The relative appeal of green jobs

Green jobs occupy a prominent place in the debate around the environment. They are often billed as a cure-all for job losses across traditional sectors of industry: it is claimed that these jobs lost are made up for by the creation of new jobs in activities to remedy or prevent various types of environmental damage. The most ‘promising’ sectors are often quoted as being the likes of waste recycling, water purification, the production of renewable energy and the production of insulation materials for buildings.
Gamesa is a Spanish multinational, one of the finest examples of green capitalism, certified, labelled, and making much of its commitments to the environment, its ‘collaborators’ – in other words its staff – and ‘communities’. The company is posting enviable profits. Is it a success story for a win-win-win scenario?
On wind farms, upkeep and maintenance are outsourced. For example, Gamesa has hired the company Guascor to repair the blades at its wind farms. This involves injecting resin to seal the cracks, filing them down and then repainting them. Women were recruited from rural areas to do what the company described as ‘rapid and well-paid work’. A few months after having started work, several women were showing symptoms of poisoning: irregular periods, nosebleeds, headaches and so on. Tipped off by the trade unions, the factories inspectorate investigated and discovered that these women were handling extremely dangerous substances and no protective measures whatever had been put in place. Seven women were advised by their doctors not to have children over the next two years because of the risk of birth defects!
Green jobs do not always involve such dramatic conditions, but private management of environmental protection activities does sacrifice working conditions for the sake of competitiveness. Whether it be health and safety or control over their working conditions, workers in green jobs often find themselves in very precarious conditions. The case of the Gamesa women illustrates an important aspect of the conflict between capitalism and nature: dangerous and dehumanising working conditions because of the division of labour and its hierarchical organisation.

Laurent Vogel, director of the Health and Safety Department