Jobs vs the environment: Struggles over the green steel plan at IJmuiden, The Netherlands

This article discusses how worker-led decarbonisation strategies can move beyond the “jobs vs environment” tension in the context of European just green transition plans. Focusing on the Green Steel Plan, a decarbonisation plan developed by the trade union at the IJmuiden steel factory in the Netherlands in response to the threat of job losses, we show how workers in alliance with environmental communities articulated a vision for industrial transformation that links production with broader questions of reproduction. This case challenges two dominant narratives. First, that environmental protection inevitably threatens jobs, and second, that climate action is primarily driven by environmental movements. Whilst existing research on labour environmentalism and feminist political ecology has examined alliances between labour and environmental movements, labour-environment dynamics remain under-researched and under-theorised. Drawing on interviews, field observations, document analysis, and media coverage, we trace how the trade union and workers at the factory attempted to give rise to an ecological consciousness, driven not only by conditions of production but also by questions around reproduction. While the Green Steel Plan initially generated strong support from environmental groups, tensions and rifts emerged over time. This case reveals that, despite efforts to reconcile the tensions between production and reproduction, labour-environment dynamics are being continuously reconfigured and renegotiated. However, understanding these entanglements offers an avenue to move beyond the “jobs vs environment” tension.