Just Transition for All? Labor Organizing in the Energy Sector Beyond the Loss of “Jobs Property”

Nikki Luke

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2023, vol. 113, issue 1, 94-109

Abstract: In this article, I investigate the origin, limits, and possibilities of just transition as a policy framework to support labor organizing in the energy sector. Just transition first emerged within the labor movement to describe measures to “make whole” workers laid off as the result of necessary environmental policy. Following Gidwani (2015), I analyze claims for income replacement or continued employment as an assertion of “jobs property” based on the collectively bargained standards that unions have negotiated for dangerous jobs in fossil fuel sectors. Although the uses of just transition have grown to encompass broader demands for a democratic and equitable shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy including energy, environmental, and climate justice, I observe that the objectives of labor-centered climate policy often remain focused on the defense of jobs property for dislocated workers. I argue compensation for the loss of jobs property is insufficient to address historical exclusions of people of color and women from energy industry employment or secure the livelihoods of dislocated workers given increasing precarity. Drawing from more than eighty interviews and field work with energy justice campaigns in Atlanta, I consider the case of energy-sector workers in the U.S. South to center a just transition framework that reconstitutes a social wage to address the uneven spatial development of the U.S. labor market.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24694452.2022.2079471 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:113:y:2023:i:1:p:94-109

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/raag21

DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2022.2079471

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of the American Association of Geographers is currently edited by Jennifer Cassidento

More articles in Annals of the American Association of Geographers from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().