The Just Transition subscription-only newsletter, and the content we make available for free, is a resource for workers, unions, environmentalists, community leaders, political leaders, government institutions and companies.
The site is anchored on a set of clear principles:
Just Transition is a moment to reconsider the fundamental concepts of the planet’s economy.
Just Transition must be “high bar” and should be transformative, not just reform the current economic system.
All workers effected by decarbonization must be made whole in overall income and benefits, and, at the same time, communities must be robustly financed to encourage job creation that will benefit men and women equally and spark economic development that makes up fully for any decline in losses to the tax base or other income that decarbonization-related activities contribute.
Where new jobs are created, those jobs must offer at least 100 percent equivalent wages to disappearing good-paying, union-wage jobs and offer every worker full-time, good-paying work, not precarious, low-paying, irregular work.
Smart economics should drive “high bar” Just Transition: workers who lose incomes will not be able to spend at their local stores or keep up with monthly bills, thus, undercutting overall demand for goods and services, which will sap the economy of its vitality. This guarantee should be reinforced with a global “green” minimum wage and a reduction in work hours as society re-imagines labor in the future economy.
Corporations and unions must negotiate on equal footing over jobs losses and, in the same vein, unions must be part of the planning for new jobs—with full incomes paid until a paycheck from a new job begins.
Just Transition means evaluating how energy, and other social goods (such as clean water and clear air), are equally shared. In the future, access to electricity will increasingly require broad democratic rights to establish more publicly-owned energy resources to deliver energy at affordable local prices. To fashion such a paradigm will mean nationalizing large portions of the emerging “green” industries—and that goal should be pursued now.
We will be open to presenting contrasting views without abandoning our core principles.