Can trade unions in Europe afford to act sustainably?

Abstract

The ongoing green transition presents a unique opportunity to revitalize trade unions, while emphasizing their critical role in driving the development of sustainable production and consumption. In the absence of measures of trade unions’ actual sustainability performance and by drawing on the theory of affordances, this article combines the OECD/AIAS Database and the Environmental Module of the International Social Survey Programme to develop an index-based approach. The approach identifies sustainability opportunities called “affordances” to help guide union agendas. The index is applied to 20 European countries, revealing that trade unions in Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Portugal, and Norway have greater possibilities to address sustainability matters. In contrast, unions that emerged in transitional countries during the 1990s or early 2000s demonstrated fewer affordances. The study provides a snapshot of European trade unions’ role in sustainability transitions pertaining to environmental responsibility, social justice, and institutional power influenced by political and economic factors.

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