Health, Safety & Climate Protecting Workers in a Warming World

As we move into May month seven of our Year of Climate Action it’s vital to recognise that climate change isn’t a distant or abstract threat. It’s already here, and it’s already a health and safety issue for working people.

From rising temperatures on the production line to poor air quality, extreme weather, and the strain on food supply chains, workers are facing the frontline impacts of a warming world. And, as ever, it’s trade unions not employers who are stepping up to protect workers’ lives, livelihoods, and wellbeing.

Climate Change Is a Workplace Issue

In our food factories, bakeries, and distribution centres, temperature and ventilation are already critical safety concerns. As the climate warms, the risks grow. Heat stress, dehydration, and fatigue can become life-threatening, especially in fast-paced or high-temperature environments where workers are under pressure to keep up with production targets.

Outside the workplace, extreme weather from flooding to storms affects travel, supply chains, and the safety of communities where our members live. Air pollution, allergens, and poor indoor air quality are also on the rise, hitting those with existing health conditions the hardest.

These aren’t isolated problems they’re all connected. The climate crisis is a workers’ health crisis, and that makes it a union issue.

Unions Protect Workers Employers Don’t

We’ve seen what happens when health and safety is left to employers: corners are cut, workers are silenced, and profit comes first. The same mindset that allows unsafe temperatures and poor air quality is the one driving environmental destruction.

But unions change that equation.

Through collective action, health and safety reps, and negotiation, we give workers a voice to report hazards, demand improvements, and hold employers accountable for safe and sustainable practices.

BFAWU’s reps are already raising climate-related safety issues in workplaces: from pushing for better ventilation and air filtration to insisting on fair rest breaks and access to drinking water during hot weather. These are not “extras” they’re essential protections for workers in a changing climate.

Adapting Workplaces for a Warming World

As the world heats up, so must our demands. We need employers to plan ahead not wait for crisis conditions. That means:

• Assessing climate-related risks as part of every health and safety review.
• Investing in better ventilation, cooling, and insulation systems.
• Ensuring rest breaks, hydration, and protective clothing are standard, not optional.
• Involving unions in developing and implementing workplace climate safety plans.
• Recognising heat, air quality, and extreme weather as legitimate health and safety hazards.

These steps are about dignity, prevention, and protection values that lie at the heart of trade unionism.

From the Shop Floor to the Movement

Climate change doesn’t respect industry boundaries, and neither should our organising. As temperatures rise, so does the urgency for solidarity between unions, sectors, and countries. We must stand together to demand that no worker is forced to choose between earning a wage and protecting their health.

BFAWU’s message is clear: we can’t tackle the climate crisis without tackling its impact on workers’ safety and wellbeing. Every rep, every branch, and every collective agreement has a role to play in building safer, greener workplaces.

Because protecting workers in a warming world isn’t a side issue it’s at the heart of what our movement stands for.

The fight for climate justice is the fight for safe work.

And as always, when workers organise, we don’t just survive the crisis we lead the way to a safer, fairer future for all.