About the project

From 2014, ProBE partnered with York University, in Toronto, Canada, in the project programme Adapting Canadian Workplaces – An International Perspective (ACW). This large, seven-year international research project was funded by a Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant for $2,547,130 (plus a further $2.2 million in matching funding and contributions from partnering organisations). It was led by Professor Carla Lipsig-Mummé of York University, Ontario, Canada, with Linda Clarke as Associate Director, and Colin Gleeson, Melahat Sahin-Dikmen and Fred Steward on the team.

The project included 38 individual members and 19 partners (including the University of Westminster) in four countries. The ACW programme gained ever greater momentum as new projects were developed, proposed, awarded and progressed. ProBE’s research for ACW focused in particular on the implications of climate change for the labour process and the vocational education and training (VET) systems in Europe, in particular for the construction sector. It also examined the role of unions, national and global, questioning whether and how the voice of labour is articulated in green transition policies, strategies and actions.

For the University of Westminster the projects under this programme include:

  • Baseline report, submitted 2016, with papers on Policies and practices to promote work enhancing pathways in the transition to a low carbon economy: Europe and Labour Unions and Green Transitions in the US, $10,500
  • Green Transitions in the US and Europe, $20,000, 2016–2017
  • Green Transitions in the Built Environment, $47,000, 2016–2018.
  • Just Green Transition and Global Union Organisations, $26,000, 2019–2020

Following the partnership with York University in Toronto, Canada, ProBE has gained increasing expertise and recognition in this area, in particular in relation to the role of unions in climate change.

Contact

For further information, email: 

Outputs

  • 4 February 2021: Linda Clarke invited to introduce and present at a special panel on Trade unions and climate change at the ETUC-ETUI (virtual) Conference on Towards a new socio-ecological contract, 3–5 February, Brussels
  • 18 July 2020: Linda Clarke invited (virtual) presentation on Construction, social housing and retrofitting, Leeds Retrofit campaign, Leeds Trade Union Council (TUC) 
  • 8 February 2020: Linda Clarke invited presentation on Global and international trade union approaches to a green and just transition, University and College Union (UCU), Trade Union Congress
  • 29 January 2020: Linda Clarke invited presentation on Climate change, labour and the built environment, Northumbria University Business School seminar
  • 23 January 2020: Linda Clarke invited presentation Digitalisation in the Construction Sector: challenges and opportunities, CGIL Discus workshop, Rome
  • 9 July 2019: Trade unions and the green transition in construction, Linda Clarke invited speaker to Trade Unions for Energy Democracy meeting on Energy Transition and Economy-Wide Decarbonisation
  • 1–2 March 2018: Linda Clarke invited speaker to How do we interpret ‘Just Transition’?, European Trade Union Institute workshop, Proactive just green transition in practice: exit from coal, exit from the combustion engine – what does this mean for employment?, Brussels
  • 4 November 2017: Building in our workplaces for a Just Transition and energy democracy, Linda Clarke invited speaker to panel A Just Energy Transition, PCS Green Forum, Leeds