Industrial relations for a green economy for a green Industrial relations The project “Industrial Relations for a green economy” develops a compara- tive analysis of best practices in industrial relations on environmental matters. Industrial relations The focus of the project is to identify frameworks and operational guidelines for trade unionists and other actors of the bargaining processes and to pro- mote a more effective and participatory dialogue in Europe on green issues. for a green economy The project aims to analyze good practices trading with respect environmen- tal issues in several cases: conflicts between the need to maintain workplaces Innovative bargaining processes for a sustainable and the need to have sustainable environmental conditions; creating new jobs growth and a quality employment through new productions exposed to environmental hazards; production of goods and services with a specific “green” connotation which makes them more valuable and competitive; industrial reconversion with training of human Project VS/2014/0405 co-founded resources and changing of productive processes. by DGESAI - DG EMPLOYMENT, SOCIAL AFFAIRS and INCLUSION This publication is edited by Elisabetta Biliotti, Francesco Lauria, Francesca Ricci. Research group of the project is composed by: Francesco Lauria, Eli- sabetta Biliotti, Giuseppe D’Ercole (CISL National Confederation, Italy); Re- nato Santini (USR CISL Toscana, Italy); Sergio Sorani, Francesca Ricci, Daniele Cavallotti, Gabriella Fenili (Ecologia&Lavoro, Italy); Marco De Giuli (FLAEI Cisl, Italy); Achim Vanselow, Jürgen Lange, Sabine Katzsche-Doering (Arbeit und Leben - DGB/VHS NRW Germany); Bruno Duchemin, Sophie Gaudeul, (CFDT, France); Sébastien Storme, Lydie Gaudier (FGTB, Belgium); Christina Theo- chari, Anastasios Zafeiris (INE GSEE, Greece). With the support of European Union European Commission - DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The content of this do- cument does not reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the information and views expressed therein lies entirely with the author(s). EDIZIONILAVORO Industrial relations for a green economy Innovative bargaining processes for a sustainable growth and a quality employment Project VS/2014/0405 co-founded by DGESAI - DG EMPLOYMENT, SOCIAL AFFAIRS and INCLUSION EDIZIONILAVORO © copyright 2015 Edizioni Lavoro Roma via Salaria 89 photocomposition and cover: Typeface, Cerveteri (Roma) printed finished in february 2015 by tipolithography Empograph Villa Adriana (Roma) Table of Contents Introduction by Annamaria Furlan 7 “Just transition” and role of trade unions by Józef Niemiec 9 The project 11 Industrial relations in the green economy 15 Research methodology 23 The cases 29 The guidelines 87 Useful materials and links 151 Introduction by Annamaria Furlan* The “jobs versus the environment” frame has featured prominently in recent decades but it really needs to be thoroughly examined and interrogated. There are people who strongly claim that a green alliance is possible and can provide us with a more optimistic view of the future. The “Europe 2020” Strategy is the most recent attempt to react to the crisis and increase the competitiveness of European society through the pro- motion of values of a sustainable, efficient and inclusive growth. Development and employment policies are more and more linked to envi- ronmental issues: the creation of new jobs linked to the environment and the promotion of a quality employment necessarily constitute a priority objective of the European social model, in which the social partners and social dialogue are fundamental. From our reflection clearly emerges that analysing negotiation processes and identifying new environmental skills for trade unionists are key issues for an effective social dialogue on environmental and employment matters. Envi- ronmental issues should not in fact be considered an externality, a cost, but a great opportunity for the economy development’ and an effective and partic- ipatory social dialogue. The project starts from the awareness of the multiple external and internal connections linked to the environment in the workplaces and a further step consists in the positive interaction of various stakeholders. A perspective that moves in the opposite direction conceives the busi- ness-oriented policies to maximize the benefits in the short term, using the re- sources available in a given environment context until these have been ex- hausted. It can be assumed that a system of industrial relations, able to maintain a dialogue between the parties and take shared decisions, is a necessary con- dition to expand the actions of the stakeholders involved and the conditions to help their participation and contribution to the production of results that sat- isfy them. * CISL General Secretary. 7 Participatory approaches are an important condition for promoting a posi- tive balance between environmental protection and the productions’ devel- opment. Globalization has a role at the same time strong and unambiguous: it helps relocations with short-term outlook, but it can relaunch the need for establish or enhance shared processes and engaging, and the importance of making vis- ible the results and the bargaining processes of the actors involved. An important result of this project is guaranteed by the exchange of expe- riences and good practices between organizations from different countries put- ting in an European prospective the knowledge enhancement of every single organization. The most important added values of this project are two: confronting solu- tions used in other European countries aiming at their optimisation and im- plementation and the diffusion of the already existent knowledge in the trade- unions organizations of the partner countries. The project promotes the dis- semination of skills and information which are often known only by some spe- cialised operators and not used and shared to a larger circle of trade-union- ists and workers. The guidelines included in this publication are, finally, a concrete mani- festo that will be very useful for a “glocal” action inside the processes of in- dustrial relations and collective bargaining oriented to support the “just tran- sition” from a “green economy” to a “green society”. 8 “Just transition” and role of trade unions by Józef Niemiec* For many years now, the ETUC has been supporting the ambition of making the economy low-carbon and resource efficient, in Europe and worldwide. This is an absolute priority since what is at stake is preserving planets habitability. We share the idea that the EU needs an alternative economic model based on more solidarity, less dependency, more sustainability, more support for activ- ities which will make the EU the world leader of the low-carbon industries. It is however crucial that the social dimension becomes a central component of the transition towards a low-carbon and resource-efficient economy. We need a policy framework for a “Just transition”. Such a framework should aim at supporting climate and environmental policies with a set of labour instru- ments which will maximise the potential to create quality jobs, while cushioning the possible negative impacts of the transition. Driving investment towards sustainable activities which will create quality jobs, boosting the greening of skills for the workforce, enhancing social protection systems, strengthening workers’ rights, are all key pillars of “Just transition”. “Just transition” means also that the transition towards a low-carbon and re- source-efficient economy must include initiatives to promote social dialogue and workers’ participation. The scale of changes necessary to build a true sus- tainable economy demands strong engagement from all parts of society. So- cial dialogue, negotiation and participation are the fundamental values and tools of our society. Workers have a role to play in greening their workplace and must also be able to anticipate the changes and restructuring which could im- pact them. This report demonstrates that Trade Unions have a key role to play in that tran- sition and that across Europe, workers representatives are already playing a leading role in making our economy more sustainable. Strengthening this role will continue to be a major priority for the ETUC in the future. * Etuc Deputy General Secretary. 9 The project Industrial relations for a green economy - Europe 2020: innovative bargaining processes for a sustainable growth and quality employment Co-applicants CISL n.le (Applicant) Italy; USR CISL Toscana Italy; Ecologia&Lavoro Italy; CFDT France; FGTB Belgium; INE GSEE Greece; Arbeit und Leben DGB NW Germany. Affiliated and partner organisations FLAEI CISL Italy; IAL Toscana (External Expertisee) Italy. Associated organization ETUC European Trade Union Confederation. Aims and objectives Comparative analysis of best practices in industrial relations on environ- mental matters. Focus of the project: identify frameworks and operational guidelines for trade unionists and other actors in bargaining processes and promote a more effective and participatory dialogue in Europe on environmental matters. The project aims to analyze good practices trading with respect on envi- ronmental issues in the following cases: 1. Conflicts between the need to maintain workplaces and the need to have sustainable environmental conditions; 2. Creating new jobs trough new productions that expose to environmental hazards; 3. Production of goods and services with