Abstract
The article discusses the ways in which international trade unions are conceptualising the relationship between jobs and the environment. On the basis of interviews with union representatives, four such ways are discerned: »technological fi x«, »transformation of social identities«, »rearticulation of immediate interests« and »engagement for general interests«. All four ways of reasoning imply a re-invention of unions as social movements but reduce nature to an environment providing the conditions for human health/illness. The authors argue that Marx’ notion of labour and nature as the two sources of wealth and of work as the process in which humans develop their capabilities can provide a point of departure for unions to conceptualise production as a process in which nature and labour form an alliance. This implies challenging the private appropriation of nature.