ABSTRACT
A trade union evaluation of the Commission on Sustainable Development is possible only in the context of an understanding of the role that workers have played in promoting sustainable development. Unions have proved to be the only reliable vehicle through which workers have been able to win a measure of democracy in the day-to-day operation of the workplace, as they transform a mythical ‘freedom to contract’ under the individual employment contract, into a more meaningful ‘collective freedom to contract’. Unions have learned that policies for sustainable development go hand-in-hand with policies for sustainable employment, and that there is no inherent trade-off or conflict between jobs and the environment. Workers have gained an understanding, based on hard experience, that any conversion towards more sustainable patterns of production and consumption will have an immediate impact on terms and conditions of employment.
