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Available Open Access here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

To wrap up, transformative transition strategies are most likely to come from social justice-oriented unions. They tend to confront power relations, pick up on the climate debate, join coalitions with environmentalists and allow for participation from below. (11/11)

7) Public discourse: If climate movements succeed in raising public attention about the need for rapid decarbonisation, unions have an incentive to become involved in the transition debate to not be perceived as climate laggards. (10/11)

6) Political context: If just transition policies are on the agenda and unions get a seat at the negotiating table, unions are more likely to engage in green transition policy-making. If state planning and participatory governance are absent, unions remain more defensive. (9/11)

5) Economic context: Green transitions following neoliberal paradigms make unions expect a worsening of employment conditions. This is even more so if adverse labor conditions in the broader economy contrast with favorable conditions in fossil fuel sectors. (8/11)

4) Coalitions: Unions may be tied to vested interests in the fossil fuel economy. Or they may pursue alliances with environmentalists and create inter-union exchanges, in this way building up coalitional power for a just transition. (7/11)

3) Organizational structures: Strong internal democracy, support from leadership, abundant resources and identities not tied to fossil fuels facilitate internal debates on how to strengthen union power through green transitions. (6/11)

2) Union ideology: Narrowly member-focused unions tend to protect existing jobs. Social partnership-oriented unions stay close to their partners' transition views. Unions with a broader socio-political mandate may build social power by linking social and climate justice. (5/11)

1) Sectoral interests: Arguably the most important factor for why unions oppose or support transition policies. Unions in fossil fuel sectors have much to lose, while those that can get a foot in the door in green sectors may have a much brighter future. (4/11)

In examining union strategies in coal transitions in Germany and South Africa, I identify a number of conditions that influence the strategic choices unions make in green transitions. (3/11)

Unions are neither natural opponents of environmental movements nor their natural allies. Instead, my premise is that unions make strategic choices re: green transitions to protect/expand their structural, organizational, institutional and societal power resources. (2/11)