—underscoring that genuine community engagement cannot be an afterthought in decarbonisation efforts.

This Colombian example is far from isolated. From Mpumalanga in South Africa, where miners face job loss amid declining coal demand, to East Kalimantan in Indonesia, and coalbelt regions in Poland, the pattern persists: fossil fuel operators announce retirements of assets under the guise of climate leadership, then depart without delivering the promised social investments. Yet the tools for a more equitable transformation exist; they require political will.

Spain offers a compelling template. When Madrid opted to phase out coal extraction, the government mandated extensive negotiations with trade unions, secured a financial envelope through the European Union’s Just Transition Mechanism, and launched comprehensive support for affected workers and municipalities. This included income compensation, retraining programmes, and economic diversification initiatives—actions that recognised the political dimension of closing carbon‑intensive facilities.

However, many nations in the Global South lack comparable fiscal resources and often endure the brunt of industrial contraction without safeguards. Thus, calls have intensified for a Global Just Transition Mechanism—an institution capable of coordinating international assistance, pooling financial and technical expertise, and ensuring participatory processes. Such a mechanism would align with the UN’s Just Transition Work Programme established at COP28 in Dubai and solidified—albeit tentatively—at COP29 in Baku, which embedded social justice within the architecture of climate negotiations.

As we advance toward COP30 in Brazil, the imperative is twofold: embed Just Transition policies—social protection, upskilling, reclamation of degraded lands—not as optional add‑ons but as fundamental prerequisites for credible climate ambition; and operationalise a Global Just Transition Mechanism that channels support to countries and communities unable to finance a green shift independently. Governments must also delineate clear sectoral plans—detailing timelines, funding streams, and stakeholder roles—to forestall corporate greenwashing and ensure accountability.

The challenges are manifold. Corporate interests often marshal a two‑pronged assault: denial and delay, funded by fossil fuel oligarchs, and the façade of “green growth,” embraced by firms across sectors that advocate superficial sustainability while cutting jobs and externalising environmental costs. The trade unions, social movements, and environmental organisations must therefore coalesce, forging a broad‑based alliance that amplifies workers’ voices, uplifts marginalised communities, and confronts powerful economic actors.

This May Day, the symbolism is pronounced. Workers in coal towns—like Robert Woods of Nkangala, South Africa, who resides adjacent to a lignite-fired power station—embody the stakes: without robust transition frameworks, families face financial ruin and health risks once plants or mines close. In Colombia’s coalfields, dismissed miners and contractors await the reopening of dialogues that might secure severance, retraining, and land reclamation. In Spain’s Asturias and Germany’s Lusatia, communities are witnessing the tangible benefits of coordinated, just phase‑outs.

Ultimately, Just Transition is more than a policy toolkit; it is a moral and political imperative. It demands that climate movements abandon technocratic insularity and engage with the lived realities of workers. It insists that unions transcend narrow sectoral bargaining to address ecological collapse as an existential threat. And it obliges governments and international bodies to underwrite the social dimensions of climate action with enduring financial commitments and legally enforceable frameworks.

As COP30 convenes in Brazil, negotiators must not only reaffirm emission reduction pledges but also commit to a durable Global Just Transition Mechanism—one that upholds transparency, ensures the participation of unions and affected communities, and safeguards the principle that environmental progress cannot be divorced from social justice. Only then can we reconcile economic security with ecological necessity.

May Day’s clarion call rings clear: climate activism and labour advocacy share a destiny. The convergence of these movements offers a pathway to a livable planet and dignified livelihoods. If climate policies neglect workers, they will inevitably falter under social backlash. Conversely, if labour struggles ignore ecological boundaries, they will doom future generations to instability.

A truly Just Transition binds people and planet in mutual preservation. It is time to move beyond isolated, site‑specific interventions and embrace a global strategy—one that channels solidarity and resources to where they are needed most. In this shared endeavour, the memory of the Martyrs of Chicago—workers who, in 1886, stood against industrial despotism and were executed for demanding an eight‑hour day—soars as a reminder: collective action can reshape societal orders. Today’s frontline workers and climate defenders carry that legacy forward, united in pursuit of dignity and a thriving Earth.

This May Day, the message is unmistakable: green futures must be just, for without justice, sustainability remains an empty promise. At COP30, the world will judge whether leaders have the vision to enshrine social equity alongside environmental ambition—and whether workers’ calls, long unheard, will finally shape the trajectory of our global response to the climate crisis.