Toward a Green Jobs Alternative: Examining the Politics of Internationalism and Labour Environmentalism in a Local Union Campaign

Abstract

Industrial workers and their organizations are faced with two interrelated crises as the continued reorganization of production shutters plants and devastates communities while the existential threat of climate change grows. Addressing both crises at once often seems impossible. This article offers a critical analysis of a campaign by unionists and community allies to confront both crises at once, to see their shuttering auto plant taken over and retooled for socially useful production. The failure of the campaign to win its demands or build a critical mass of support within the union emphasizes the importance and difficulty of inspiring workers to imagine radical alternatives during times of crisis.