Workers Demand a Green New Deal

October marks the final month of our Year of Climate Action, and after a year of organising, reflecting, and mobilising, one message shines through:

real climate action will not come from the top it will be won by workers, from the ground up.

We’ve spent the past year showing what that looks like. From green bargaining and health and safety campaigns, to fighting for fair pay and food justice, BFAWU members have proven that climate action and class struggle are inseparable.

Now, it’s time to take that fight from the shop floor to the political stage and demand a Green New Deal built by workers, for workers.

Climate Action Is Political

We’re told the climate crisis is about personal responsibility recycling more, eating less meat, driving less. But working people didn’t create this mess. It’s the result of decades of deregulation, privatisation, and corporate greed.

For too long, governments have handed control of our energy, food, and transport systems to the same corporations driving inequality and environmental collapse. They’ve let profiteers decide who heats their home, who gets fed, and who gets left behind.

The solutions won’t come from market tinkering or voluntary pledges they must come from public ownership, investment, and democracy. We need a political and economic transformation driven by working-class power, not corporate interest.

A Green New Deal for Working People

A real Green New Deal means more than just renewable energy targets it means a new settlement for working people. One that guarantees decent, unionised jobs, safe workplaces, and secure communities. One that rebuilds our industries, restores public services, and invests in the future.

For food workers, that means an end to low pay and insecurity in the food system and public investment in safe, sustainable food production, distribution, and regulation. It means protecting our members from the effects of heat, pollution, and precarious work, while building an economy that serves people and the planet, not profit.

And it means putting workers in control of the transition through collective bargaining, workplace democracy, and public accountability.

Power, Not Promises

Politicians love to talk about “green growth” but without strong unions and public ownership, it’s just another excuse for profiteering. A just transition cannot be left to the market. It has to be fought for, organised for, and built by the people whose labour keeps society running.

We need policies that redistribute wealth and power:

• Publicly owned energy, transport, and food systems.
• Investment in green jobs with trade union standards.
• Democratic planning to ensure no worker or community is left behind.
• Strong collective bargaining rights so workers can shape the transition, not be casualties of it.

These are the foundations of a Green New Deal not as a slogan, but as a practical programme for justice, equality, and survival.

A Movement for the Future

The Year of Climate Action has shown that our movement has both the will and the imagination to lead. From the BFAWU to the wider trade union family, workers are already proving that climate justice is class justice.

But we need political courage to match workers’ action and that means holding every government, every party, and every employer to account. The Green New Deal we’re demanding isn’t a wish list it’s a necessity. It’s how we ensure a future worth fighting for.

Because without worker power, there is no just transition.

Without public ownership, there is no climate justice.

And without democracy, there is no future for working people.

The Green New Deal must be built from the ground up by workers, for workers.

Because when we demand climate justice, we’re not just saving the planet we’re rebuilding it, together.