Wellington Soares, reporting from New York, special for Brazil Fund
Wind power plants, a major part of Brazil’s energy transition, are becoming a nightmare for rural communities. The noise from the turbines is so loud that it is affecting the mental health of people living nearby. Land leases are abusive, and the promised jobs in the energy industry were never created. “We are fully aware that the energy transition is crucial to curbing climate change, but it has had a significant impact on small farmers and traditional communities,” said Marisa Alves da Silva, president of the Rural Workers and Family Farmers Union of Piatã, in the northeastern state of Bahia.
Marisa’s remarks were part of the panel “Labor Leading on Climate,” which brought together union leaders from the U.S. and Brazil to discuss how workers can play a more significant role in climate change and energy transition policies. The event, which was co-organized by the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, the Climate Jobs Institute, the DIEESE, the Solidarity Center, and Labora—Fund for Decent Work—took place on September 27 during New York Climate Week.
The panelists highlighted how workers across different industries are heavily impacted by both climate change and the proposed solutions to replace fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, with cleaner sources like wind and solar energy. “It’s important that the transition to a more sustainable and decarbonized economy is a just transition,” said Lara Skinner, executive director of the Climate Jobs Institute at Cornell University and the panel’s moderator. “Workers and their organizations need to be at the forefront of shaping what a just transition looks like, as they understand their workplaces better than anyone else,” she added.
The speakers mentioned that collective bargaining is one of the most effective mechanisms for mitigating the impact of climate change. Sonia Mistry, Climate and Labor Justice Director at the Solidarity Center, highlighted a study done in Cambodia showing that, in places where there are unions, workers’ heat stress can be reduced by up to 50%. “To accelerate climate action, we need a labor movement fully equipped to support the delivery of a climate justice vision deeply connected to workers’ rights and well-being and their communities,” she said.
Another point highlighted was the importance of philanthropy in supporting the work done by unions. “Workers are the first and foremost affected by the impacts of climate change, in cities, in the countryside, by the rivers, in the forests, especially women, especially the black and Indigenous population,” said Amanda Camargo, project coordinator at Labora, the Fund for Decent Work.
Other panelists included Miriam Cabreira, president of the Oil Workers’ Union of Rio Grande do Sul, Ana Georgina da Silva Dias, regional supervisor for Bahia at DIEESE (an inter-union department of statistics and socio-economic studies), Lenore Friedlander, executive director of Climate Jobs New York, and Andrés Puerta, director of special projects at the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE).
The Impact of Climate Change on Labor
As the event took place in New York, the states of Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia faced Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest in U.S. history. During the storm, newly unionized workers worked nonstop to pump water from energy plants. “One engineer had to sleep at work after working 16 hours straight trying to pump water from the overflowing bay. He had to wake up and keep pumping water out of the treatment system to prevent external flooding,” Puerta said.
The discussion also focused on how extreme weather events exacerbate income, racial and gender inequalities. Hurricane Sandy, which hit New York in 2012, led to the creation of the Climate Jobs Institute. “Since then, it has become clear that working-class communities, especially non-white communities, are the hardest hit and struggle the most to recover from extreme climate events,” Skinner pointed out.
In rural areas, extreme heat and changing rainfall patterns deeply affect the lives of agricultural workers and family farmers. “We used to know the right month to plant our crops. Today, with climate change, we can’t predict when it will rain or when the sun will come out,” said Marisa.
According to the panelists, the effects of climate change should be included in workers’ demands and collective bargaining agreements with both the government and employers.
Challenges of the Energy Transition
Collective bargaining is crucial for ensuring a just energy transition. In theory, replacing fossil fuels with cleaner energy should include a plan to create new jobs with good wages, benefits, and working conditions, but this is not always the case.
Brazil’s northeastern region is the most affected by wind and solar energy production due to its abundance of sun and wind. “The high levels of inequality made it seem like the arrival of renewable energy companies would be the salvation, not only ecologically and energetically but also as an opportunity to bring jobs and better living conditions. Unfortunately, this did not happen,” said Ana Georgina Dias.
Problems include soil desertification in areas where solar panels are installed, exploitative land lease contracts, and a significant discrepancy between the number of jobs created during the construction and operational phases of power plants. “When wind farms and photovoltaic parks are implemented, the permanent jobs generated are minimal, between 20 and 30 positions. However, this number can reach 3,000 during construction,” Dias explained.
The Role of Unions
In the U.S., the International Union of Operating Engineers negotiates collective agreements to mitigate job losses between the construction and operational phases. One solution is the creation of Project Labor Agreements, where companies commit to maintaining a minimum number of jobs even after the construction phase. “These agreements open up significant opportunities to ensure that workers are trained, unionized, and earn good wages with benefits to support their families. This is something companies would prefer to avoid, but together, we ensure they don’t,” Puerta said.
The dialogue between the oil workers’ union and the government in Brazil was also highlighted. According to Miriam Cabreira, union organizations can finally engage in discussions with the government, which did not happen between 2016 and 2022. The primary demand is for Petrobras, the country’s state-owned oil company, to lead the energy transition. “Petrobras has a national character, and it can develop projects to reduce regional inequalities,” Cabreira said.
The exchange of experiences among participants strengthened the dialogue, which is expected to deepen in the coming months, including the Climate Jobs Institute’s visit to Brazil in 2025.
The collaboration aims to strengthen union organizations’ efforts related to climate change. “When there’s consensus among labor, environmental, social, and youth movements that corporate greed is the root of the problem, it’s possible to build a much larger sustainability movement that is committed to creating good jobs,” Friedlander concluded.
