Workers & Community United – Environmental Action From Below

Photo Credit: UNISON

14th July 2025

We are excited to announce the launch of Workers and Community United: Environmental Action From Below, a campaigning partnership between the Working Class Climate Alliance and the trade union UNISON (Environment Agency Yorkshire and North East branch).

The continued threat of climate change and support for far right parties requires the creation of new political formations. These new formations must truly represent the working class and our interests, and must be rooted in an active desire to preserve the environment for present and future generations. This partnership will, therefore, aim to increase political participation, strengthen community ties, and engage locals in hands-on environmental action. It will take place in a working class community in Yorkshire or the North East (England). More specifically, we will:

  1. Develop a programme of education and engagement.
  2. Carry out the programme of education and engagement with the aim to build a community-based environment network, with a working class identity and outlook, so that the community are empowered to take leadership on environmental and social issues.
  3. Provide information, training and education services to help community leaders build the skills necessary to lead and organise such projects.
  4. Work with community stakeholders to deliver environmental goals which also has benefit to their standard of living, e.g. upskilling local unemployed people in environmental technical skills by offering opportunities to have a hand in solving environmental issues which benefit their community.
  5. Build solidarity between workers and communities across racial, gendered, sexuality or ableist boundaries.
  6. Include community partners that are often not involved in environmental restoration efforts as a means of reducing environmental access inequality.

As the branch notes:

“We have committed to the slogan ‘fighting for members and the environment’. We maintain that this slogan is born of a real tendency and identity; we see it as our role and our duty. We have environmental expertise and consciousness, a history of bottom-up organising and acting in solidarity, we have an opportunity to use our skills and experiences to build something that has real power and purpose.”

The motion for this partnership was passed unanimously in the trade union branch in June. Click here to read it in full (click on Motion 8 to download the document).

This partnership has been generously funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. We are seeking additional funding to expand the impact of this project – if you are a funder and would like to discuss supporting this partnership, please email us at info@wccalliance.org or via the Contact Us form. If you would like to make an individual donation, you can do so here.